John 'Jock' Walker from the YPM, Yamaha Past Masters, invited me to ride his Yamaha TZR250 at the Oulton Park round run with Bemsee. The idea was to try and help to promote the series with video and internet coverage towards helping the YPM generate more interest in their Championship.

I raced a TZR first time around in 1987-88 and won my first British Championship on one in 1988. However, I hadn't sat on one since then – would the memory be better than the reality?

There was a test/practice day on the Friday with two races on Saturday so I had plenty of time to get to grips with the bike, John had also entered me in the EDI 400 races to allow for more practice but it was unlikely that I would in fact do the races on the day. We met up with John Thursday evening in the paddock with his van and awning all set up ready for Fridays action.

Looking over the bike brought back all the memories of my TZR but I had forgotten just how light they were!

John's bike had most of the modifications allowed in the series and the word in the paddock it was a good one - so happy days there then.

The YPM paddock is just about the friendliest bunch of guys you could ask for, there was a genuine warmth from everyone I spoke to and they seemed really happy for me to be there.

We were the first out on track in the morning and John had already taken the bike through technical inspection so it was a quick run up there to get my clothing through and we were ready for our first session. I had already adjusted the bikes controls to where I wanted on Thursday evening so with quite a lot of nerves I rumbled out on to the track for my first outing on a TZR for 24 years.

First impressions were how small and nimble it was, I also forgot because I wasn't having to deal with 180+bhp I had to move all my braking and acceleration points - in fact a few corners there was little or no braking! The gearing was in the ball park, the handling wasn't too much of an issue - it was more about simply how hard I could push before encountering any problems.

Back in the awning John was quite nervous about what I thought of his bike, would I slate it or love it…

Well a bit of both really, but to be honest my negative comments were about issues that John could do nothing about. The series has strict rules but are self policed as they all just want to have good fun without the hassle associated with other one make series, and in order to keep the costs down the rear shock has to be standard, with spring change allowed, but the forks you could alter the internals.

After a few laps the shock started to fade off and loose it's damping, which does make the ride towards the end of the race 'interesting'. A few more sessions and we decided to leave the bike as John normally rides it as I couldn't really do what I wanted to it to help things along. Hey, no point worrying about stuff, I was here for the fun of it at the end of the day.

There was just qualifying left, first the EDI 400 then the YPM itself. There were several 250's out in the EDI session using it like me, for practice. The 400's were much quicker in a straight line making passing them tricky but I managed to post a reasonable time of 1:56.52 putting me 5th on the grid should I have wanted to race in it.

Next came the YPM session, I tried to get out towards the front of the group to get some free space but got boxed in the holding area missing the first wave so when I did get out I was in traffic for a while, but after a couple of laps got my head down and pushed on. My pit board said P2 - 0.5 so I knew young Dean Stimpson was going well so I pushed a bit harder until I saw P1 + 0.9 and thought that would do!

In the evening I walked the track with a few YPM riders to help out with lines, hints tips etc - by the time we had arrived at Old Hall, turn one, there was about fifty people from several classes with us!

Saturday morning was a lot colder and very windy so I wondered if we should change the gearing or something but John asked 'did we need to?' – not really - I had a gear for most corners so we left it.

There was a short practice session first thing and we decided to change the reed valves to see if it would help the engine with a flat spot in the power curve, but after a few laps it was clear it hadn't helped.

The first race was a EDI 400 event which were eligible for and as I hadn't in fact even tried to get it off the line we decided to use the race just to practice the start -  well that was the plan.

Unfortunately we missed the race announcement, and by the time I rode to the warm up area, they were already on their warm up lap, so I rolled down the pit lane to start from the end, well at least I would get a go at a practice start, what could go wrong? As the last rider roared past the marshal signalled me. I picked up the revs slipped the clutch and away - OK now for 2nd gear, went to change but the gear linkage had snapped!

The best made plans can always go wrong - rolling down Cascades before pulling into the marshalling point and riding slowly back to the paddock.

It was a relatively simple fix by cutting down the rod and moving the foot rest assembly forward a little to make up for the shorter rod – simples.

Our first proper race soon came around and we all formed up in the assembly area  then out on to the track ready for our warm up lap.

There was a delay in the start of the warm up lap and the engine started to overheat so I switched it off and waited for the signal to get ready.

However when the starter raised his flag the motor wouldn't fire up, kicking like some demented man it just wouldn't fire up. By now the field were streaming past me and I was wondering “I'm going to get hit from behind at this rate” but then it sparked up and off I went in a haze of blue smoke; God it had been such a long time since I had smelled so much two stroke oil. Forming up again and waiting for the red lights – on then off – and we all screamed into Old Hall for the first time, not untypically I fluffed the start and was in 5th or 6th place coming out of the corner.

I quickly dived under a few riders into Cascades and was hot on the heals of Dean and Andy Davis.

Andy's bike was flying down towards Island Bend but both Dean and I were glued to his seat hump getting a great tow, as Andy shut off for Island Dean shot up the inside of him and I was going round the outside of him.

Unfortunately I clipped Andy's handle bar with my shoulder, there was nothing I could do - if I'd slowed down as I passed him we'd probably have got tangled up and both gone down so I kept the throttle on and squeezed through the gap. I ended up in the lead going towards Shell Oils hairpin but wanted to look back and see if Andy had made it. Exiting Shell I looked across towards Island and there were nw flags out so I guessed he'd made it - thank God the last thing I wanted was to take someone out in my 'invitation race'…

All action photos by: David Johnston

Dean was on a roll and powered passed me as we ran down into the chicane, it was clear he was hungry for the win so game on!

I bagged him on the brakes into Lodge as I wanted to see how he was going to respond to me passing him but he didn't put up much of a fight however he was now sat on my tail for the next few laps.

It turned out to be a great race with him pulling along side me a few times and occasionally passing me but I passed him back the first chance I got to try and control it from the front.

By now we were amongst the back markers on the last lap, this was my first chance to brake his tow using the back markers to get in between us both and it worked. This took the heat off me for the last couple of corners to take the win by 0.57 over the line. I had set a new lap record too with a 1:55.00.

John and everyone were made up that it had been such a good race Dean too seemed pleased to have had a good race as well.

Race 2 came at the end of the day and looked like being another battle between Dean and me at the front. Lights out and again I fluffed the start, I thought by now I'd have got the idea getting these bikes off the line but no - 5th or 6th as we roared away towards turn one. Dean and I broke away again and chopped and changed for the lead once again, but after a few laps I noticed the motor was reluctant to pick up out of the slower corners.

Eventually I needed to slip the clutch to keep the revs up and later change down to accelerate out of the corners.

Something was going wrong with the engine for sure, Dean could sense this and was all over me but if I could keep the revs up I could keep ahead of him down the straights.

As we started the last lap I put 100% into the lap to try and keep ahead knowing it was my only chance as I needed to keep my corner speed up now having little mid range power left.

As we came out of Lodge for the last time Dean powered passed me over the line to take the win by 0.06 of a second. I'd ridden hard, and put so much into that last lap and Dean was there all the way - so by passing me over the line, he took the fastest lap, setting a new lap record of 1:54.07.

Back in the paddock I stopped next to Dean and congratulated him on a good race, he said it was great too so we had a laugh and joke about it all.

What a great weekends racing, meeting all the YPM guys and girls all having such a great time in this class. It leaves me looking on Ebay typing in Yamaha TZR250… full circle I guess, just in a 24 year cycle...

Happy days.

Onboard video of race 1 

Onboard video from race 2 

Cheers Jock, I had a blast!