Cruickshanks to Guthries

Competitor Guide with Steve Hislop

Years ago when I first did the Manx, and in the early days of the TT, there was a really serious bump at the bottom of the very first right hander. It used to throw the bike up in the air. They resurfaced that some years ago and it's a lot better, so at least you can commit yourself to the corner. Some boys crank over and try and drive up the middle of the road. I've always stood the bike up a bit more, let it run right out to the left pavement and just drive right up in the gutter, which actually helps. Maybe not so much up May Hill, but up the top, because you can then just squirt towards the White Gates. You don't want to be away across on the right hand side, because the road surface is very rough. Again, the natural racing line would be across there for White Gates, but you're best just about 1 foot off the white line on the right hand side. This makes that corner actually quite tight and there's a horrible dip in the middle of that corner. It's just one of those ones again that you have to use the road to your advantage.

As you exit it you can actually go across the drive way to the estate. You're using as much road as possible, and then it's so nice because just about the time you get back to the left hand side of the road, you're nearly at Stella Maris. The surface suddenly goes to a real smooth change for the start of the hill climb and it's like going back onto a short circuit and that's the start of the Mountain, I always think. Stella Maris to me is like a proper short circuit corner. The camber's good on it and you can carry a hell of a corner speed through there and up towards the Hairpin.

Now a lot of people get caught out with brakes at the Hairpin. Yes it still takes a lot of stopping because it's very tight, but I always think the road is in your favour, you're working against the hill. I've tried 2 or 3 different ways around the Hairpin; some people hold a tight line - I've tried that. I've tried wide lines. Me and Foggy actually went in there together one day: he took a tight line, I took a wide line and we both met on the exit. It's one of those corners where the line doesn't really matter. It's best to go in steady and drive hard up towards the Waterworks, probably 3rd, 4th gear and up to 130mph. It's hard to believe, but those things will punch their way up there no problem.

You notice the hill a little bit if you're on a 750cc going up the Gooseneck. From the Gooseneck to Waterworks is the only place where you lose your peakiness on 750cc, but apart from that I hardly notice it anywhere else. The power to weight ratio is so much that the hills don't really show up, whereas it starts to become noticeable on a 600cc and definitely on a 250cc. A 250cc feels dead on a lot of those climbs even Glen Helen to Sarah's right onto Cronk-y-Voddy, a 250cc really struggles. That's when you have to your jetting critical on those things and the weather can just throw that as well. All the way up the Waterworks you can really get the 750cc moving just on the tight part, the very last part up through Tower Bends, there's not really a specific line for there. I always seem to go in different through Tower Bends but it's a "suck it and see" - you get through it.

You approach the Gooseneck fast. I never like the Gooseneck, because I'm always thinking I'm going to slide off there. I treat it with a lot of respect, because again to me, you've got all these lorries and cars coming down there and I always think it's so oily and it looks very very shiny. I tend to pick it up and run, although you'll see some riders just about scattering the spectators feet, but it's more on purpose than by accident. You tend to let it run. You pick the bike up, and as you're more upright, it tends to help you and then you can just nail it and get as much speed up around the 2 or 3 left handers up towards the 26th, which is a nasty little kink. You exit there and basically you're just hooking the grass at the start of the little layby there. You try and use as much road as possible just to keep the speed up towards Guthries - that's a nasty one, the 26th!

On a 250cc you're really scratching through there, you dare not shut the throttle really. A lot of people say "Oh, so and so has crashed at the 26th" and some people think "How have they crashed there?" It's more so on little bikes, because they carry so much speed, and they just clip the edge of the bank and then it spits them across the other side of the road towards those horrible posts. You never really seem to build up a lot of speed even on a big bike. There are 3 lefts. Once you've pitched it into the middle of the lane on the very first one then you find yourself sitting bolt upright, braking nicely, to get up the left to Guthries.