all you need to be thinking is how not
to die as you enter Southern Loop in
the wrong gear and on the wrong line
Leaving pit-lane, you do the right thing and turn
your head to see if there’s someone belting down
Gardner Straight at 5000km/h. If there is, let them
by, because you’re only doing 90. They don’t have to
give way to you and couldn’t if they tried. So making
like a gentleman as you enter the arena is on you.
Then accelerate as hard as you can and prepare
for a gentle downhill entry into Doohan Corner,
which is Turn One. And it will be gentle because
All smiles, but
Chris Vermeulen
is still rabid fast
These two are not human...
you haven’t had the one-kilometre run-up you’re
going to have the next time you see Turn One.
How beautiful and wide it is! How well-cambered!
If you’re thinking this you’re going too slow,
because all you need to be thinking is how not
to die as you enter Southern Loop in the wrong
gear and on the wrong line. And you will. Because
Southern Loop has many entry points and even
more apexes. The racers will tell you it has two. And
that’s probably true for them. For people like us
there can be as many as seven apexes and possibly
even nine. I have found eleven, but I was hungover.
You don’t need to hit all of them, but you need to
hit as many as you can, or you will fly off into Bass
Strait and sink to the ocean floor like a rock. So
pick a gear that won’t murder you if you get your
throttle inputs wrong and try to make it the magical
two-apex left-hander it is – just understand it goes
blind halfway through. Of course, you will be doing
about 120km/h as you search for those apexes,
which is a speed certain to maim you if you crash.
Come out of Southern Loop and get on the
taps like a thousand mad bastards. Turn Three
awaits! Stoner Corner! One of the fastest
KIWI RIDER 61