2024 Isle of Man TT
Davo Johnson
South Australia’s Davo Johnson’s TT was cruelly cut short last Sunday when he had a huge get-off at the K Tree on the final lap of the Superbike TT.
Johnson, who is Kawasaki’s official 2024 roads entrant (riding for Lee Hardy racing), had been running strongly in 8th at the time of the accident. While it will have been massively disappointing for the Adelaide man to get no further than race day two, he should also consider himself extremely lucky to get away with just a fractured collarbone and some bruising.
It was great to see him up and about, walking around the paddock on Tuesday. Many wanted to shake his hand and tell him how glad they were to see him on his feet. We managed to catch a break between well-wishers and grab him for a quick chat.
He told us that the crash was particularly disappointing. He’d already banked a solid 11th in the opening Supersport race and felt like he’d never had a bike feel as good as his Kawasaki so early in the week.
David Johnson
“Everything was moving in the right direction. We were making small changes to move forward and were already in the mid-131s (mph laps), so it was all looking good,’ he said. ‘To be in the top 6 I definitely needed to be in the high 132s but that was definitely achievable. If we made changes as the week went on; by the Senior, I think we would have been there.”
Johnson crashed at the section known as the K-Tree. It’s famously spectacular and the section has become a hot spot from which fans share their amateur phone videos online. Anyone who’s seen footage of riders wrestling their machines along the bumpy stretch will know that it’s not a place to crash. Davo describes how it happened.
“I went through the straight bit and over the first rise, then it kicked back out of the dip and caused a tank slapper, which I couldn’t recover. I managed to roll off the side of the bike and go straight down the road. I’m battered and bruised, but luckily, I got away with just a fractured collarbone, which is good for where we crashed.”
Frustratingly, Davo had already identified the set-up issue that caused the crash before it happened and knew what changes to make to remedy the problem.
“The last lap, I had a bit of brake fade, and I was in 8th. I was 20-odd seconds behind 7th and loads ahead of 9th, so I was just cruising home. But I was thinking about the set-up as I was cruising around and what I was going to change; it was definitely too soft a rear set-up. Over points like where I crashed, over rises; it was kicking back, and it just kicked back massively there, and I couldn’t recover. We know what we need to change for next time.”
So, where does the Kawasaki man go from here?
“I’ll be back on the Isle of Man for the Manx GP, and we’ll maybe do a BSB with the team. Then Macau GP at the end of the year.”
But first, it’s time to get back home and relax.
“I land back in Adelaide next week. I’ve been away for a couple of months, so it’ll be nice to catch up with my wife”, he smiled.
The sight of the Platinum Club Kawaski team truck leaving the paddock this afternoon was sad. It’s a real shame the 41-year-old didn’t get the chance to complete TT 24, but the main thing is that he’s still in one piece. You can be sure that Johnson and the team will already be planning their attack for twelve months, armed with the data gathered from this year.
The weather continues to play havoc with race schedules on the Isle of Man, and there was no racing at all on Friday. So far, Davo has only missed one 3-lap Superstock race since the crash. The second Superstock race has been dropped altogether, and Saturday’s itinerary now hopes to squeeze a Supersport race, a twins race and a cut-to-four-lap Senior in to close off the festival. Thankfully, the forecast looks promising.
