One gets a lot of time to mooch around between races on race-days, thus the observant get to see many really quite interesting sights, and talk to many interesting people.
The following comprises just some snap-shots of what I have seen and heard.
One of the recent best was watching Jrandom trying to get his leathers 'over' a rather-too-small coat...I gather the idea was to keep him a bit dry during the 3-hour at Taupo. It was pissing down at the time.
But then I saw Ray Clee (Ithink it was him) ambling up to the start-grid at Puke, after the WU round. He was sitting bolt-upright, hands in his lap, just so. He had the idle level way up and was doing about 5/7Ks. I was mightily impressed with his balance.
Then there was the Cemetery Races. Unbelievable speeds those dudes go at. But the real kicker for me was seeing Shaun come blasting up the short straight into the cemetery, in the lead! For those who don't know, Shaun was pronounced DOA after his last bin. To come back from that, and to be in the lead into the cemetery, was just something else again.
But then came his second race. He was holding second. He and the leader roared into the cemetery and some dude came up the straight behind and spluttered to a stand-still, about halfway up the hill.
His bike decided a retry was in order. Sure enough it started. He just pulled out onto the track, right between the leader and Shaun, who had just come around again. How Shaun managed to not hit the dill is beyond my imagination. Had he hit him, he may well have replicated his last bmajor bin.
Da man has the skill!
Then there was watching Stroudy and Gareth Jones fighting it out at taupo. Seeing those two take turn 3 and 4, at the speeds they achieved thrilled me and made me realise that pure talent is an awesome thing to see.
I got much the same buzz when I watched 10 year-old, Sarah McCracken play her violin in Auckland's Town Hall, as a fund-raiser to pay for her two-year sojourn to the Yudi Menhuin school of music. She was talent from the tip of her little blonde head to her toes.
I adore watching talented people do their thing.
But then there's the awesome site of watching almost solo competitors pull their bike almost to bits between rounds, to repair some observed fault, or make something better.
Watching the sponsored teams ripping a bike to bits then rebuilding it, all in the space of half an hour, is just something else again.
I'm fizzing at my new-found ability to find and clean my carbs!
Then along comes a dude with 5Kgs of Paua fritter-mix, 50Kgs of venison, and a spit-roaster complete with a wild pig, and sausages for Africa. All free! Just him wanting to make the race-day complete....and don't forget the free beers.
This happened at Taupo...Sadly, my lovely turned up at about the time the venison was due for the fry. And hour later, having erected her tent and got matters just the way 'she' wanted them, the Venison was gone. :--((((
Then there's the amazing array of gear which so many carry. Even on track-days dudes turn up with tyre-warmers. My tyre-warmer is the sun, and a bit of an ever-increasing blast around the warm-up lap. :--((
You can wander into any pit you choose and just listen to guys talking about nicking a 10th of second here, and 2/10ths there. You watch them micro tyre pressures. 'We gotta get a 4PSI rise after the run, so 28.615 in the front, and 23.781 in the back seems the go.'
"Eh? I think my tryes are somewhere around 30/26...more or less. Near enough.' I hope, think."
But then there's the sound of massed bikes reving up for the start of the clash. It all just makes me admire the genius of mankind; designers and builders of bikes who can make something which can rev to that level and still stay in one piece. It's like watching the grace of a 747 passing by.
What level of intelligence is required to design and build something which carries God knows how many tonnes of metal and people defying gravity with such grace? Way beyond mine.
A kicker for me was watching Stroudy and Ray Clee muck it out at Puke. They went into Jenian at speeds I can't even begin to comprehend...and came out the other end still on two wheels! I watched Stroudy overtake Clee in that turn! And they were doing like 200-something.
I thought I was brave getting through at 140!
But the real kicker, for me, is to be a part of it.
I don't give a big rats arse about coming last or first, or fifth, or ninth.
Just to be there, a part of this amazing scene is, in itself the buzz.
The people.....every last one of them, riders and supporters and the organisers ...are damned fine folk. I have yet to meet one...although I have heard some rumblings, as you do... who isn't a solid, down-to-earth bod.
Fuck me. At the cemetery Race, Brian Bernard hustled in beside me and said, 'Gidday Dave. Good ay, huh. Would you mind if I took your place? I need to give Gareth a signal.'
I'd met the guy once, at the training day at Manfield. And like I'm the originally nobody in the racing-biker world, and he remembered my name!?
Could I just step aside for a moment while he signals Gareth1?
I felt like Prince Rainier himself had remembered me from a long forgotten piss-up.
Then there was the TD at Puke where a knob-jockey lost the plot and binned at the hairpin. It was a TD for heavens sakes! He came back on the hearse, looking really sad. He'd pushed beyond, for no reason, and wrecked his bike. He was due to tour the South Island the week after. Nup! Ego fucked him over. I absorbed his position and thought long and hard about my own attitude. Twas a good lesson.
You see all this stuff, if you watch closely, and way much more. I could write a book about what I've seen in just the last six months (my entire time from buying YZF from Frosty, till now).
It's just wonderful stuff. And to be a part of it? Even at my level of incompetence is? I just....I can't think of a suitable adjective.
Save to say, I want a whole lot more of it.
And isn't reading this a whole lot better than reading folk bitching at each other?
It's just such good shit to be involved, in some way, in track or race-days.
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Originally Posted by kiwifruit
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