Steve Parrish
Taking the silliness to a whole new level, old school style!
Hi everyone, how great is all this biking weather? I’ve not used the car for a couple of weeks now; I’m loving it. And now I’ve finally met Charlie from Fast Bikes, my life is complete! We were both at the Ron Haslam school enjoying the day, and had a great chat. Also chatting was Ron, with some official Honda bods who, I think, who were there to talk about the new Fireblade. Ron was going out for a couple of laps, coming back in, going out again, while in deep discussions in between. I’m pretty sure it’s about the Honda’s throttle response, which would make sense as it’s been an issue according to many testers, and Ron hasn’t been overly complimentary about it either hence, I’m also quite sure, why the Honda bods were visiting.
When we last spoke it was the day before the Senior TT, and I’m pretty gutted for Ian Hutchinson. As he was being carted off he was apologising to the team for losing the front, pushing too hard. He was nailing it as his pit-boards were showing him a rather small gap. He’s just had another operation near me actually, and reckons he’ll be back in six months or so. A shame he’ll miss his Superstock commitments, and even more sickening was that he’d been offered the Tyco BSB ride too!
Michael Dunlop won, as we know, and we finally got to talk to him in the winner’s enclosure – where he couldn’t escape! He was actually lucky the race got stopped as they were able to change the rear shock which wasn’t working. Then he did what he always does, by grabbing the thing by the scruff of the neck and battering it into submission. I’m pleased for Suzuki though, a Senior win isn’t to be sniffed at even if the competition was somewhat diminished.
Did you see James Hillier’s moment? Wow, that was nuts, he was so lucky as it was sheer speed and gyroscopic effect that kept him up. That’s as close it gets at the TT, well, that and Guy Martin’s crash. I don’t know if we’ll see him at the TT again, and part of me hopes he doesn’t come back again, though I’ll ask him at an
event we’re both at this coming weekend. I also commentated on WSB from Misano, and bloody hell you couldn’t have asked for more, could you? Yeah there were some tyre issues that severely affected the results, but at the same time all the bitching about WSB should have been silenced by the action. Michael van der Mark and the Yamaha were so good, he was on for the win or a podium before his tyre flew off the rim, and then the following day Jordi Torres was also fantastic. And it was the first time the reverse grid seemed to work too, but all this yap about the others not being able to compete with Ducati and Kawasaki was blown to bits.
And Chaz, cripes, if he had a duck it’d sink! He was so lucky not to fall off, and I reckon he could have had the double that weekend, but at the same time he’s having to push so hard he sometimes crashes. This time around he was lucky not to have his neck snapped after Jonny Rea ran him over, but once again his title challenge has gone wrong, and Chaz is really the only man to take the fight to him. Still, it was a brilliant weekend’s racing.
MotoGP has also kept me entertained too, and it’s so tight as they all keep giving each other little gifts by being amazing one weekend and crap the next! I think Marquez will do it myself, well, probably at least. But wasn’t it great to see Rossi winning at Assen? It’s always a good day when the old duffer puts it on the top step, and everyone seems happy when he wins.
Lastly, you may have noticed the picture of a security tag below? Well this is my new game, and I’m loving it! I don’t know if it’s the same elsewhere, but in Cambridge all the security devices you get in shops clearly run on the same frequency, and thus alla work in whatever shops. So whenever I buy something, I take the time to blag the security tag off the till assistant. I then wander about dropping them in people’s bags and watching the mayhem develop as they try and walk out of a shop! I did it for abouta two hours solid the other day, it was brilliant! Anyway, off to the Dirt Quake thingy this weekend, so will tell you all abouta that next time!