The Centenary TT was a fantastic festival of high speed road racing with many maintaining and  improving their already substantial levels of achievement… John McGuinness raising the outright lap record to over 130mph, Ian Hutchinson securing four podiums, including a visit to the top level, newcomer Steve Plater lapping at over 125mph, Dave Molyneux claiming what many thought to be an unexpected double, Rick Long becoming the most successful passenger ever in TT history, John Holden grabbing two wonderful runner-up positions…..but, what of ‘maintaining’? Look no further than French sidecar exponent, Claude Montagnier, who, at the ‘end of his working day’ on Wednesday 6th June had ‘maintained’ his perfect record of having completed the distance in every three-wheeler event he’d entered since his debut in 2000… fourteen starts, fourteen finishes… one of the TT’s unsung heroes. An electrician married to Patricia and with a daughter, Julie, Claude entered and rode in the first meeting of the new millennium with Gerald Midrouet in the chair gaining 45th and 47th positions.

Foot and Mouth curtailed racing activities the following year, but our Frenchman returned in 2002 with Englishman Anthony Harrison in the chair with 43rd and 42nd places to his credit, averaging just under 92mph for the three lap distance in the latter of these two races. 2003 saw the beginning of the racing partnership, still in place today when Laurent Seyeuxtook over as ballast. Steady improvements in lap speeds – the first 100+mph race average in 2006 being achieved when finishing 24th in Race A aboard his Kawasaki engined machine. Race B last year, when coming home in 23rd position, is his best result to date. This year, Claude ‘maintained’ his 100% finishing record with 32nd and 30th places – a marvellous achievement of both driving skill and machine preparation and maintenance. French fans of the TT, all other IoM road races and the Island in general now have a “blog” site to peruse. There are over 600 photographs, twenty-eight articles [at the time of writing this] including information about accommodation and travel. Our French Representative, Jean-Michel Prudon has been developing the site – no knowledge of the French language is necessary -
http://tourist-trophy.over-blog.com/