So, as I have mentioned before, I am a member of the Prairie Dogs Racing endurance team. At each SOAR round on the Saturday evening we do a 3-h endurance race, taking 20 to 25-minute shifts between three riders (myself, my brother Steve and our friend Allen). The bike is a 2003 Suzuki GSXR that we bought last fall and got into passable racing condition over the winter (I guess "passable" is a double entendre here...). We have been racing it in the GTU class mostly against other Japanese 600s, and doing okay.
Shannonville
After the 2014 SOAR schedule was already set, the organizers decided to cooperate with the RACE organization in Eastern Ontario and insert a joint round out at Shannonville, between the already scheduled Rounds 2 and 3 of SOAR. This turned out to be a great event, with plenty of SOAR racers making the trek east on the 401 to fill out the grids. Unfortunately, I couldn't fit it into my schedule, with it falling just two weeks after Round 2 and two weeks prior to Round 3. So, I suggested to my team mates that they take on a substitute rider, and I even put in a good work for Brodie, who has been doing very well in the 600 Rookie class this year.
So, Saturday night I called Steve and Allen to ask them how things went, and I could tell right away from the coy answers that all was not well. Apparently the team was doing very well, running second overall, when Brodie had some kind of incident under braking into a turn and crashed the bike. Hard. The term "cartwheel" was used. At first I thought they were pulling my leg, but the pictures tell the story. Here is a "before" and a few "after" pictures of the poor bike.
The guy in the middle in the photo is Brodie. Bad Brodie, bad! As you can see he is perfectly fine, which we are all happy about. Smashing up bikes sucks but smashing up people sucks a WHOLE lot more. Plus, replacement Brodie parts are hard to find on kijiji.
We have renamed the bike Humpty Dumpty, and Steve is working like mad trying to put it back together again (presumably with some help from All the King's Horses and All the Kings Men). Many parts have been purchased over the last few days...not clear yet what fraction of that I will get to pay for, if any. Someone found the instrument cluster in the grass and is returning it to us. If Steve can get it all sound again for Round 3 in 9 days I will be very impressed indeed.
Crashing
So, this is all part of racing. People and machinery get pushed, sometimes beyond their limits, and stuff gets broken. Money gets spent. Fortunately 9 times out of 10 injuries are minor or nil, and the only real consequences are the expense and the extra work of making it all right again, or replacing the machinery outright.
I am trying to prepare myself emotionally for the inevitable day that I wad the Ducati into a little ball, but chances are I will still hate myself when it happens. I really do believe though that the race track is where sportbikes belong, no matter how pretty they are and how much we love them. Much nobler to have it fly to pieces after a highside battling for position on the final lap then to squash the front end T-boning a left-turning minivan. Safer for the rider too!
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