Up the Creek

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This weekend is the annual Barry Sheene Festival of Speed (hereinafter known as BSFoS) and, once again, I am onsite and doing MotoPod duties.

However, it’s not quite the same, for me at least. My leg has been giving me hell of late and I have always known that I’d struggle to cover the meeting in the detail that I have achieved in previous years. As well as this, this weekend has seen an unfortunate double-booking over which I have had no control. You see, as well as the Sheene, there is also the Australian Compact Speedcar Championship meeting that is slated for this Saturday night at Goulburn Speedway. Thankfully my many friends don’t hold it against me that my passion for my speedway equals my long-running passion for everything two-wheeled.

So, the plan was to go to the Creek today, stay overnight in the campground, do a half day stint at the Sheene on Saturday, then head south to Goulburn, do the title then drive part way back to Sydney, sleep somewhere along the way and do the final day of the Sheene on Sunday.

It isn’t going to happen. The Minibago is in “van” mode at the moment and sleeping on an air mattress with my leg the way it is just isn’t feasible. So I’m skipping the Sheene tomorrow completely, doing Goulburn then driving back to the Creek and taking in the last day on Sunday.

Today I battled the workday traffic to Sydney to find out that there was no special Media Pass available, just a three day pass. That’s OK, but it presented a problem when it came to parking. Since the pass is the same as every other punter’s pass, that meant no special in-pit parking arrangements for Media. No worries, though, because my Disabled Parking Pass got me into the pits and much less walking, score. (no criticism of the organisers here, it’s just how things happen)

So, today I just bummed around, took a few photographs, renewed acquaintances and teed up my important interviews for Sunday. As usual, the overseas “stars” are amazingly accommodating and it’s no surprise at all why Schwantz, Spencer, Parrish and others were so popular in the day. My hero, Freddie Spencer, was his usual gregarious self but I couldn’t help but note that the man has been on a SERIOUS fitness binge since the Sheene in 2015. He looked to be back to racing weight to me and his partner confirmed that he dropped a lot of weight and has been Gym-ing it for 4 hours a day for months as he wants to put on the best show possible. His participation in the Grand Prix Legends “demonstration” (yeah, right) certainly showed that he was here to do more than just put on a show. It was a close finish between him and Schwantz, fabulous stuff.

There were the usual hard luck stories, my good mate, Cary McMahon crashing in his first race on a wet track and taking himself out of contention for the weekend. Great to see Phil “Ogri” Ogden from Robertson out on his 30 year old Harris Triumph, too.

That’s the show for today, sorry for being so slack. We are planning a 3 month trip in the Minibago starting in June and I have been spending a lot of time working on it and getting it fit for the trip (I probably should stop soon otherwise the van will be ready for the trip and I will be knackered)

Oh, and you might like to check out my Barry Sheene tribute on the mcnews site, follow the link below.

Remembering Barry.

And here’s some pics from today..