sunday, barse, and gordy turn up at mine at twelve, we have a brew and skin out, down to duffield, onto the wirksworth road, onto the via-gellia towards newhaven, 'safety partnership' camera van at pikehall, bloke pulling out of his drive behind the van nearly has me off, that would have made a great photo, 'safety partnership'?, onto the 515 and into buxton, cloud heavy, spotting on my visor now, we pick up the leek signs and head up out off buxton, dalehead signs appear and we turn left onto a minor road, we stop for a slash, the weather is closing in now and it's dropped 10 to 15 degrees since we left holbrook, £10 entry fee, too much money in my opinion, attendance is bare to say the least, we are at the home of the buxton 'hitmen' speedway team to catch a round of the uk short-track racing as championed by 'sideburn', park up and grab a brew, the racing is tight, the circuit small and bumpy and the riders are struggling to find grip, the italian lad is on a mission, bloody fantastic to watch, up on the back wheel down the hundred yard long straight, dab of back brake and the arse-end is hanging out, bucking and weaving, very classy, we spend a couple of hours taking it all in and we meet some nice people, bloke with a class bonneville project shows us some pictures of his bike, another geezer in a deathspray t-shirt tells me his mate has a shovelhead, 'nice bike that, not like your mates, that looks dangerous, like a fucking hand grenade', we turn left and head down towards onecote down a potholed, gravel track, i'm laughing to myself as barse guns the shovel, footdown, scattering the sheep and fighting to keep it on the thin ribbon of tarmac, we head through monyash and into bakewell, the bike museum is open today, well worth a visit, tiny but packed with class bikes, we stop for fuel and turn off the a6 towards winster, i gun the sporty and i'm past robin hood's stride and turn left onto the via-gellia towards cromford, i pull into a layby to wait for barse and gordy, i wait ten minutes but they have turned off to have a brew with nick in youlgrave, i turn off towards alport heights and pull over, i sit on a stone wall listening to the sporty ticking as it cools down, i get a photo of the abandoned digger in a field and glance up at the planes as they turn left and head towards lockerbie before their journey across the atlantic, i head back towards home and pull up at a junction, 'diversion' signs point both ways, only in derbyshire...............
You should've come and said hello. I had an up and down meeting. Crashe four time, stalled twice, then won the B Final and second in another B Final.The B final is not where I want to be, but it's still nice to have a win.
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gary, didn't want to disturb you on race day, wish i had a pound for every pub carpark converation where i've been told that someone would have been faster than, [delete as applicable], springsteen, coolbeth, dunlop, hailwood, sheene, etc, etc, it takes bollocks to go out there and do it rather than just talk about it, big respect, doesn't matter if it was a 'b' final you were out there doing it, not standing talking about it.
ReplyDeleteAh, it's as much social as competition for me. I got a bit wound up when I stalled in one heat and kicked my bike. Two minutes later I was laughing.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, what do you think would have been a fairer entrance fee?
i reckon a fiver tops mate, at a fiver i reckon you would get more people coming to have a look, i really enjoyed it, it looked very bumpy out there the way the bikes were handling, i,ve seen grasstrack and speedway before but it looked very slippy to me.
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