Isle of Man 2024 TT
Davo Johnson
South Australia’s Davo Johnson’s TT was brutally cut short last Sunday as he put in an excellent run at K Tree in the final lap of the Superbike TT.
Johnson, an official 2024 participant for Kawasaki (riding for Lee Hardy Racing), was running strong in 8th place at the time of the accident. While it will be disappointing if the Adelaide rider can’t progress beyond the second day of racing, he should also consider himself extremely lucky to walk away with only a broken collarbone and some bruises .
It was great to see him walking around the paddock on Tuesday. Many people wanted to shake his hand and tell him they were happy to see him standing on his own two feet. We managed to take a break among the well-wishers and grabbed him for a quick chat.
He told us that the accident was particularly disappointing. He secured a solid 11th place in the opening Supersport race and felt like he’d never had a bike that felt as good as his Kawasaki at the start of the week.
David Johnson
“Everything was on track. We’re making small changes moving forward and are already in the middle of the 131s (lap mph), so all looks good,’ he said. ‘To get into the top six I definitely need to be at a high of 132 but that is certainly achievable. If we make changes during the week; by Senior, I think we could have been there.”
Johnson crashed in an area known as K-Tree. It’s famous for being breathtaking and the section has become a hotspot for fans to share their amateur phone videos online. Anyone who has seen riders struggling with their machines along a bumpy stretch of track will know that it is no place to crash. Davo describes how it happened.
“I went straight and passed the first rise, then it bounced back out of the dip and made a crash with the tank, from which I was unable to recover. I managed to roll off the side of the car and head straight down the road. I was beaten and bruised, but luckily I only had a broken collarbone, which was good for where we crashed.”
What’s disappointing is that Davo identified the setup issue causing the problem before it happened and knew what changes to make to fix the problem.
“The last lap, I missed the brakes a bit and was 8th. I was about 20 seconds slower than 7th and a lot ahead of 9th, so I just went home. But I’m thinking about the arrangement as I’m going around and what I would change; it’s definitely an overly soft rear setup. On spots like where I crashed, high up; it was kicking back, and it just kept kicking 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 maybe we’ll do the BSB with the team. Then Macau GP at the end of the year.”
But first, it’s time to come home and relax.
“I’ll be back in Adelaide next week. I’ve been away for a few months so it would be nice to see my wife again.”he smiled.
The sight of the Platinum Club Kawasaki team’s truck leaving the training ground this afternoon was sad. It’s a shame the 41-year-old didn’t get the chance to complete TT 24, but what’s important is that he remains intact. You can be sure that Johnson and team have been planning their attack for 12 months, based on data collected from this year.
The weather continues to affect the racing schedule on the Isle of Man and there will be no racing on Friday. To date, Davo has only missed a 3-lap Superstock race since the accident. The second Superstock race was canceled altogether and Saturday’s itinerary now hopes to attract a Supersport race, a twin race and a Senior cut into four rounds to close out the festival. Thankfully, the forecast looks promising.
