Geoff and Val Jones do Skerries 100 (Ireland)

Closed public road motorcycle racing is a feature of summer in Ireland. Sort of Isle of Man TT on a smaller scale. The 62^nd running of the Skerries 100 takes place on 2.9 miles of closed road and Val and I were in the 20,000 strong crowd on Friday and Saturday 6^th and 7^th of July 2007 to enjoy the spectacle.

Skerries is a small town on the Irish sea coast north of Dublin. Other towns nearby are Lusk, Rush and Loughshinny. Part of the Skerries to Lusk road forms one side of the triangular layout, the other two sides are smaller local roads, each side of the triangle approximately one mile long. The roads are narrow, twisty and rise and fall. The surface is typical Irish country road, that is, patched and cracked, some corners cambered but most not. Spectating is done from the road edges and crowd control is handled by marshals. I would think there is no other motorcycle racing that you could get this close to the action

History shows the first race to be held in the Skerries area was in 1930 and for five years it was run on a 13 mile circuit taking in the villages of Rush and Lusk with the start/finish in the main street of Skerries. Stanley Woods set a lap record of 82 mph on a Norton in 1932. The first Skerries 100 took place in July of 1946. The circuit used was 7.1 miles long and a 350 Norton set the fastest time with a 66.43 mph lap. The first 100 mph lap at Skerries was set on a Suzuki RG500 in 1987.

An Australian connection was made in 2006 when Cameron Donald from Warrandyte Victoria won the Open class race and the Grand Final on his first time at the circuit, setting a fast lap of 108.278 mph on a CBR1000 Superbike. As soon as you open your mouth the locals give you a warm Irish welcome as they seem to have taken Cameron as one of their own. Val and I were made to feel very welcome as we took our place on the grass at the road (track) edge.

Friday 6^th July. The roads close at 3 pm for practice and two races, Classic and 401-750cc non-qualifiers. The weather was changeable and some holdups occurred to allow a change to wets. Even these classes brought home the reality of standing at the road edge as the bikes came into view and powered over a jump, tank slapping as the front wheels touched. Blast of air and noise as they passed within touching distance. We decided to move further up the road on Saturday and picked a spot on a bank that put us around a metre above the road surface but still close enough to feel the blast.

Saturday the roads closed at 10am and the crowds, bigger than Friday, settled in to areas allocated. Outsides of corners are not available for spectating and the most obvious hazards such as stone walls, poles and trees have bales placed against them. I did not see an air fence anywhere on the circuit.

Between the races the crowds wander around the track doing that Irish "Craic" thing with the other spectators, a great chance to engage in some people watching of the "eye candy" sort. The marshals have radio contact and whistle the wanderers off the roads as the racing begins. There is a constant movement of people between races and someone new to share the moments with as people scramble off the road. There seemed to be no sign of "get off my patch" which would be the case in Oz me thinks

There are doctors who circulate on a mixture of litre bike brands carrying emergency gear and when I say circulate, these guys are "On it". They are part of a larger medical team that cover all the races on the Irish roads in both cars and on bikes

Travelling marshals also seem to enjoy their duties to the max, although on the part of the circuit we were on, there was a memorial to Fred Russell, a marshall who had crashed and died the year before. The marshall this time reminded me of John Clowes of John and Eric, the Spur Keepers, as the leathers had the scuffed Castrol emblem of times past and were well worn. Very grey locks peeked out under the helmet. Pace on the road was blistering. Clifford Peters also has that look with his Kawasaki-themed well-used leathers.

Saturday's first race was eight laps, open 201-1010cc, won by Cameron Donald on the CBR1000. Other notable runners were Joey Dunlop's nephews William (GSXR1000) and Michael (R1) and local Martin Finnegan on a supersport tuned MV Agusta 1000 The Superbikes are full BSB tune but with longer wheelbase and longer travel suspension to cope with the pounding. 1000cc bikes are valued at around AUD$177,000 and the 600s are around AUD$105, 000.

Other races during the day: 250cc two strokes, which for some very Irish reason included tuned Suzuki SV650s which provided a very different exhaust note compared to the two strokes; 125cc, mainly 125 GP Hondas but also included 400cc four strokes; Classics, single and twin 500s; and 600 Supersports.

Cameron and the other 1000cc riders featuring with one lone Triumph 675 in the sea of screaming Japanese 600s. A few red flags were out as the track was cleared. There are no safe run off areas so if there is an "incident" the race is stopped and restarted after the clean up is completed. Each race has only the fastest 24 riders and the starts are staggered to allow for the narrowness of the track.

Race 10 is the "Grand Final". It includes mainly 1000cc bikes but also the fastest of the 600s. It was won, much to the local's glee, by Martin Finnegan from Lusk on the MV. Conner Cummins (R1) from the Isle of Man was a close second and William Dunlop (GSXR1000) from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland was third. Cameron Donald (CBR1000) had a DNF as his exhaust dislodged, reflecting the pounding the bikes and riders receive at these speeds on the less than smooth roads.

Catering and chemical toilets are available around the track. It all may sound a bit easygoing, and it does feel that way, but it is run very tightly and seems to be widely accepted by the locals. It is hard to imagine anywhere in Australia where it could be duplicated. There is a race in NZ on Boxing day run around an industrial estate that may capture the magic. Another option is the Macau GP in China that is part of the Irish championship. Other than those events, the closest thing is Sunday with MSR on the Victorian roads!

Google Realroadracing.com for full details and Performance bikes for articles on the "Flying Doctors".

As part of a month holiday in UK and Ireland, Skerries was one of the highlights. Lowlights included constant rain and flooding and the exchange rate: $1Aus = 43p in UK and 60 Eurocents in Ireland. One litre of unleaded for the rented Astra cost 1pound = $2.50 Australian. We did 2,500 miles.

Geoff Jones