“
Either way, I felt it was worth having a chat with him. Hell, any bloke who
gets on a plane with race slicks as luggage has got to be worth an interview
“Yeah,” he grinned at me. “I just hope I
didn’t scare you.”
He sounded sincere, but I didn’t even blink.
“Mate, I have been passed by everyone
in this pit garage. Chris Vermuelen, Kevin
Magee, Cam Donald, Mark Willis, Steve
Martin – the job lot of them have hosed
me out there. I don’t scare that easy.”
He nodded. Maybe he’d been passed by
them too.
“You must race a bit, huh?” I asked him.
He smiled and actually looked a little shy.
“Yeah, a bit,” he said.
“In New Zealand, yeah?”
He nodded. “I’m the New Zealand
Superbike champion,” he muttered.
And of course he was. And of course I felt
pretty stupid.
But Sloan never held it against me.
Then I started bumping into him at
the 2017 ASBK rounds. But he wasn’t
spectating. He was racing. Sometimes he
was sleeping on the floor of his pit garage.
But when he was awake, he was out on the
track coming 458th.
Or not out on the track because his bike
had stopped co-operating, or being held
by government officials in some yard, or in
pieces on a ute.
I was suddenly intrigued.
Here was a bloke who has won three New
Zealand Superbike crowns. And yet, when
he came across the ditch to have a go at
an Aussie title, it looked like he was just
making up numbers.
Sure, our ASBK line-up is a who’s who of
fast bastards, gunslingers, heartbreakers,
and steel-eyed podium-chasers, but Sloan
was still a player. Surely.
A player… or a masochist of epic
proportions.
Either way, I felt it was worth having a chat
with him. Hell, any bloke who gets on a
plane with race slicks as luggage has got to
be worth an interview. Besides, I’m a huge
fan of Kiwis. If we were Americans, Kiwis
would be our Canadians, ie. Nicer, calmer,
better adjusted, and heaps friendlier.
So I called Sloan just as he was about to
make his way to Hidden Valley for Round
Four of the 2018 championship…
>
KIWI RIDER 25