2013 Isle of Man TT is main focus for Mackman
Wednesday 23 January 2013
TT
Isle of Man TT regular Ian Mackman says his main focus for this season is the 2013 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy.
He has already been confirmed to return to the Norton ride for Senior TT, alongside Dan Hegarty, and has a 2013 Kawasaki ZX6R at his disposal for the year, but said the rest of his plans are still under consideration.
Writing on his website blog, Mackman revealed he had sold his Kawasaki ZX10 and is on the lookout for a ride. He said lack of finances have impacted on his racing, but is hopeful of building a season around the TT.
Over the winter he was faced with debts of more than £20,000 as he started to look at the 2013 race schedule.
He said:
“Knowing that I had a £10k motorbike in the garage, briefly, convinced me to carry on racing. I could always sell the bike at the end of the season/TT and repay a good amount of the debt right?”
“Then the voices in my head said ‘What if you crash the bike and it gets destroyed or gets stolen?’
“Unfortunately the voices were right. I couldn’t race the bike properly knowing that if it all turned sour then I’d be sitting on a huge debt with no way of getting out of it. The house has already been re-mortgaged several times for ‘home improvements’ to the point where, with house prices falling, it’s now in negative equity.”
He added:
“So I made the call and sold the ZX10, fortunately this happened pretty quickly before I could change my mind! I’m still in the process of selling the rest of the spares off, but my debt now looks much better.”
“This left me looking around for something to race for the season. After all, I didn’t want to quit racing just yet, but the days of me owning my own race bike are now all over.”
“I have kindly been given a 2013 Kawasaki ZX6R to race wherever I fancy. I just need to prepare/look after the bike and pay the running costs. Once again Kemtile Hygienic Flooring have offered their generous support, which will help towards the cost of racing.”
“My loose plan (plans are always best kept loose I find) is to race as much as I can afford to in preparation for the TT. After the TT I’ll reassess my funds and see what I can do from there. I’ll just mention at this point that any contributions will be gratefully received and advertised! So it looks like we are going racing after all!”
Mackman concluded:
“The TT remains as my focus of the season. The good news is that I’ll be on the Norton again for the Senior TT. A new frame has been built with geometry changes learned from 2012 being applied.”
“There are also a huge amount of changes to the rest of the bike too which, once tested, I’m sure will give us a big step in the right direction. The team has been expanded to two riders, myself and Dan Hegarty; this will speed up development hugely and can only be a good thing for all concerned.”
You can follow Ian Mackman’s blog at http://ianmackman.com/