IT HAPPENED THEN:
There was plenty of drama at last year’s TT event. Plenty of amazing new lap records too. It was in 2009 that dreams came true for some of the fastest road riders the world has ever seen.

Words:Tony Carter Pictures: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press

PRACTICE

IT was the fastest lap the TT has ever seen. Cameron Donald was virtually flying around The Island course on his Relentless Suzuki and on the near-perfect Thursday evening practice session (with weather conditions so excellent, it was the session that – unsurprisingly – delivered the quickest times) the Aussie managed a lap in just 17 minutes 13.25 seconds. Cam Donald was the fastest man in TT history.
It was during his fourth lap on the superbike that the Suzuki man clocked an average speed of 131.457mph. Under blue skies and the mildest of sea breezes lapping round the Mountain Course Donald was on the form of his life with his team-mate Bruce Anstey second quickest that evening with his best of 130.129mph. “The bike was excellent and I felt absolutely on top of my game.
The lap was almost perfect but there was so much grip all round the course. I saw the helicopter following me over the mountain so I figured I was on a good one,” Cam said afterwards. His tail was up. Confidence was high for the Aussie ahead of the races. But, as can happen on The Island, the luck ran out. During the final practice session Donald lost control of his bike. Going into the Keppel Gate left-hander the Aussie missed a gear on the downshift forcing him to run wide onto the grass. On reflection Donald was lucky, he only dislocated his left shoulder and suffered a minor back injury in the form of a chipped vertebrae. Nothing too serious in the grand scheme of things, but bad enough to rule out any more racing at the 2009 TT event.

“I’m gutted,” Cam admitted once he’d been given the thumbs down by medics: “I’ve put so much time and effort into being in the best shape I can be to race here and after practice I really felt as though we had a good chance at winning here this year. But I’m not going to be too down about it. I’m going to get better and then come back again and hopefully be as quick when I do.” Cameron Donald is like most of the fast TT racers of the modern idiom. He sees the bigger picture when it comes to the racing.

It wasn’t only Cam who had a headache in that practice week. Official lap record holder John McGuinness suffered a misfire with his HM Plant Honda superbike in the final practice session and had to settle for his best time from the previous session, which kept him in second place on the timesheets overall. “It all felt good and conditions were perfect,” said John after his fast lap. Ever the master of understatement added with the extra: “So I felt like we could push a little more.”

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