Joining The Misfits at No Limits
Motorbike Mad was invited to join team “Misfits” as their pit crew at Oulton Park on Saturday 15th August. This was a practice session for Gemma Viles ahead of her upcoming ladies charity race at Cadwell Park on 13th September. A race that we are looking forward to supporting.
The tickets arrived by email and I managed to snag them. I turn up at nine o’clock and flash my competitor’s ticket to the guards at the paddock gates. Finding team Misfits, I ask what my job was to be for the day. Gemma, Jason and John explained that my main task was to not get in the way (talk about a big ask).
The part of the paddock we were in, usually serves as a car park which meant that with the generator running hearing race announcements was impossible. Fortunately the online race telemetry helped us to keep track of when we needed to get a rider ready to report to the grid. Well that and watching the other racers in class and following them.
The first rider of the day on track was Jase whose first outing lasted three corners before an incident on track meant the race was red flagged and he had to come back into the pits. Eventually word got round that the organisers “No Limits” had declared an early lunch break. After lunch Jase was back out and had a good race returning to the pits full of adrenaline and sweating despite the fact that the race was about twenty minutes long, it was obviously a very intense twenty minutes as I found out by burning my fingers on his front break discs putting the tyre warmer on.
Picture courtesy Phil Topping Photography
Next out was John followed by Gemma both of whom returned flushed but obviously pumped. Jase told Gemma that she had achieved a podium in her race. Gemma refused to believe this and the two of them went off to race control to confirm. Gemma returned with both a massive smile and a trophy. A definite highlight of the day.
The second race went well for all the riders and despite all the delays throughout the day the organisers managed to get the races back running close to schedule so that spectators had the best experience possible and the endurance race after our races could start on time. As for me, well, being part of the action all be it behind the scenes means you don’t get to see much of it. At least not the on track action. However getting bored was never a danger if there wasn’t something that needed doing there was always stories to be exchanged.
All too soon it was time to pack everything back into the van and return to normal life. Looking forward to another next invite
Author Mark Leese