2016: OPERATION FAST

WORDS: ROOTSY

PICS: JONNY GAWLE RCS: JGAWLER

CHILD’S play

Looking to up his pace, Rootsy downsizes to a pitbike for some second slashing inspiration...

Given the close to freezing temperatures, I’d say that the first six seconds of my pitbike racing debut were an unqualified success. I’d found that the CW 160 R rip snorter that had been lent to me for the weekend by the importers of the Chinese-made bikes was a little cracker, accelerating with impressive verve in the first three of the four gears available. Having walked the Whilton Lock track when I turned up on a foggy and bitterly cold morning, I certainly liked the look of it and couldn’t wait to tackle its dozen curves and 1.2km length. And, as a weekend of pitbike racing was to be my Operation Fast quota for the month, I was chomping at the bit to put in a good performance.

Foggy. Be like Foggy...

On stone cold tyres, I gingerly approached turn two of the track for the first time where I found someone in the process of throwing their bike away right in front of me, forcing avoiding action. Then I didn’t even have time to gather my thoughts before someone lost the front at turn three. Turns four and five proved to be somewhat of a respite, but then the off-camber turn six claimed the third victim of the opening lap of the opening session of the opening day’s proceedings of the British Minibike Championship’s 2016 season, leaving me to ponder what the hell I was doing in the middle of all this carnage.

The answer to that question can be traced to a Twitter conversation I had with Matt Pierce, the media man of the series. After some top bants, as they say on the Twitter, I was invited to compete in the season opener at a go-kart track a few miles away from Daventry. Matt had organised my day licence for the club, a 160cc pitbike from CW Bikes in Bognor Regis, and an entry into the Vets class for the weekend. I didn’t question why so many animal doctors were into pitbike racing, but did wonder what the lure is in riding round on kids’ bikes all day? Sure, I see the attraction in a club supporting children whizzing round on minimotos and little race bikes, developing skills that genuinely could lead to them following in the footsteps of Marc Marquez and Scott Redding, but grids of grownups doing the same surely smacks of something all a bit immature – as we gather more stones to throw about our glass house. A question lingers in the foggy air. Don’t they all have big bikes to ride at the weekend?

DON’T THEY ALL HAVE BIG BIKES TO RIDE AT THE WEEKEND?