After a rather fast get-off at the Craner Curves due to our sponsor giving us the wrong brake fluid which ensured the ISR 6 pots didn't actually work when it mattered, we were standing there in the rain with KR tape at the ready when a Suzuki Grand Prix technician came over and asked if we needed some help.
He was very keen on harleys and mentioned his hill climber which was built up by himself with leftovers from the Suzuki grand Prix bike parts.
Paddy then said, if it was raining, we could borrow some grand prix wets for the qualifier. We took off the marvics and gave them to the techs and got them back with GP wets. We were almost not allowed to even look at these tyres as the compound was that secret..
After the rain stopped and the track dried they were off quicker than you could say "wot"?
The bike that Paddy built is was and still is a total beast. This was back in the day when 4 valve heads by fuelling were very exotic and untried and nothing had ever been built for a big twin. My own racing bike had some very special parts, like carbon fibre pushrods and hand made alloy cylinders and heads..but this beast was different. It's all in the name: "the spirit of Semtex". Nice to see a more recent pic of the bike as she's been in bits, along with Paddy, after hill climbing.
