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British
Supermoto Pilot Phil Gee
gives us his view on his trip to the USA.
Subject: [Supermoto] Usa.......part 1
Well here goes...
After months of protracted negotiations with the promoters
over in the USA , a deal was struck to enable Team Gee
to travel to Phoenix for the first round ot their new
National series. Paul Brent & Glenn Glenn Curtiss(
who did the USA end of last years Mettet foray) agreed
to pay for dinner at HOOTERS & an undisclosed amount
of beer to be made available & the flights were
booked.
It was decided to fly the day after Cadwell, and we
made a plan to allow us to go to the airport from the
track & catch as early a flight as possible on the
Monday morning. At this point it became apparent that
if i fell off & couldn't fly, then all the flights
& RV rental money would be down the tubes, so i
adopted a 'FFS don't even think about falling off' approach
to Cadwell & rode like a girl....and survived.
So after an uneventful flight , a very eventful trip
from the airport to the RV place , a few phonecalls
to establish a bit of a plan, and some shit hot navigation
from Loz, we land at Mark Millers house in long beach
at 9pm and are greeted with cold beer & hot food
.....superb. Miller then proceeds to make our ears bleed
with his HOOOOOGE TV & sound system, we have a laugh
about the stupid stuff we did at Mettet, i try not to
get caught looking at his sweetly pretty girlfriend
Tammy's lovely arse(oohh baby) and we retire at about
12.
The morning reveals that Mark and his buddy Andre are
going out to ride at Lake Elsinore, Mike Metzger will
be there , and as the Vert that i am gonna ride is miles
away in Bakersfield, Metz is bringing his DRZ SM for
me to ride.....wooohoooo.. kind of;-) As those dirt
freaks amongst you know, Lake Elsinore is THE place
that the top guys use to train, Pastrana goes there,
McGrath & all the other Socal boys use it all the
time , so i was amazed when i got there to find out
its as flat as Blyton....with a few man made jumps thrown
in. Further investigation reveals 5 tracks, one MX,
one Pro SX track, one Mini track, one Women's/youth
& the Vets track for old gits who dont like jumps
so much.
Now the DRZ has road tyre's, a desert tank, mirrors
& indicators & they are watering the track as
i unload it from the back of Metz's truck....which bit
of my brain decided it would be a good idea to ride
it is not clear, but i put on my leathers (in 85 degree
heat) and off i went, and looked for the dry bits....
10 laps of the womens track later & i crash like
a novice in a tight corner & hit the ground real
hard..... brake caliper is adrift & the wheel locked
up & had me off....common sense prevails and i park
it, and then blag 3 sessions on Millers YZF450, the
first two go really well , and than i shit myself on
the third after he points out that the suframe is a
one off carbon one worth shit loads of dough........
so i parked that one too.
We get invited back to Metz's , spend a couple of hours
just buggering about in general, and go to bed. The
daylight reveals that Metz's place is undergoing major
surgery, all his freestyle jumps are being moved &
he is constructing his own SM track in his 'garden'.
That's how serious he is. Metz goes out in his Hummer
& leaves me his big pick up to use instead of arseing
about with the RV, we goes shopping & pull up in
Mall, and daft twat Brit cant the keys out of the ignition.
10 mins of cursing and puffing later i ask a guy if
he can get the keys out of this truck we just stole....
he presses the little button next to the lock &
out they come. Truck 1 Phil 0
Wednesday we go to Perris, a legendary Socal track,
but we use the cart track, not the MX one, Metz does
some suspension testing & i get a couple of runs
on Mike Cinqmars' CRF(another freestyle god).Cinq has
two rods holding his back together after an off 2 years
ago, and has been riding again 6 months, and has never
ridden an SM before, but is a true Pro & is quick
straight off the bat. Metz's spannerman Buddy falls
into the 'if it's got17' wheels , its a bloody nightmare'
scene by leaving the caliper bracket for the alternate
set of forks back at the ranch, so i bet he really enjoyed
the 40 mile round trip, then the hand guards were wrong,
and the wheel spacers............you all know, we've
done it .
Anyhoo, i decide to split & head to Palm Springs,
take the kids to a water park & make a good dent
in the 400 mile run to Phoenix. It turns out that Palm
Springs is the Gay capital the desert, so we do a runner
to Indio 20 miles away & chillout with a cold beer
in the hot tub at the RV site.
The kids wake us at 6, we hit the water park at 10,
& the road to Phoenix at 5 something really big
on the freeway about 10.30, and rip the bottom out of
the shit tank on the RV , & subsequently find out
the chuffing thing has no spare wheel, after driving
7 hours across the desert.
We limp into the Super 8 motel, pull up next to Casey
Yarrow & his family and reacquaint ourselves. Glenn
Curtiss appears with Paul Brent in tow & we quickly
retire to the 'Hidden Shamrock' over the road to suck
the froth off a few cold ones.
Tomorrow we go to the track, but no riding, so i get
pissed & sleep like a baby.....................
next... the race
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