‘It has to be flat-out and fun for all the family’
‘Jannick De Jong, 2015 World Longtrack Champion and three time European Grasstrack champ, kicked the cloying mud with his steel shoe and wandered over. “We’re not sure,” he said. Not sure about whether or not to run the finals. Rain had fallen and the last heats were run in increasingly sticky conditions. Sticky means dangerous. Get your foot caught and you’re off. Grass track at this level requires a reasonably consistent surface. ‘The riders continue their conflab with the Clerk Of The Course in centrefield and the crowd gets restless. “Honestly, aren’t they a bunch of wimps,” mutters one blowhard. “You don’t know what you’re bloody talking about,” responds a commendably feisty woman to his ill-informed muttering. The crowd senses a disappointing outcome to the rider-to-clerk chat, but remains largely in situ until the expected outcome is announced. “After a rider meeting…” goes the tannoy. ‘But there’s no mass exodus. Fans chat to the riders, riders chat to each other, the whole thing winds down like the end of a good party. “It’s rideable still,” says disappointed final contender Paul Cooper, “but it’s not raceable.” And that is the essence of grass track, and The Lincolnshire Poacher. The riders are here for the prize money (all £1000 of it for the winner), but it’s the racing that counts. No one is prepared to hurtle around a 990m oval at 100mph if they’re merely putting on a show for the more disgruntled elements of an expectant crowd. It has to be full-on, flat out and fun for all the family. ‘And grass track is one, big happy family. There are no massive egos to contend with, just big entertainment from one of the smallest disciplines in motorcycle racing. “It’s racing in a field with cow shit,” says Reg Blackbourn steward of the Wainfleet and District Sporting Motorcycle Club. And the key word is racing.’