Manx Grand Prix debut for two Kerry riders
Two Kerry Motorcycle racers are set to make their debut at the Manx Grand Prix next week. Road racers Anthony O’Carroll and Stephen Walsh will become the first Kerry men to race on the legendary 37-mile closed road TT circuit on the Isle of Man
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.For both, it is a dream come but the two of them are there very different reasons.
O’Carroll from Ballyduff has been making a name for himself on the Irish and Northern Irish road racing scene.
His appearance on the Isle of Man next week is his last steeping stone ahead of an appearance at the world-famous TT Races nextTheir week begins on Sunday when all newcomers are obliged to ride speed-controlled sighting laps so they can learn the circuit. O’Carroll is entered in two races, the Senior Manx Grand Prix on his Kawasaki ER6 and the Junior Manx Grand Prix on his Kawasaki ER6.O’Carroll said his confidence is high after winning both his 600cc races at the Armoy Road Races last month.
“The bikes are ready, and I am ready, I am rearing to go,” he said. “The season has got exactly the way I hoped. In Armoy I won a race in the dry and won a race in the wet, and I am carrying confidence from that, so I am happy out.”Although Ardfert-based Walsh races in the Junior Classic in Ireland he will be put into the Senior class for next week’s races – as per Manx Grand Prix rules.
The Senior Classic Grand Prix has attracted a veritable who-is-who of motorcycle racers and Walsh has admitted it will take a miracle to qualify for the big race never mind compete in it.
He will have five days of practice and qualifying, beginning next Monday (August 21) but faces road racing royalty like previous Isle of Man winners Dean Harrison, Michael Dunlop and John McGuiness and former Irish champion Derek Shiels, before he even makes the starting grid.“I will need to be doing 90pmh [average] laps to qualify, McGuiness can do 113mph laps,” said Walsh who will ride a Honda CD350.“Still, I will have five days of qualifying on the TT course, rubbing shoulders with Dunlop and who knows who else, McGuiness is riding for Team Winfield Patton and his bike is as good as a modern SuperTwin, I don’t even have race-fairings on my bike.”
Practice, for newcomers, gets underway on Sunday next ahead of the week-long festival of motorcycle racing on the Island. The action concludes with two days of racing, Saturday, August 26 and the Manx Bank Holiday Monday August 28.
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