It seems hard to believe that, in just over a week, we will officially enter winter. It has been the mildest autumn that I can remember and it’s showing no signs of letting up. This weekend had a great mixture of frantic and laid-back. The laid-back was mostly Saturday and the more frenetic was Sunday.
On Sunday, Frasers Motorcycles, the local Ducati and Harley Davidson dealer, promoted what they billed as the Inaugural South Coast Motorcycle Show. Of course there are many other shows in the area that include motorcycles but most of them are 2+4 events with heavy emphasis on the “4”. This one was set up as a “2” event only and the organisers did a great job. They had lots of trade stalls, food outlets and a coffee van, a DJ pumping out motorcycle-type music from his van (“We have two types of music here – country AND western.”), a show and shine and several competitions/raffles.
However, it didn’t take long after arriving there (I got there early because I had organised to show the Shadowfax) to deduce that the “bike” show was really going to be a Harley show. Let’s see, a huge black semi-trailer with a group of Harleys parked outside it, the table full of trophies each one for a different sort of Harley (and a couple for Japanese bikes) and a tent erected by the promoter that completely failed to mention that they also sold Ducatis. Indeed, were it not for a spectator’s delicious 900SS parked in the bike parking area, you’d have been hard pressed to know that the marque even existed.
The place was knee deep in HD’s of every kind and type (not that that really means anything because, in the end, they are all the same except for the trim and the chrome) And it was also knee deep in the “characters” who are attracted to the American bike and I’ll say no more than that. In terms of entrants in the show and shine there were some mighty nice non-Harley bikes; a drag-prepped Hyabusa that won Best Japanese, an imported KZ900 that was unmolested and unrestored that won Best Classic and a beautiful XS1100 Yamaha that won Best Restoration. But, apart from that, well, you can guess.
Despite all this I had a wonderful day, basking in the autumn sun and answering lots and lots of questions from curious onlookers about my bike . I caught up with many friends from real life and the virtual world and made some new friends as well.
Then, after dinner it was time to watch the races from Le Mans. As usual, it was wet and this brought with it the usual hard-luck stories as well as the usual heroics. The Moto3 race, unlike their usual fare, was rather mild but the Moto2 and MotoGp races made up for that. On a drying track the 600cc bikes turned on a great show with the race being red-flagged a couple of laps short as the rain began to fall in earnest.
By the time it was flagfall for the big bikes it was bucketing down and showing every sign of continuing to do so. Surprise pole man, Marc Marquez, got bogged down on the start with massive wheelspin and, by the time he sorted it out, he as down in 9th. The race produced more drama than about a dozen or so MotoGp races usually produce all lumped in together.
A surprise excellent performance from the Ducati that eventually went unrewarded, an unforced error from Rossi that saw him crash out, remount and finish way down in 12th, a scintillating ride by Pedrosa to make it back-to-back wins, a dismal performance from Lorenzo who also finished way down in 7th, a fine 2nd place by Crutchlow, beating both “works” bikes on the satellite Yamaha and an astonishing “burn from the stern” by Marquez to secure 3rd after being close to 40 seconds off the lead in the early running. Mostly, though, it was about a master class from Dani Pedrosa. Once renowned for hating wet races, the Spaniard has shrugged off the mantle and has emerged as the man most likely. As I remarked elsewhere, maybe he should have gotten Kevin Schwantz to insult him a long time ago.
I think it was David Emmett of motomatters.com who said that we must consider ourselves to be incredibly privileged to be living in the era that has seen the rise and rise of Marc Marquez. As a long-time MM93 booster, I continue to be staggered by what this kid is doing. If you’re not on board the wagon yet, better get on soon before you become one of the Johnny-come-latelies.
The Saturday night brings down the curtain on the 2012-2013 speedway season at Nowra with a big sedan car meeting and a huge demolition derby. I have to be honest and say that I find demo derbies about as interesting as watching paint dry but…
Catch you next time.