Another North-West 200 has come and gone, and for one of Team ILR's newcomers at the event it was a bitterly disappointing experience.
Illiam Quayle arrived at the triangle circuit full of those usual emotions of excitement and nervousness that, in turn, can often work to a rider's advantage, but which on this occasion never got the chance to.
Quayle had his first speed controlled laps on Wednesday morning behind the experienced John Burrows in the third wave of Newcomers.
On the opening lap a rider went down which resulted in his group being stopped around the course and bringing the session to a close.
The session was restarted and after another three laps Illiam's Paton had an intermittent mis-fire which caused him to abandon the session.
It later transpired that he hadn't completed enough laps to allow him to qualify and as such he was out of the event, much to everyone in the team's disappointment, amazement and anger.
Solutions put forward by the team were met with a blunt refusal, no contingency in place by the organisers, and certainly no sympathy or understanding for the cost, hard work, and preparation involved.
And so it was left to the team's other newcomer Franco Bourne to carry our hopes for the rest of the week, and he didn't disappoint!
In Superstock qualifying Bourne qualified in Group A, an impressive performance for the newcomer on the team's CBR1000RR, but in a superb piece of rider management team principal Ian Lougher instructed Franco to pull in after the warm-up lap on Saturday race-day if he wasn't comfortable in the strong wind, something the young rider sensibly did.
However, it was on the Paton S1-R that Bourne really shone.
Qualifying ninth quickest, Franco was running in the Top 10 as the riders reached University Corner, unfortunately the strong tail wind caught him and Paul Jordan out causing both to miss their turn into the left hander.
Re-joining the race outside the Top 15, remarkably by Portrush Bourne was back up to 12th position and by the end of the race he had battled his way through to 9th.
Better was to follow in Supertwin Race 2.
Franco was 6th at the end of the opening lap of four and he rode brilliantly throughout to finish fifth just ahead of former North-West 200 winner Christian Elkin.
Next up for the team is the Isle of Man TT races where Bourne is a newcomer, and he’ll be joined by our regular TT competitor, the ever popular Masayuki Yamanaka.
Both will again be under the watchful eye of 10-times TT winner Lougher.
[ The thoughts of everyone at Team ILR are with the family, friends and team of Czech rider Kamil Holan who tragically lost his life in practice at the North-West 200 ]
Team ILR principal Ian Lougher:
"Well what can I say about the meeting we’ve just been at?!
I’m writing this almost a week after the event…as I was sooo angry I couldn’t put pen to paper, so to speak, before.
I’m not going to tell you about everything that went on at what once was a great meeting as I’d be here all day. But one thing’s for sure if the powers that be at the NW200 don’t change their attitudes to the real people that keep it going then I fear it will sink, just like the Titanic did when it was pushed too hard!!
I’ve never left a meeting and been so glad to drive out, and I have been to a lot of meetings, including 38 yrs at the NW200, but never again!!
The way they treated Illiam was shocking and spiteful, they have now set a precedent for newcomers to keep going even if they have a misfire or oil leak just to say they got 5 laps in, in their Newcomers session, bearing in mind at the briefing we were told they have to complete 4 or 5 laps!!!
Illiam did 4 and a half in a red flagged and then wet session on slick tyres...shocking behaviour!!!!!
For Franco he had a fantastic couple of rides on our Team Paton, bringing it home in 9th and 5th.
But to be honest I was more pleased with Franco who’s only 21, when he returned after the warm up lap on our Superstock Honda and said he didn’t feel safe to ride in those extremely windy conditions, he had the sense to pull in and we’ll go on together and race another day.
As the saying goes 'there have been some bold riders and some old riders, but you don’t see many bold old riders'."
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