And then just as you’re congratulating yourself
on not meeting Mary, you’re in all the wrong gears
and in all the wrong places for Turn 11.
But it doesn’t matter. Pick something approximating
third and dive into Turn 11 with a will, because
what happens next is stupendous and even
more terrifying than all that has come before.
Turn 12. It just goes on forever. And if you’re not
doing 180km/h with your knee on the deck and
your spleen, kidneys and colon in your mouth,
you’re doing it wrong. It is a sensational corner.
Racers love it because it genuinely terrifies
them. Screw it up here and they haven’t mined
enough titanium to screw you back together.
But just as you think you have nothing left
to shit yourself over, you come out of Turn 12
and onto the main straight. Or the “down the
chute”, as those racer bastards refer to it.
Welcome to one of the fastest and longest
straights in the world. Speeds in excess of
330km/h are common down the chute.
But not for you. Or me. We shall be
pleased with something less than 300.
Lean forward. Try and put your chin on the petrol
tank. Don’t bother if you’re on a Harley – the
people watching on the pit wall will only laugh
and wonder if you’re having a stroke. Everyone
else adopt the position for going really fast
by trying to make yourself as aerodynamic as
possible. You’ll understand why this is important
at the end of the straight when you sit up
and the wind-blast tries to tear off your head
and hurl it into the main street of Cowes.
But before you get to end of the main straight
(which of course you can’t see because the
main straight slopes down just past the second
overbridge and it looks like you’re accelerating into
the ocean), you’ll need to redline it in every gear you
have left, which should be fourth, fifth and sixth.
If you’re going from fifth to sixth at
the second overbridge, you’re really
motoring and you’re very special.
And you’re entering Turn One at
what will seem like 5000km/h.
This is problematic... unless you are Marc Marquez.
Perhaps a lower gear and touch of brakes?
No?
Off you go then. Be happy in the knowledge
the fist-sized rocks that once filled the run-
off area at Turn One are now much smaller.
And will officially hurt much less when you
hit them like a meteor from outer space.
Made it around Turn One?
Great stuff.
Now do it all again.
Just go faster and let the words of the great
Hunter S Thompson guide you on your way…
“Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed
overcomes the fear of death.”
Another fast bugger.
2016 NZSBK Champ, Sloane Frost
KIWI RIDER 65