As you know, back on the 8th of December, I was asked to give a talk to the Shropshire Section VMCC and, although I have thanked them privately, I haven't done so on here. So I'd just like to say thank you to them all, particularly Derek, and it was a pleasure to visit them and tell them a little about myself and how I got into racing. As I said previously, I'm not a great public speaker and have never been comfortable speaking to a crowd, but they beared with me and were genuinely interested in what I had to say, so thanks guys!
So, here's a copy of the talk I gave, I thought I'd post it as it gives a bit of an insight into my racing background...
“Hi, my name is Carolynn Sells and I currently race a CBR600 and an RVF400 for the Martin Bullock Raceteam, who are based in the Isle of Man. I mainly concentrate my racing on the road circuits, such as the Isle Of Man TT Course and the Southern 100 course and it was during this years Manx Grand Prix that I was very kindly asked to attend this dinner, so, firstly, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the club for inviting me and to all the staff at The Horseshoe Inn, for a lovely meal. I’d also like to apologise before I begin, as I’m not used to doing this kind of thing, so I may waffle on a little or forget what I’m saying and stumble over my words… so, sorry about that!
“ I’ve been asked to tell you a little about myself and so, here goes… My life with motorbikes began at a very early age, as my Dad has always been a bit of a grease monkey and had been riding motorbikes since long before I was born, in fact, he arrived to pick up my mum from her house for one of their first dates, on his motorbike and dressed in his leathers, now, this didn’t please my Nan very much, so she refused to let him into the house! When I was little, he built a couple of his own bikes, a Triton and a Triumph Bonneville. Some of my earliest memories are of my dad fettling with one bike or another and I loved to try and copy him, I even tried to take my brothers pram apart once in our back garden, after watching my dad in the garage, the only trouble was… my brother was still in the pram having an afternoon nap at the time. Another time, my brother fell face first into a tray full of used, drained motor oil, so you see… it really was in our blood from a very young age.
Mum and Dad would sometimes leave us with my Grandmother for a few days, while they went off to the TT on his Bonneville and then, in 1979, when I was 6yrs old, Dad started racing. He didn’t have much money back in those days, what with having a young family, and so, he built a 1954 Triumph Tiger 100, costing the ripe old sum of £200, and began racing with the Preston and District Vintage Motorcycle club. His first race was at Aintree, where he suffered from a miss-fire, but still came 6th out of 40 on the grid, his second race was at the New Brighton road races, where he lead two of the races, but unfortunately, he broke down in both of them… to finish first, first you have to finish, as they say! We loved it though, packing up the old transit van, meeting up with, and then travelling in convoy with other racers, both to and from race meetings, stopping at the pub and then the chippy on the way home. Places like Cadwell Park and Mallory were great fun, there was a playground in the middle of the Woodland section at Cadwell in those days, and all us kids who had dads racing, used to play there and then go and sit on the bank at the bottom of the Mountain section and wait to be picked up after the race and were given ‘backie’s’ back up to the paddock. Other times 5 or 6 of us would be loaded onto a mates sidecar and driven around the paddock for a while, I have to say though, some of the time, we kids barely saw even a lap of the racing, but never the less, it was a fantastic way to spend your childhood.
Bikes weren’t just for racing in our family either, in that same year, we as a whole family, Mum, Dad, myself and my brother Rob, set off on our travels around Europe on an old Norton ES2 and sidecar, which my dad had put together. It was a bit cramped in the sidecar for me and my brother, keeping close company with a couple of tents, a load of camping gear and clothes for a family of four to last nearly 4 weeks! Our first stop was an overnight stay at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch and then on to Dover for the ferry to France and then travelled to Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium. It wasn’t an easy trip by any stretch of the imagination, as I remember we broke down at least once in every country we visited, but it was certainly an eventful trip. From the time my mum and dad had to grab us and get out of what they had thought was a coffee bar in France, but had soon realised was actually a brothel! To the time we had to pull off the road in Germany, wondering what the hell was up with my mum flapping around on the back of the bike, only to discover a bumble bee had flown up the sleeve of her leather jacket! The poor old Norton just about managed to get us around all four countries and then back to the UK, before she gave up the ghost, my dad did have all the parts he needed to rebuild the engine, but I think he’d just had enough by that point, so, my uncle eventually came to pick us up with a trailer and take us the last few hundred miles home.
I suppose my dad was always a bit of a glutton for punishment and continued to be so, when he started racing the old Triumph Tiger 100 in the Senior Classic Manx Grand Prix, back in 1985, when I was 12 years old. He’d borrowed an old frame tent off a friend and packed us all up again, into the old transit van-stroke-camper and off we went to the Isle of Man for two weeks. It wasn’t the best introduction to the Isle of Man for me, it rained for most of the time and I, being a stroppy-nearly-teenager, didn’t want to be there at all… especially when I woke up, fully clothed because it was so cold, in my sleeping bag, in a puddle outside of the knackered old frame tent that had been blown half apart during the night… not happy! Dad had started as he meant to go on in the Classic race too and was lying tenth when he broke down on lap two.
The 1986 Manx Grand Prix wasn’t much better, the previously forecast Hurricane Charlie hit the Island, and although we had newer and better tents this time, the Hurricane put paid to those and me and my brother awoke at 2am, when our tent had collapsed on us! Soaking wet, we clambered into the van to sleep for the night, where we were quite literally, rocked to sleep! When morning broke, there were only two tents left standing, an army tent and another frame tent with 6 blokes who’d held onto it all through the night, and we think the weather is bad now… I think dad broke down that year too.
However, I did fall in love with the Island during those first two years, and those who have been will know what I mean… Two weeks of messing about with motorbikes and racing through amazing scenery, banks, walls, trees, villages and mountains. For many years, my role was chief bike cleaner and polisher, sticker maker and helmet carrier for my dad, not to mention, once I was old enough, van driver and pick up crew whenever he broke down! Incidentally, he always carried a tenner in his pocket and always broke down at a pub, but he rarely spent his tenner and always managed to have a few… so, no change there then! (Sorry dad, I couldn’t resist that)
Over the years, I always said I wanted to race on the Island, much to my dads dismay, but I was determined that, one day, I would race there… that was all I wanted to do, no big ambitions, just race there. After all, I did a lot of my learning to ride motorbikes on the Island whilst spending two weeks a year there, starting with my first road bike at 16, a black and red RD50, which used to take me damn near an hour and a half to do a lap! Next up at 17, was an AR80 and after that, the Yamaha YB100, which I’d borrowed to pass my test on. After that, my first ‘big’ bike, my purple Kawasaki KH250 two stroke triple… a nightmare of a bike in the wet! And then, onto the bike I’d love to own again, my blue and white RD350LC, I loved that bike, crap drum brakes, crap skinny tyres, but loads of fun, especially on the Island. And my last road bike, which inspired my racing ambition again, my all-original, 1989 VFR400RR that I last rode on the open roads, in 1999, which is also the last time I ever rode a bike on the ‘open’ roads.
I eventually got around to starting racing myself in April 2000, just before my 27th birthday and in good Sells family tradition, I didn’t do anything too easily! I was also in the process of buying my first house at that point and so, I couldn’t afford to do too much or even buy my own bike, so my dad very kindly lent me his TZ250B, my brother lent me some leathers and I travelled to the Isle of Man for my first race at the 2day meeting at Jurby Airfield. That first race was a bit of a baptism of fire and I was knocked off and knocked out by a rider-less machine at the Bus Stop chicane, when Richard Murphy came off behind me and his bike carried straight on through and took me off. I was very sore and stiff after the events of the day, but I returned the next morning to see the Doctor and request to race again. I inadvertently nearly caused the end of the meeting in doing so, when the attending Doctor wouldn’t pass me, so I spoke to Doc Moran, who passed me fit and this had upset the female Doctor at the circuit, who then had a big row with Doc Moran and nearly walked off! Oops, I didn’t mean for that to happen, I just wanted to race and thought I was fit enough to do so.
I competed in only three race meetings that year, the last of them being the Le Mans style endurance race at Jurby Airfield on an RVF400, this helped me decide I wanted to race four strokes, not two strokes and so, a decision was made to set about getting me a 400.
In 2001, I did one or two more races on the 250 and managed to get my hands on a 400, just in time for the ‘Not-the-TT’ meeting at Jurby Airfield when Foot and Mouth had stopped the TT for the first time since the war. I competed in a few more meetings that year, most of which were on the Island and then my first race outside of the Isle of Man was at Cadwell Park, with New Era Motorcycle Racing Club in the October. Cadwell was always one of my favourite places since we first started going racing in 1979, so it was a huge experience for me to now be racing there.
In 2002, I competed in a full season at Jurby Airfield in the Isle of Man and also, as much of a full season with New Era in the UK as I could manage, racing at all those places I used to love going to as a kid, Cadwell, Snetterton, Silverstone etc. with the sole intention of getting my National licence so that I could aim to race at the Manx Grand Prix the following year. 2002 was an eventful year where I did a lot of learning about how far I could push my bike, having several crashes… including one with an onboard camera, whilst filming a documentary about my racing, for a TV series… oops! I also won my first race, went on to win that championship, and finished 3rd in the Isle of Man 400cc championship, all with a bog standard motor, so, not too shabby, and, I was also lucky enough to get myself one or two sponsors that year too!
In 2003, my main aim was getting myself and my 400 ready for my debut at the Manx Grand Prix, I had some work done to the motor by my dad, fitted some new kit radiators to the bike and, for my personal preparation, competed in my first road race at Jurby Road, which I absolutely loved! I knew straight away, that road racing was going to be the direction I would take myself. I was also approached by a certain Mr Martin Bullock, who said he would like to back me for my debut at the Manx, and, to say I was pleased would be a gross understatement! I’ve never been very good at asking for help with my racing, so to be asked to represent of the best teams at the Manx, was great. I wasn’t a fully-fledged team member, but it was great to have some backing in the form of some Tony Scott engine work and to be a part of a team like that was amazing for my first time on the TT course. My younger brother also made his debut on the TT course racing in the newcomer’s race with me and in the Junior race. I went on to finish fourth in my first race on the Mountain course, the 400cc newcomers race, which was the highest finish by a female on the TT course at that point and went on to lap at 101mph in the Ultralightweight race, I also won two replica’s and the Lesley Anne Trophy for the best performance by a female competitor, my brother won two replica’s and my Dad won his first replica, after 18 years of trying, making us the first Father, son and Daughter all to race and win replica’s on the TT course. Most of all for me though… I’d realised my ambition of 18years and the whole experience was one of the biggest highlights of my life so far.
Since starting racing for Martin back in 2003, I progressed to racing 600’s in 2004 as well as the 400’s and have become a full-time team member, racing for him all year round. I have had 3 top-ten finishes on the TT course on my 400 and have lapped at just under 112mph on a CBR600. I have also broken down twice on the 400, most notably this year, when I truly feel I could’ve challenged for a podium, but that’s racing for you!
In 2005, I became the first woman to win a race at the Southern 100 road races in the Isle of Man and I would very much like to be the first to win a race on the TT course, but, as we have already said… to finish first, first you have to finish, so we’ll see how it goes!
Finally, I hope you have found what I had to say interesting and thank you all for listening.
Cheers,
Carolynn.xx
Q9 WHEN WAS YOUR FIRST RACE ? 
