This was the scene in the pits at PI today. A cloudy morning gave way to rain which intensified during the day and didn’t let up until after we had left the track (of course)
Needless to say, the rain made practice and qualifying not only tricky but also a bit of a lottery but, amazingly, there were very few crashes despite a lot of standing water in places and some riders not having “wets”. They battled through bravely as they do and ended the day wet but satisfied.
The qualifying for the 4 International Challenge races was dramatically affected, however. Unwilling to a) run qualifying in the rain and end up with a grid that was all over the place..or b) have the team captains pick the grid based on their team members’ best performances yesterday (Thursday sessions were not timed) the sessions were progressively pushed forwards in time until it was clear that the track would not be suitable. In the end the decision was made to run Qualifying tomorrow at 0900 with all 40 bikes on the track for 15 minutes and have the resultant grid positions apply for all 4 IC races.
Based on the fact that it’s all about the “show” this seems the best scenario. However, my personal opinion is that they came to race and they should race to the conditions so qualifying should have taken place at the scheduled time regardless of the track conditions. All the OTHER classes qualified that way today, it should have been the same for the big boys. End of rant.
What else happened today? Well since the ban on doing any media work no longer applied, I got stuck in and bagged four quality interviews today. The Minibago makes an excellent, comfortable, quiet and especially dry recording studio – hooray.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I indulged in a bit of socialising today. I spent an hour bench racing with Mr Superbike, Robbbie Phillis. Robbbie isn’t racing this weekend; the rotator cuff injury sustained at the last round of the Pirelli Series is not responding well to treatment and the doctors say his recovery could be quite a protracted one. I do hope that this is not the end of his stellar career; I’d like him to go out on HIS terms when and if he decides to go, he deserves that.
One of my old CRRC buddies, Murray Ogilvie, was there, having his first race meeting for over 30 years. It was great to spend some time with him and Neil Stuart, another of the original CRRC team.
I had a long talk to one of my 70’s heroes, Bob Rosenthal and his lovely wife. I mentioned that it was almost 40 years since Laverton and he stunned me by telling me that he and his late brother-in-law, Ross Barelli, was responsible for laying out the track at the Air Force base. Amazing, I never knew that. I also caught up with sidecar and engineering legend, Peter Campbell. I hope to do an interview with him tomorrow so I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you the substance of the discussion.
How delightful it was to see my good American buddy, Deano Swims and his remarkable bride, Margaret, today. Having had a little to do with getting Deano to come here and live I was tickled to find that he is managing spares at Peter Stevens Motorcycles in suburban Box Hill, the biggest motorcycle dealership in Melbourne. The cream always rises to the top. And today was the three year anniversary of that fateful day when Deano, on his slow down lap at the 2013 Island Classic, spotted Margie doing flag duty in T2 at PI and decided she was the girl for him. If that sounds too far-fetched to be believed, trust me, it isn’t, that is exactly how it happened.
I was tackled (again, not literally) by PCRA Secreatary, Peter Macmillan wanting to know if I was going to give equal time to the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed at Eastern Creek in March, and the answer was, heck, yes, I am. I can’t wait for the Sheene. I’ll get to see Freddie Spencer, Kevin Schwantz and a whole cast of luminaries that you won’t see in the one place at any one time anywhere else in the world!
Don’t miss it if you can.
OK, it’s late so I’d better go. Tomorrow is racing, and it’s predicted to be fine so…..