Break it up guys!! VMCC rd5 2 day
Hmm, Nice shiney new bike, albeit a stocker with suspension. Thanks go very muchly to Paul G, I love you man! Boyd Suzuki, for the mean fast orderering service, and Robert Taylor, drop the bike off 11 am saturday, pick her up 11 pm monday!! Awesome!
So my new shiney k8 is looking gorgeous, and should be handling mint, but I haven't been on a race track in 6 months, so I decide to take it slow.
Of course, being the huge budget affair that I am, I had one new set of supercorsas to last the whole weekend.
Realised the stupidity of this, and so left the stock bt016s on for qualifying, happy to run near the back to start with, as long races never really fazed me, figured I would pick up the pace as the race went on.
Drizzly, lovely weather, cold track. Superbike qualifying, I get 12 laps on her, Spin up a few times going onto the front straight hitting white lines, but keep it together, then start chasing a cbr, and next thing you know vrrrt, on the white line, and Whee!!
Shiney new k8 is sliding down track in front of me.
Shiney new Rossi AGV helmet is surprisingly undamaged, as I supermanned my way down the track in 4th. Quasimoto's new gloves came into their own here, Knox SPS system equipped gloves, with specially designed and placed "crash knobs" to protect the scaphiod bone things.
I was a sceptic initially, fearing the knobs would get in the way of throttle control etc. They didn't impede my riding in the slightest, and I felt the shock of landing alright, but if I hadn't had those SPS knox knobs, I might have been making my way to hospital 2 hours earlier than I did!
Cheers to Dodgy Matt, for helping a brother do a quick tyre change and rebuild on largely undamaged k8. Qualified 34 on a full grid of 40. (go vic club!)
On my nice new supercorsas (beats recycled rubber) for 600 ss qualifying, and I finally started to feel at home on the bike.
Stock, with no injun mods whatsoever, and man, the step up in mid range torque from the k6 is awesome. Started out dawdling, as cold, new unscrubbed tyres on. Settled into a rythm, and passed someone, passed someone else, was passed by someone, repassed them, feeling pretty good really. Still taking it easy, first run on the bike and all...
Did about 10 laps, and knew that was where I wanted to be, pulled off, and got robert to come fit my new ohlins damper.
Lunchtime came and went, car was still hooked onto the HUGE trailer, and I couldn't be arsed, but turned it around for my Bronwyn to go get me and the her and the kids some food. Good thinking. Sarah fell asleep in the back of the trailer, so the dichotomy was, leaver her to sleep or go gfet food. Left her to sleep for a bit, as with glee I discovered last nights cold jesters pie.... MMmm cold pie....
Stomached half of it before the dry retching got the better of me, then heard the first call for superbikes.
On the bike, new helm feels good, tyres feel good, I feel good, and bike feels great, ready to take it to the big boys!
One warm up lap, and grid up... 34 is way the hell down the back, like 9th row or something. I am a fairly good starter, so was looking for the gap... Hard to find really, with that mass of humanity and machine in front of me.
Dodgy matt is offset in front of me to the right, and I figure he will be an easy lay. The lights go out, and I pull to the left of Matt as I pass him..
.................................................. ...........................
Wake up to the smiley ambulance lady looking at me in the ambulance.
Like, WTF man?? Very confused, witnesses report I was asking many stupid questions. New helm was courtesy of Jared love, and had his 69 in place of rossis 46. Reputedly I asked Bronwyn about 6 times where jared was and if he was ok, cause I could see his helmet!!
Wheeled into transfer room, Jay says to me, Paul said don't worry about the bike... Huh? why would anything be wrong with the bike?
Who is in the other ambulance? My mate Jason Hulme, hey Jason, what happened to you? "I dunno, was KOed" he says as they strap his head to the stretcher.
Glen Skatchill arrives in manfield A and E with a broken wrist. still didn't quite compute, as I knew he was racing the RS 250 with Superbike, and if he had crashed I would have seen it...
Eventually actual lucidity arrives, as I am told I have to take an amblunace trip to hospital...
The 3 of us get into the one ambo, and despite my best prompting, none of us really knew any good meat wagon sing a longs.
Told the guys, as I have been told, remember guys, it was rugby that did this to you, rugby, OK? Que nurse in A&E why were you wearing leathers and a helmet?, why deary, haven't you ever played rugby in motorbike gear?
4 hours or so in waiting room, (I only had head injuries from a high speed motorcycle crash, no hurry aye mate?) and I get to go back into A and E proper.
Cursory examination proves that none of my limbs have fallen off. (they never checked my wang though...)
I am sent limping away, and go and see Jason.
Someone jumped the start, Jason got confused, starter let us go, and Jason stalled, Toast clipped him and was sent flying, jason was now at 45 degrees to the track, and still upright (with one severely shattered leg) and I am passing dodgy Matt on the left, clicked 2nd gear, stoppy and hit him amidships. all within 4 seconds. Biek and I went up and over the top, and I managed the fetal crawl to nowhere in particular.
Reputedly, Paramedic gets to me, says, you alright? I say, yeah, I am fine, go look after him, he is fucked... then collapse... LOL
Don't remember a damn thing of it is the worst part.
Nice shiney new 500 km old k8 is now a chopper, and before skidmark starts up about weak gixser frames, crash a zxr 250 into a brick wall at 150 odd and see how well it stands up!
Forks might still be ok, so hopefully with a new chassis, we will be underway again soon ish.
My injuries seem to be limited to a bit of pissed blood, lots of torn muscles in back, and a little bruising.
BIG thanks to Jay and Rach, Aria, Matt, Ed, Gareth, Bret and all the rest who helped Bronwyn out with packing up the bike and helping her emotionally.
Yes, racing is a bloody big risk. Yes, you could die, yes, you could crash into a mate, and have him possibly lose his legs over it.
But I for one never want to wake up and be too damn scared to get out of bed, and for my Darling wife and family, Bronwyn was convinced I wasn't getting up ever again.
Upon asking her what would she prefer? She may see me die on the track (although statistically I have reset the counter to zero, so should be really very safe to be around now) But she would much prefer that to a knock on the door and 2 policemen telling her that my head and shoulders rest in 2 seperate points fo real estate. Her preference is to see it, and get the heads up on potential grief that way. Death is afterall, the one sure fact in life.
If I seem overly morbid, blame it on the knock on the head, but give these things some thought. 3 times I have been in crashes that should have severely damaged me, and each time I have been little more than a little bruised. This serves to cement my faith in a man that died 2000 years ago for me, and my comfort and security, knowing that when I do die, it will be because he allowed it, and because he is ready to recieve me, is not misplaced.
Peace out and cheers, photos to follow. If you have the vids, feel free to post them.
Keep your thoughts with Jason, it should turn out OK, but only a bit of time will tell, and he won't be walking for a long time yet.
Boyd hh er Suzuki are my heroes!
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Originally Posted by kickingzebra
Karma ... Justice catches up eventually !! 
GOOD RUBBER SAVES LIVES
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