Steve Parrish
Winter time, there’s not really much going on is there? We’ve had all the shows, seen all the testing and now the only real thing to do is eat, drink and be merry… even though I seem to have become a bloody taxi service with Plummet Airways, but then again, we’ve got to earn our cash somehow until the next Mad Tour gets under way!
It’s never short of drama this end though as I did manage to get into a fight since I last put pen to paper. Some noisy bugger in the room opposite was up all night partying in the hotel, so when I woke up early the next morning I gave him a big bang on the door on the way out! Turns out they were awake, and this gorilla-sized bloke answered the door and took a swing… oops. He even nicked my car keys so we had to call the police! It turns out he threw ‘em out the window, but we got them back. Usually I can talk myself out of situations, just not this time…
Aside from that, I’ve been bombing around in a Tesla I’ve borrowed. Those things are mentally fast; I reckon I could quite easy pop the tyres in a couple of days. It sets of like a rocket and you can’t help but just go flat out – I’m talking 105mph up my drive. Yet even so it’s still not for me, the whole electric thing. I mean, it says the range is 300 miles, but I drove it for about 12 and it had already used almost a quarter of a ‘tank’. What a nightmare.
Talking of cars, how cool is it to see Lewis Hamilton out at Jerez with the Pata Yamaha guys? I’ve never been a big fan of his because I thought he was a bit weird, but he’s definitely gone up in my estimations. Especially after crashing it as well; he looked to be going pretty decent and I remember that Schumacher, coming from an F1 background, used to crash a lot because he was braking too late and deep – which could’ve quite possibly been the case with Lewis. He must be a pretty big fan of two wheels anyway as he’s got a good deal going on with Crescent; his own van, two bikes and two mechanics, waiting on a phone call whenever he wants it. Who said money can’t buy happiness? Certainly not me.
One thing I will be saying though is my predictions for next year’s racing season… yeah I know its early doors but it’s good to get it in quickly. Marquez for GP because the bloke is an absolute animal, Jonathan Rea (congratulations on the doctorate by the way) for World Superbikes, Hicky for the roads and then Taz Mackenzie for the BSB title. I feel pretty confident for all of those except BSB to be honest, as that’s the only one where it could genuinely be any one of five riders; we’re bloody lucky with what we’ve got here. All I know is, I bloody hope I’ve got it right as I’ve made a bet with Fast Bikes’ very own Carl, and I really don’t fancy losing…