I?m sat on the startline at Goodwood Festival of Speed, waiting for my run up the hill. James Hillier has just peppered me in Metzeler rubber after smoking his rear tyre. Initially, I thought he was warming the tyre. It soon transpired he was purposely trying to cover me in specks of rubber, like a rubber bukkake. I took it as a sign of affection.
To make the farce even more farcical, I?m rolling away from the startline so go for (what I think is) a dab of rear brake, only to be reminded that I?m sat on Ian Hutchinson?s Tyco BMW superbike ? complete with gear shifter on the right where the brake should be. The bike jumps into first gear and stalls in front of a throng of spectators and famous racers. What a twat.
Previously that day, I blagged a spin on the BMW HP4 Race, so won?t bore you with the day?s occurrences. You could say that was a nice little warm-up although, despite the S 1000 RR lineage, the two bikes couldn?t be any more dissimilar. This was the very bike that Hutchy crashed at this year?s TT, albeit in fully repaired state. Given the extent of the crash, I was surprised to hear the bike needed little more than just a new set of forks and a front wheel, plus obvious cosmetics such as fairings and controls, etc. The bike was rebuilt and handed to BMW Motorrad UK to look after at Goodwood before being sold to one lucky bastard. As with the HP4 Race, there was one rule from BMW that couldn?t be broken: absolutely no burnouts. It was all about wheelies and tryin...