The Irish Tales

Second Life (23)
The long road back, to Assen. (Part Two)
　
Peering through the fog of the years, some things, some people, some events, are will o’ the wisps, chimeras; unreal but possible, cloudy at the centre, vague at the edges. I grope for a hold on them, but they slip through my fingers like un-earned money.
Others are pin-sharp and succulent and no sooner called to memory than they appear, as if it were only yesterday.
My father, my mother, my first lover….
And the banked curves at Assen Racetrack in Holland…..

I’d never had so much fucking fun in my life. And not a woman involved. Honest, guv.
Unless, as some people do, you look upon a motorbike as female. In which case, you are simply a pervert.
All motorbikes are male, none more so than a Ducati. Being Italian, they could hardly be otherwise.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, which causes more crashes than most people realise.
The Pegaso more than served its purpose. Indeed, I discovered something quite curious. The faster I went on a bike, the better my balance became.
I still had to be careful about getting on and getting off, but in between, I felt almost normal.

And then - IT arrived.
It may have been love at first sight, but my first ride on the 748 gave me cause to wonder if I’d made a huge mistake.
Damn, but it was cramped and awkward to sit upon. A mere sixty miles to show it off to my brother proved that in spades.
I was in agony when I finally got to his house in Lincolnshire.
Naturally.
It was my first introduction to a genuine racing-spawned bike.
It’s proper habitat is the racetrack. Over time, I learned how to ride it over long distances on the road without undue discomfort. And even enjoyed it.
But on a track….oh my, oh my.

I believe my first outing on it was at Donington Park, the scene of my little prang.
I do recall being nervous about Redgate corner before the off, but when I actually arrived there, it simply flew by and it wasn’t until halfway down Craner Curves that I realised it had gone and my nemesis was, well, behind me ?
It took me a while to adjust, I admit. All my braking points were wrong, likewise my gear changes. A V-twin is totally different to a 4-in-line and you have to change your whole mind-set. It takes a while.
And there’s something else; you have to learn to trust the Ducati.
It doesn’t matter how many times someone tells you that it will stick to a line as if it’s on rails or that you can lean and lean it over until they’re practically horizontal.

You need to find this out for yourself. And slowly, I did.
It was a two-day trackday at Assen that finally convinced me.
Assen, 2001.
Oh my. Four days I will never ever forget, for so many reasons.
Meeting Nigel, "The Crow", at Harwich docks to find him limping and in pain from a cut foot, incurred whilst being silly on the south coast.
The sleeper ferry to the Hook of Holland, in a cabin which resembled a sauna.
A confused ride to the hotel near Assen, with some other mad bastards, in the days before satnavs on bikes and no-one really sure where they were going.
The sheer delight with which bikers were greeted in Holland – and in most other parts of Europe.
And best of all, as you will see, Keith Bush was also there, in his guise as team leader, sponsor and rider of Doc Bush Racing, which won the British Endurance Racing Championship two years running.

I have mentioned Keith before in these columns, albeit briefly. It is time I paid him due tribute, for without his care, I would have been in a wheelchair many years ago.
There are people in life whom one comes across who defy definition.
Keith Bush is one such man. A distinguished doctor, a very, very fast rider and a genuine gem of a human.
So there we were; The Crow, me, Gazza, Doc Bush and his team mates.
And there it was - Assen, just before they rebuilt it, when it was in its prime.

For any young man with a motorcycle and a lust for riding it as fast as possible, Assen racetrack was heaven on earth.
For a banged-up cripple such as I, it was the best therapy possible.
The next two days were to be the two of the best in my life.
And the most memorable………..
　
*********************************
To be continued………………..