|
[Supermoto] Mettet '02 First practice
by Dave Lippet
OK so take one of the world's top extreme
athletes, a group of hairy arsed motard racers and find
a way to scare the living crap out of them....
S'easy, just let me drive the turbo'd Vauxhall people
carrier back to the race track from the hotel. Seven
something o'clock in the morning, the hotel to track
journey is 30 minutes drive, but someone told me last
night they did it in 25minutes...Combine that with the
stopwatch function on the Zafira's computer and it sounds
like a bloody challenge to me...
How about 12 minutes 25 seconds and a bunch of puckered
American ring pieces?
Colin McRae eat yer heart out ya great slow jessie...;o)))
Biccy heads back to the hotel to collect the non-riding
members of the team but prevailing traffic prevents
him from getting anywhere near the new record....Pussy!
;o))
Going through the final paperwork stuff with Freddy
Tacheny, the non-arrival of Scott Russell leaves us
with a spot in the Starbiker to fill. First decision
of the day as team manager sees me putting Casey Yarrow
into the
Starbiker line-up. Casey is a flattracker and his all
action sideways style will prove to be a thrill for
the spectators. Back to the garage and I break the news
to an ecstatic Casey. It also eases things for us as
we now only have 3 riders in the qualifying heats and
the other 3 are seeded direct into the Starbiker.
After discussions with Rudi from Goldspeed tyres I
had plumped for an inter front, cut slick rear combination
for practice. For me this was the hardest part of the
weekend. Making a tyre choice for yourself and riding
with it is one thing, but shoving half-a-dozen trusting
souls out on your choice is a different thing altogether.
Our first rider to head out for free practice was Steve
Drew, followed by Ben Carlson. After making sure that
they were in
the box, and all fuelled up we wandered out to the first
turn to take a look at how they got on.
The morning air was bright and dry, but a little on
the cool side. The dirt section was dry and firm, and
the road sections of the track were still littered with
the gravel that is a consequence of it's use as a public
road
for the rest of the year! That was my logic in going
for the inter fronts as opposed to slicks...
A decision that worked well if the performances of
Steve and Ben were anything to go by. Ben in particular
was pretty spectacular coming into the tarmac sweepers
with the rear end hanging out a couple of feet....G'waaan
boy! Towards the end of the 15 minute session Benny
slowed up a bit and Steve got faster...Uh oh...
Back in the pit the reason's for Benny's slowing lap
times were self-evident. His left hand was sporting
a lump the size of a golf ball!
Just one week prior Ben had broken his hand in an incident
at work. Still, a little thing like a broken hand wasn't
going to stop him as he scoffed a couple of painkillers
and slowly regained come colour from his very white
pallor.
Steve was absolutely buzzing and raving about the nature
of the track. I can remember quite easily his favourite
phrase..." It's f-ckin' awesome duuuude..."
;-)))
We made a few little changes to the bikes that the
boys wanted and then double and triple checked everything
before it was time for them to go out in timed training
again...The Starbikers practice was after qualifying,
so
Metz, Miller and Yarrow were able to relax and take
in the spectacle as a whole phalanx of loonies attempted
to go top 7 in each of the 5 groups of 30 plus Euro
motard axe murdering maniacs...;o))
Continued in Pt5
|
