KIWI RIDER 08 2018 VOL.1 | Page 25

“ 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