Bungalow Bridge to Thirty Third Milestone
Competitor Guide with Steve Hislop
You cross the tramlines in the middle of the road and you're bolt upright. You just cut the Tholt-y-Will junction there, then hard away up the hill, 5th, 6th gear towards Brandywell. You're just starting to roll the throttle as you approach the right hander, hook back a gear and, if you've left it late enough, you can actually get yourself right down the right hand side of the fence. Hook back, it's 4th gear through Brandywell.
As soon as you get around Brandywell, even in the big bike, you really start to notice how free the engine is - it's really picking up revs quickly and it is amazing how quickly it drops off there down towards the 32nd. You approach that by hooking back one gear so you go into there in 5th. The corner is deceiving in the fog, but it's no problem any other time.
A big problem is the 32nd. If you treat the first corner as a corner you'd be in a mess half way round, you'd be out of road. You've got to miss the very first part of 32nd, you should be just crossing the white line at the first kink in the road so that you are almost right at the edge of the tar on the left hand side at the shelter. It suddenly throws you out and you forget that it's a fair bit round the corner before that final kink towards Windy, and that's the one that catches you out at speed on a big bike. You've really got to work hard at the 32nd.
Then, down towards Windy. You always think you could go in so much later on the brakes, 10mph faster in but there have been a few times that it's lived up to its name! You get to the middle of the corner, you brake, you go to pitch in and then the wind is coming up the valley and it can really catch you. You dare not be too cocky approaching it! You've got to just hold yourself back a bit. It's better to be around the corner safe and get it bolt upright because you've got a long straight after it. (This was written before the changes to Windy Corner created in 2006)
Drive hard towards the 33rd, that's the way I've always treated it. Treat it with a lot of respect. Then it's really fast because the road is dropping off all the way along there and a really fast approach to the 33rd. Just as you approach the 33rd, that right hander before the double left, is a case of really working hard. You come along the straight and you've really got to work hard at holding the bike away to the left, so that you can go into that right almost bolt upright.
Back to 5th and it's fast into the 33rd. You just clip about the middle of the left hand lane at the very first apex, you're right out to the middle of the right hand carriage way between the two and then right in on the apex of the next one - it's one big corner. In 5th gear you are probably doing 150 to 160mph around there.