Hailwood “¦Agostini “¦Montano! – Munroe Motors and Thomas Montano Bring MV Agusta Back to the Isle of Man – Munroe Motors and Tom Montano have once again completed a successful week of TT racing at the famous Isle of Man road circuit. This year Montano blazed the 37.75-mile course on a Munroe Motors’ 2005 MV Agusta F4-1000. In the main event, the 6-lap “Senior” TT held on Friday morning June 10th, the 2001 AMA Pro-Thunder champion finished a strong 13th place with an average speed of 118.43 mph – winning a rare and coveted Silver Replica. (The fastest riders in a TT race that finish within 5% of the race winner’s time receive a Silver Replica trophy, and those within 10% win a Bronze Replica “¦there is no “gold”.) Tom’s 17th place result in Superbike, the first race held nearly a week earlier, was a heralding display of his and the MV Agusta’s potential. Throughout the week of racing, Montano, along with the only other American competitors, Craig McLean of Corte Madera, CA and Wade Boyd of San Francisco, posted competitive results time after time. Montano and McLean battled within just a few seconds of each other in both 600cc races. Boyd made a strong showing close behind them with a Bronze in the Junior TT “B” race. Montano’s week with the MV Agusta F4-1000 gave the Munroe Motors team invaluable experience with the stunning new bike. During the second of three 1000cc races, the Superstock, the MV Agusta competed in stock form against a field filled with the likes of Suzuki’s GSXR1000, Honda’s CBR1000 and RC51 and Yamaha’s R1. Montano’s unrelenting throttle hand started to spin the clutch free early into the 4-lap race, but Tom kept his lap times very competitive. The clutch finally gave up on the last lap of the race – on the far side of the Island road course. He left the bike with a trustworthy local and hitched a courageous pillion ride back to the starting grid with a handy spectator. To the amazement of his pit crew, Jamie Karrick and Matt Prentiss of Munroe Motors and Adrian North of Douglas, Isle of Man, he made it back with literally seconds to spare in time to start the 600 Junior TT “A” race on his trusty 1999 Yamaha R6. The virtually stock MV Agusta F4-1000 proved to be a formidable competitor against the Superbike and Superstock-spec Japanese machines that littered the starting grids. The ’05 1000cc 4 cylinder MV Agusta was sprung from its crate in early April at Munroe Motors in San Francisco. For break-in, Montano competed once with the new bike, finishing 12th in the AFM Formula Pacific race May 1st at Infinion Raceway. Shortly thereafter, the bike had to be packed up and shipped to the Isle of Man, giving the Munroe Motors team precious little time to prepare for the epic week of road racing. Aside from wearing out the clutch pack during the Superstock race, the MV Agusta performed flawlessly throughout a hard week of practice and some 600 ultra-high-speed racing miles! Competition upgrades to the stock machine include Fast by Ferracci slip-on mufflers and chip – with the catalytic converter masterfully removed from the mid-pipe by Dennis Etcheverry at Norman Racing – fiberglass race bodywork painted by Cycle Finish, a Graves front fairing bracket, a Brembo GP front brake master cylinder and lightweight forged aluminum wheels for the Superbike spec events. The motor remained untouched from the factory except for the installation of MV Agusta’s reverse pattern shift drum. It is Munroe Motors’ honor and Thomas Montano’s achievement to have raced the fastest MV Agusta in the history of the Isle of Man TT races – and to have won a Silver Replica in doing so. The accomplishment is especially gratifying because Giacomo Agostini was on hand to take one of his championship winning MV Agusta 750 machines from the ’70s around the road course for the Lap of Honor and Classic Parade. This legendary and supremely competitive motorcycle brand has made a forceful movement back into road racing in 2005 with Thomas Montano and Munroe Motors. For more information about the Isle of Man TT races, please visit: www.iomtt.com To download the results sheet from the Senior TT, please click on: http://www.iomtt.com/results/2005/Fri10/senior-result.pdf