Traveled up with Adam Blake and ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman for an ORE race just off the M5 past Exeter, so not too far to go. With the rain we’ve been having this week the usual fun and games were had getting into the field to park the motor. I got out of the van and looked for a decent line through the mud (like you do) so ‘Blakey’ could use his champ skills and plough through the gloop in his van in order to get parked up, this worked a treat and while every other bugger struggled he made look easy!!
Parked up just in front of us was Gary ‘nothing gets in my way’ Mcoy and Nick life. Gary was feeling a bit worse for wear after having a night on the beer, mind you it didn’t seem to make a difference to his appearance, in fact I thought he looked better for it!
Whilst I milling around the signing on trailer (which in fact only 3 people could stand on it at one time in case it tipped over!) I bumped into the 3 musketeers, Rich Batstone, Paul Ford and Rob Ellick. Nice to see Rich riding again and it bought back a few memories when we both used to be rivals a few years back at the same ORE events (bloody hell I’m sounding like a old man now), had a good laugh about that we did. A few other riders from down our way made the trip so I knew quite a few that were there.
After a quick walk of the very open track (like most of the ORE events because of the quad racing that goes beforehand), it was back to the van and to wait for everyone to get changed before the start. As flag time got nearer I toddled off for a good vantage point so I could see all the action, and were I was stood I could see most of the bloody course, eh……………..one field there, another field there, another field there, in fact quite a few fields! Fast racing then was assured and short laps as well, not my ideal kind of course but who cares, I’m not even racing! The track in places was a little bit ‘tacky’ due to the recent downpours but nothing too much to worry about.
So after watching all the riders flood through past me for a few laps I went off walkabout and headed back up to the pits were I bumped into Gary (Mcoy) who’d had bike trouble and had to pull out after about the hour mark. I helped ‘Blakey’ do his pit stop, helped out Gavin Hunt a bit who had to pit for while because he had brake trouble, and then went and took another look at a different part of the course. It was at this point that I saw Paul Ford cruising around the track like an old fart, so I shouted to him to get his arse in gear and hurry things up and not take it so easy!
God knows how many laps the top guys did at the end of it all, but they were short laps and keeping tabs on everybody’s position was nigh on impossible although I did know that Nick Life trounced everybody (he made it look like a stroll in the park) and ‘mad’ Jack was 2nd, and Adam 4th. Back at the van Jack was in a bad way, he wasn’t injured but had just exerted himself so much that he resembled a figure of someone that had just downed 20 Jack Daniels and then been hit by a bus, he couldn’t stand up let alone walk!!!! Jack didn’t want any help so all we could do was leave him be. Just before we left a few of us were stood round having a chat, including Christian Soanes and Gavin Hunt, where for some reason or another we all ended up showing off our battle scars from our injuries over the years! Adam of course felt left out because the soft lad hasn’t got any! Or it maybe the fact that he’s to a skillful rider to get any!
On the way home the atmosphere in the van was non existent, in fact I would probably say that there was more atmosphere on the moon as Jack was still in a bad way, puffing and panting, holding his head in his hands, opening the window for fresh air, feeling sick, me and Blakey didn’t quite know what to say and it wasn’t long before we had to stop on the hard shoulder of the M5 for Jack to throw up!!! Another 30 mins later and we had to stop again, this time on the A30 for the same thing, not good. It wasn’t until we got back to near home that Jack had pulled round a bit which was just as well because he was giving me a lift home!
Next race I’ll be out and about at is the Hustyn enduro, see you there.
I started racing Enduro's in August 2006. Here is my blog with everything thats happened. The good, the bad, and the ups and downs. Latest blog posts are at the top.
