McGurk rues bad luck at Manx

Photo: Tony Goldsmith

MIXED FORTUNES AT THE MANX: Phil McGurk.

Motorsport: CHADDERTON rider Philip McGurk was left cursing his bad luck after engine problems with his supertwin bike cost him a shot at the podium at the 2011 Manx Grand Prix.

As the defending champion in the Manx Radio Supertwin MGP Race, McGurk was widely tipped to

challenge for honours again on the roads of the Isle of Man.

But after issues with his crankshaft in practice week he was forced to withdraw his bike,

leaving him with only the Manngo.im Junior MGP and the Classic Racer Junior Post Classic Races over the week.

McGurk (42) was able to overcome his disappointment and put together two fine finishes of 10th and fifth respectively in his other two races.

But his overall assessment of his Manx Grand Prix revealed that he had still not yet come to terms with the misfortune of losing his bike for his preferred race.

“It has not been a good Manx for me, in fact I would probably call it a minor disaster because of the problems we have had,” said McGurk, who is director at Spring Court Auto & Motorcycle Centre in Rochdale.

“The supertwin bike was the one we were very confident about, but we had to pull out in the end because I just didn’t feel confident on it.

“We had to cancel the engine on the grounds of safety, after trying to make a development on last year’s bike.

“But in the end we had huge problems with the crankshaft and I just had no confidence in how it was going to react, so that is pretty frustrating.”

After the problems with the lightweight bike McGurk was then forced to target the Junior MGP race, but a lack of lap time on it meant he didn’t line up with much confidence on that biker either.

But after a strong 10th place showing around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course at an average speed of 101.8mph, he admitted he had been pleasantly surprised by his own performance.

“I only had two laps on the junior bike because of the problems we had in practice week, so that was just a case of going out there and seeing how much we could get out of it,” he added.

“It was patchy and though I’m not scared of the conditions it certainly does change things, but we were pleased to have finished.”