machine on the same path. I’m not kidding. I had
heard some whispers about a string of satellites
being unleashed to play ring-a-ring-a-rosy up there
but had never taken it aboard. Now I was. But I was
in the world of Moto GP… for that fourth bright and
speeding star was Valentino Rossi.
“Number 46!” I shouted with excitement as the can I
was holding lost a surge of its contents (yes, I have to
confess I’d had a few after daubing the table that day).
So, it came to pass that another fast-moving light
followed, which I gave to Giacomo Agostini on a
most remarkable come-back, and then another
one… which I gave to Graeme Crosby… Croz had to
be up there with the other shining stars.
At one stage I spotted a fast-moving light running
the exact 180 degree direction. Right across the
path of the “bikes”. “Must be one of the marshals…
debris on the track,” I yelped… to which I suspect the
neighbours on one side of us were then preparing
to call noise control. Or for “medical” assistance.
During this sky-watching return to (a form of)
MotoGP I also saw a shooting star go rapidly across
the horizon. Gone in less than two seconds… but
yeah, they make you go “wow”.
I figured it may have been one of the front disc
pads off Marquez’s bike, which meant next time
around (in two hours I think the 22,000km/h speed
of these things indicates), Rossi would be up to
third. And Jack the Aussie would have to pit for a
can of VB and a Vegemite sandwich, so maybe
Valentino could start sniffing at the lead.
Then, another fast-moving light across the
established track. Another brake pad? Had Cal also
encountered stopping issues and called it quits?
I wandered inside later happy as a locked-up
miscreant could be… for number 46 had taken
another win on the great and universal Moto GP stage.
So then, who had taken the Moto 2 race?
I have no idea… for at the time that was run the
sky would have been a lightish but fading blue and
visibility of the event would not have been possible
from ground zero.
Righto, what’s on the menu today? Well, I’ll give the
table a wash, whip down and get some “essential
supplies” then wander out about 7.22pm (when the
flag last dropped) and hope it will do so again.
Come on Rossi-boy… do the double matey!