How we went Le Minz 24 hour Scooterthon This event is a tough test of Man, Woman & Machine, here is our story Brendon The 2007 Le Minz has been run, done and won. This is my account of the event
This year we entered four scooters in the event. A Vmoto Matrix in the C Class or the how you buy it class ridden by Craig, Rob & Tanwyn. A Daelim S-five in Class B or De Restricted ridden by Steve, Tim & I, A Bolwell PMX Naked also in Class B ridden by Jimmy, Mal & Rebecca from Gold Coast Suzuki/Scooters and a Vmoto Monza in the Modified Class which allows only one rider for the entire 24 hours which was Adam.
The lead up to the event was not good, it had rained for a week solid and most of the riders who had committed to the event had succumbed to the flu or had the wet weather jitters. Personally I had succumbed to the wet weather jitters, I'm not fast in the wet and I'm allergic to sliding on my bum on bitumen. I'd made my decision on the Saturday prior that I wasn't going to race if it was raining.
Then came fathers day and a bookmark from my son that read "My Dad is special because he races the Le Minz 24 hour" he also got in trouble with his teacher who had replaced Le Minz with Le Mans and explained to Lewis that it is a French car race, Lewis protested but the teacher prevailed. There was no way I could get out of it now.
I woke up on Saturday morning and looked out past the curtain, blue sky, sunshine and a big smile. Lewis & I got ready for the event and headed straight to Parklands and to the Scooter HQ area that D'Arcy & Tim had almost setup. The other riders were there already.
We had an hour practice session which I allowed the other riders to use having been there the day before for some promo shots for the local TV news. Must admit I must have looked the part riding to Parklands in full racing leathers on a 50cc scooter. One motorcyclist shook his head at me and a car driver asked me if I'd lost a bet whilst I waited at a red light.
We sent Tim out to start the event and he did a great job keeping the S-five in the top 5 against everything ranging from SR 50 Factory's, Aerox's, Ludix Blasters & the Super 9. An hour & a half later it was my turn. Hand over was great, a splash of fuel & I was off for my first stint. The Daelim was great and capable of mixing it with everything. I really enjoyed this stint and even got the knee down a few times.
Our last rider Steve is a stunt rider and can do things on a motorcycle that make you wonder if he defies the laws of physics aswell as the road laws. We had a couple of options for our third rider and took Steve on board as he was the only option who was worried if he could keep a decent pace. No need to worry, Steve had the S-five really cranking probably a bit too much as his first session saw him hit the deck twice. Next time he went passed we motioned at him to take it easy. There was still 21 hours to go after all.
The rest of the evening was uneventful for us which is what we wanted, no dramas, no crashes, just lap after lap after lap. I even managed to get a few z's. I was woken up to hear that Tim was unable to continue and I would have to do his stints aswell as mine. "Like Hell" I thought and offered some word of encouragement (Guilt) to him. "Hey Tim we only have two stints each to go" & "Imagine how you will feel tomorrow when we haven't finished".
I understood how Tim felt after hard riding for so long you just reach the stage where you couldn't give two hoots about anything, that's the point where you are pushing your own boundaries and discover what you are capable of. For me the last two stints were about pushing the limits of pain and endurance. My knees would lock after about ten minutes and I couldn't stretch them while riding, early in the race I'd use my legs to get the body over to lean it into corners, with my knees no longer working I'd use my arms to get the body over. Once the arms had reached the same point as my knees I used the bumps in the track to bounce me off the seat and sort of waddle over to the side I wanted to lean.
I no longer cared about racing the other scooters, bugger that, it was now about just finishing. Scooters I could pass and lap earlier were now slowly passing me. At this stage there was only an hour to go and we weren't going to lose our position unless I fell off and broke something. That last half hour seemed to last ages but I was going to finish it upright no matter what. Finally the last lap board came up and I was refreshed, just make it around one more time it will be easy. Last corner of the last lap and whack another scooter T-bone's me determination had got me this far and there was no way I was kissing the bitumen now and not while the camera was rolling. I made it across the finish line pulled up to the other team members and tried to get off. While the mind was willing the body wasn't, it took a couple of minutes to straighten up particularly the knees.
How did we go? Daelim S-five came fifth overall, Bolwell PMX Naked came 8th overall, Vmoto Monza set the lap record & Vmoto Matrix won its class. The event for us was a complete success. Oh yeah nearly forgot I'll also be a special Dad again at next years fathers day. published 11/09/2007 |