Sunday 29th May 2014 Watching motocross

I wasn’t going to stay long, but as life changes sometimes unexpectantly, so did this day. My plan was to see a friend and his son racing for the morning and then go to drive to Peterborough to see friend to talk bikes, and girly talk too of course.

On setting off, I send a quick text to her to see if it was still ok to meet up, and yes, everything was fine. Then a few miles down the road, my mobile rang and she said her son had become ill and was taken to hospital. All change; I thought I might as well spend the whole day watching motocross. Unfortunately I wasn’t dressed for muddy fields at all, and looking at my feet, I saw my pretty lace shoes. Sigh, more ruined shoes. This is not the first time I killed of some shoes. Oh well, this would be a good reason to buy some new ones….

Normally, my car is filled with gardening tools and wellies, but on leaving I had taken them out. So, no wellies to change into. It would have looked silly anyway; shorts and wellies!

I drove through some gorgeous Northamptonshire countryside. In the past I used to live in Kettering, and then, I didn’t have a very high opinion of the countryside there, but this part of the county is very different.

The weather was good and I felt all the bikes were out today for a good ride, enjoying the day. I felt very jealous! Driving a gutless car on windy roads doesn’t do anything for me.

I didn’t see any signposting to the event, but this didn’t matter, as getting nearer, the motocross stood out as a beacon at the top of the hill on the opposite side of the valley. The sun lit up the trailers and cars as if the spotlights had been turned on.

On arrival and turning into the field, I took one look of the steep hill ahead, which lead to the track, and thought it would be best to leave my car at the bottom, and walk up. The engine under the bonnet is the size of Flintstone's car. It would be stupid to expect miracles. Shame I wasn’t on the Yamaha TT250R. It would have been a good place to practice.

It had been raining on previous days, but the ground was not too bad. During the day it you could see the ground drying out.

Dad to the rescue

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the little children racing round. They are so capable of doing something quite challenging.  If a child crashed, fathers would come running to their rescue, picking them up, starting the engine again, and plonking them back on and giving them encouragement. Most adorable. The children I meant.

In one race, thirty odd children aged roughly between eight and thirteen showed what a pickle they can get into. When the bar came down at the start of the race, some racers opened the throttle too fast and ended up doing some spectacular wheelies, ending up on the ground. Racers who were late of the start line, had nowhere to go and it quickly became a heap of bikes and children, like an ants nest. Fathers and marshals untangled the lot and send them on their way.

As I was planning to have a go at some off roading the following day on my Yamaha, I kept looking at how the racers were positioning themselves in different situations. I noticed that sometimes they would be sitting very forward and at other times further back. I worked it out, if you need grip at the front, you would slide forward, and the back can move around, as it likes. I am going to practice this tomorrow. I thought it is better not try the jumping yet, even though the riders made it look so easy.

I watched and photographed the races from different places, walking up and down this hill. I kicked myself for not having taken my canon camera with me, so I had to use my telephone instead.

Lost no calories unfortunately as there was a good burger and chips place, so all lost calories where replenished in no time.

I left feeling I had a good day and was looking forward to tomorrow when I would have a go myself.
I like to thank Mike and James for letting me photograph them. I also like to thank Mark for allowing to use his pictures from his phone.