Hutchy--Miracle Man by Ian Hutchinson

Author:Ian Hutchinson [Ian Hutchinson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786063304
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

2010: THE FAIRY-TALE TT

It was a bizarre and oddball TT, really: everything was going so well with every bike and I was in a good place and enjoying racing and Clive Padgett was great to work for. We were having fun – we were having fun and winning races. My first year on Clive Padgett’s team started brilliantly. Ahead of the 2010 TT I had a decent run at the North West 200 where I came second, after Alistair Seeley and followed by Michael Dunlop, in the Supersport; first in the second Supersport, with Keith Amor and Bruce Anstey taking second and third place respectively, and another runner-up place in the Superstock behind Keith Amor and followed by Ryan Farquhar. To me it seemed a perfect rehearsal for the big Manx show to come.

Then it was on to the Isle of Man. Looking back, the practice week seems to have presaged that memorable winning streak: I clocked 130.6 mph during one practice session – though, to be honest, I was surprised not to have been beaten as conditions were perfect for fast laps. And my luck held out. On Saturday, 5 June I won my first Superbike race – my fourth TT win to date. Michael Dunlop, a formidable rival, came second, and Cameron Donald took third place. On Monday morning I won the Supersport race, with Guy Martin and Michael Dunlop taking second and third places. And in the afternoon I won the Superstock, ahead of Ryan Farquhar and Conor Cummins. That day I thought, It doesn’t get any better than winning two TT races in one day. To win a TT was, and is, massive. To win two races in one day made it, so far, the best day of my life at the TT.

But as the day of my next race – Wednesday – dawned I was put in mind of the Wednesday race in 2009 when a wet race put paid to my chances of a win. This year too it rained. The weather was horrendous and it was wet all round the course. Even so, the organisers were talking about the feasibility of running the event, which I thought was crazy. I just said, ‘Well, if you run today I’ll be down at the bottom of Bray Hill watching. I won’t be in it.’ I did not mean that as a way of forcing them to stop the race – it was simply that I was not going to race in the wet. Luckily, they postponed the race until the day after when the weather was beautiful and we all had a great race and broke a lot of records. I won my fourth TT of the year – the second Supersport race – beating Michael Dunlop by 1.4 seconds (Keith Amor coming up behind him), and equalling Phillip McCallen’s 1996 record of four wins in a week. It was at this point that I started to feel the pressure for Friday. I knew

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