Me and malc took the H1R down to display on the main vjmc display.
Well a free hotel (paid for by the vjmc) and a night out was not to be missed so off we went.
we were leaving the bike with them as Kawasaki uk were taking it home ready for the festival of 1000 bikes at mallory next weekend where Kork ballington is going to be riding it.
We met Kork and had a chat with him, seemed like a nice bloke, typical ex gp man......flippin tiny!!
Anyway they wanted us to start it up for them around 1pm on the saturday, no problem i thought. Last year they did the start up's static in the show ring near the clubhouse on the way in. This year though they were doing it in front of the main grandstand.
We were on after a fantastic rg500 gp bike which was used in 1980 by graziano rossi (valentinos dad!!).
All the bikes so far were just fired up on the stand and gently revved, but the rg500 started up (eventually
) and he did 2 passes slipping the clutch past a packed grandstsand. It sounded awesome and got a big round of applause when he turned it off. I started getting nervous!! I was to start our bike while Malc did the talking to the guy with the microphone.
Well we pushed it in to the coned off area and Malc did his interview, getting a nice plug in for the club and me . Then it was time to start it. We had no fancy lawnmower engined starter roller like the rg500, just me and malc pushing it!!!
Would it fire up in front of a packed grandstsand of onlookers who were about 6 feet away??? I was proper nervous
I had taken the bellmouth covers off and turned the fuel on while Malc was being interviewed, and now was the moment of truth.
Malc started to push and as the whinig of the chain got faster and faster i dumped the clutch and she burst into life straight away. You probably all saw the little video clip i did last week so you know how loud it is.
I paddled it backwards to turn it round and i could see the crowd backing away holding their ears as i wheeled backwards towards them.
I set off back towards Malc and the presenter and slipped the clutch and gave it the berries, it sounded amazing. I turned it round and gave it another 2 passes of the grandstand (only about 100 foot long)
When i finally pulled up in front of Malc and the microphone man again, i turned it off and the crowd cheered and clapped like mad,
It was definately the loudest cheer and the biggest round of applause of the day. I was shaking like a leaf ,but well chuffed with the reaction.
Thanks Malc, what a bike!
Apparantly we found out later that Kork had been sat right at the bike of the Stand with the officials from the VJMC. He was engrossed in conversation while the rg500 was on , but as soon as the H1R fired up he leapt to his feet and said "listen to that it sounds fantastic" grinning from ear to ear.
To cap it all we found out later that Malc had won the award for the best race machine too. Well deserved. Another one for the collection.
Alison and Harv were in the stand too and they might have some pictures to add to this post with a bit of luck.
Cheers and well done Malc.
Oh BTW congratulations to Mark Taylor for winning a trophy with his kh400 (sporting a nice set of higgspeed pipes ahem !! )
Well done fella.
