Bank Holiday weekend, 2013. What better way to spend such a festive time than with loved ones, family and friends, racing round and round in circles polluting the beautiful Welsh countryside, eating a Honda Fireblade and visiting Bangor A&E.
They say a picture paints a thousand words, but this one needs explaining. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve needed to point out the Fireblade at the top of the frame to friends with perfect vision.
We’d just started the second lap of the big-money ‘Moto Prix of Wales’ at Anglesey. Adrian Clarke, pilot of the flying Fireblade, vividly gave it a fistful on the hairpin exit and launched it skywards in one of the most violent highsides witnessed. I remember making that split-second decision: hit him or try and avoid the bouncing bike. I’m a nice guy, so I opted for the latter and suffered the consequences as the ‘Blade was throwing serious mid-air shapes.
I recall preparing for impact, wincing slightly as a little bit of poo trembled out. BOOM – the bike caught me straight on the noggin and upper arm, my double-chin exposed and quivering for all to see. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the gravel making farmyard animal noises with a few broken bones and a dislocated shoulder, pleading for the NHS’s finest concoction. Nothing, and I mean nothing – not even a ketamine and morphine hybrid overdose – can match the adrenaline hit you get from racing. Can’t wait to do it all again in 2015…
Thanks to: AJB Photographic for capturing the moment
