Only two days ago it seemed possible that they wouldn’t even race but the Ace Cafe T3 Racing team achieved a great result in the Isle of Man TT Supersport race 1 as David Johnson (DJ) brought the Ace Cafe Racer across the line in 13th.
DJ completed the circuit in 01:15:47.346 with a speed of 119.479 mph. He qualified 16th and it seemed just in reach that the team, who had never raced a bike at the Isle of Man TT previously, might reach their goal of top 15. Instead they achieved an outstanding 13th fastest around the iconic track and a silver replica.
It was a tough weekend for the team after the bike stopped on track on Saturday and it seemed like the Ace Cafe Racer might not even get its chance to race. When the team got the bike back later that evening it appeared to be a possible electrical or fueling fault with the engine. It seemed the supersport engine, which had only been put in the night before, wouldn’t be repaired in time so the team had no choice but to swap it for one of the stock engines they had been running in practice earlier in the week.
Despite all the issues the Ace Cafe Racer made it 13th fastest out of 61 entrants around the circuit. Team principal, Tony Scott, predicted that they had a bike capable of a top 15 result and was impressed with what the team had achieved.
He told us: “We were running a completely standard engine, the same as the Triumph Triple Challenge boys run, and the top nine riders are all the big names like Dunlop and Guy Martin, so we’re only three outside the big boys.”
Team manager Dave Harris said the team were thrilled with the result and are aiming to only improve in the next race. Despite the success there are still issues with the bike, Harris explained:
“The only thing we need to do to the bike now is make the tank take a little bit more fuel because we ran out as we crossed the finish line!”
We now have to wait and see if the team can do it all again. The next TT Supersport race will take place at midday on Wednesday 5th June. Watch out for the Ace Cafe Racer and DJ on track.