Dave Johnson worked for Tom in 1978 and 1979.
In the first installment of his memories Dave, who now lives in Austria, remembered his first meeting with Tom in 1978.
Here in the continuation, Dave recalls the 1978 Race of the Year at Mallory Park.......
After Tom came back from the chip shop to Rodger Keen's workshop we
sat down near the bike for a `Fish Supper' with Rodger mumbling in the back
ground about Irishmen 'have supper at 12.30, it's normally dinner time!.' Tom noticed on the bench that the aluminum plate with the main jets screwed
in had just one size missing and knew that normally they were always
different. The bike had always detonated on two of the cylinders needing
3 sizes bigger jets to try and stop it and after I had put on a bit
bigger and all the same size tail pipes I was sure all four cylinders
would run the same temperature.
Roger asked Tom if he had any
spare passes for us to go to Mallory at the weekend to watch. I remember
Tom pulling one pass out of a big envelope and giving it to Rodger and
then passing me the envelope with the van and mechanic's passes in it
saying 'I think you'll need them and there's one for Wes if he comes back!'
Wes came back from an extra-long weekend in London looking a bit worse for wear, and then we set off for Mallory Park.
I remember very
nervously warming the Yamaha up and Tom saying out of his helmet to me, 'I hope it goes as well as it sounds' and I thought to myself.....
'Me too, because it's a long way home and there's a lot of people watching.'
After running the engine in and going round for half an hour, Tom did a plug chop down the back straight and free wheeled to the bottom of the pits. I took the bike off him wondering what he would say first. After a few seconds he took his helmet and knowing I was nervous looked at me seriously then grinned and said, 'This thing goes round that hairpin like a road bike! You don't need to slip the clutch!!' During the weekend we dropped the main jet once and tightened the suspension spring up a turn or two.
In the Race of the Year Tom was leading till a
slow puncture slowed him down and he finally pulled in to the paddock. I took
the back wheel out and carried it with Tom to the Dunlop truck where I was
waiting for a big shouting match. Tom just walked in smiling at the
Dunlop lads and said, 'It's a good job you lot don't make condoms and
make sure you lot take your money with you to the bar later!!'
February 2011