Andy Guy Racing team pour everything into Isle of Man TT dream

Now, along with four-year-old daughter Summer, the Great Sankey couple’s entire lives are geared around the sport – and even the marriage proposal by 38-year-old April, a manager at Lloyds bank on Horsemarket Street, came during a race.

Although weekends are described as ‘absolutely manic’ they would not have it any other way and share a dream that truck driver Andy, also 38, will race in the famous Isle of Man TT event in 2020.

“Our lives are very busy but we are living the dream,” said April, who manages the Andy Guy Racing team.

“I said to Andy yesterday I don’t know what else we would replace motorbike racing with.

“I couldn’t imagine anything else that would be as exciting.

“It’s exciting, but its nerve-wracking at the same time.

“It’s exciting when he comes in from the race and he’s on the podium getting his trophies, but when he’s racing my heart is in my mouth.

“When you come home you are absolutely shattered, because you’ve not slept so well because you’re in a caravan and there’s lots of noise.

“You’re constantly nervous and then excited as well, so you come home feeling you need a week off work because it is really tiring, but I wouldn’t know what else we’d do to fill that excitement and that gap. I can’t imagine life without it.”

She added: “We do sacrifice a lot.

“We can’t go on holiday, because all our holidays from work are taken up with racing.

“Andy is a grab driver and works nights, so we both work full-time.

“His whole wage goes on racing. We do have sponsors, who cover around £4,000 to £5,000 but it probably costs us around £35,000 per year.

“We would probably like a car but we can’t afford a car because we have the van for racing. We’d probably like a holiday too.

“But what would we do with our time without the sport – I think we’d be really bored.”

Close family share in their passion too and follow Andy to circuits up and down the country, this year ‘smashing’ racing on his Triumph Daytona 675R in the Thundersport GB and Ace of Aintree championships following his victory in last season’s NoLimits 600 Championship.

“There’s loads of families involved in the sport, all with children,” she said.

“We don’t have a mechanic as such. Andy’s dad and his brother do the mechanics, change the tyres, change the wheels and refuel.

“I do the tyre warmers, put the bike on the stand when he comes in or is going out.

“I generally clean the bike after every race, clean his helmet. And then his mum’s there making cups of coffee.

“We all chip in and it’s lovely. I think it’s nice, it’s such a family sport.”

The couple moved into Great Sankey with caravan and sponsor-plastered racing van in tow just under 12 months ago, after having got together about a year earlier.

“We met on Facebook, which sounds horrendous,” she said.

“I’ve always had an interest in motorbikes. I don’t ride one myself, but I requested him as a friend because of my interest in motorbikes and it went from there.”

They will be getting married in Cuba in 2020 following April’s proposal last year.

“While he was racing on the track at Cadwell Park the commentator asked if anyone wanted to send a message by text and he would read it out over the tannoy,” she explained.

“So I actually sent a message asking him to marry me and they said it while he was out riding.

“He always comes in a bit dazed and it takes him about 10 minutes to recover.

“But he looked at me and said “Have I heard right?” It took him about 10 minutes to give me an answer and asked if I was joking or serious.”

A motocross rider until he was 22, Andy started ‘quite late’ in life when he took up track racing four years ago - after deciding riding on the roads was ‘far too dangerous’.

“Now it does take up all our time,” she said.

“We do two races per month, a Thundersport and an Aintree every month from March to October.

“When he’s not racing, the other two weeks we’re ‘prepping’ the bike.

“So every weekend is taken up by either racing or getting in preparation for the next race.

“Summer comes to every race weekend as well. She absolutely loves it and if we didn’t take her I don’t think we’d hear the last of it.

“There is no rest, because once you’re home from one you are planning for another.

“We start getting the caravan and the bike ready on a Wednesday, we normally go to the track on a Thursday and get the gazebo and caravan set up and the bike ready.

“Then on a Friday it’s testing, though sometimes it’s Saturday.

“He’ll go out about 10 times on testing day to make sure he’s happy with the bike and that the suspension is how he wants it to be and then that’s followed by two days of racing.

“Sometimes on a bank holiday it can be five days away, if not a duration of four days for us. It is absolutely manic.”

The team manager’s work continues through the week.

“I manage all the social media and I manage the sponsors as well,” said April.

“So in the winter when we finish racing I have five months to drum up sponsorship, which I do through LinkedIn.

“I think we’ve got just over 11,000 followers now, so it is a big job in itself.

“I get home from work about 6pm and until I go to sleep I’m constantly answering people on social media, and that’s every night because I’m constantly promoting him.”

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And all roads are pointing to the Isle of Man for the motorsport fanatics.

“The end dream is to get him to the TT and we’ve just had the application forms through for the Manx GP TT for 2019,” she said.

“You have to do the Manx GP first, to be able to do the actual TT which he’ll do the year after.”

Andy’s desire to contest the TT is deep rooted.

“From an early age he was interested in the TT,” said April.

“I think the pinnacle of the sport is to get to the TT. Once you’ve done the TT, there isn’t anywhere else to go from there.

“It’s the most exciting, but the most dangerous as well.

“When his dad was racing Formula 2 sidecars, he was at the level where he could have gone to the TT but didn’t because of having Andy and his brother.

“He put them into consideration, and I don’t think his mum wanted his dad to do it either because of the boys.

“I think when Andy heard that from his dad, he’s got it in his mind now that he doesn’t want to have that regret like his dad does.

“It’s the pinnacle, it’s the dream to go to the island and do well.

“When he first goes next year for the Manx it will be a case of finding his feet and learning the track and staying safe.

“When this year’s track racing finishes in October the plan is to go over there every month, either on a plane and hire a road bike - because he has a track bike at the moment and wouldn’t be able to learn the course on that - or go in the van and learn the course in the van.

“It’s fingers crossed with the application. Time is upon us. The TT officials have now put a 40-year age stoppage on newcomers.”

* Does your family's life revolve entirely around sport? We would like to share your story too. Send some details in the first instance in an email to mike.parsons@nqnw.co.uk and we will arrange for a sports reporter to chat with you.