Showing posts with label Gary Inman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gary Inman. Show all posts
Gary Inman
I'm one of the organisers of Dirt Quake, and
subsequently had so much to do that I didn't think much
about the racing and, until I checked, had no idea where I
finished in the finals.
It was a great atmosphere. Dirt Quake attracts racers
from all over the world. Riders we'd never seen before
entered the DTRA just so they could be part of the Dirt
Quake event. We had racers from France, Italy, Australia,
USA and Switzerland just on the Friday night, with more
nations added the next day - Netherlands and Belgium.
Guy Martin also raced on the Friday night on his 450
DTX bike.
I made both mains and had a 7th and an 8th. Nothing
special as I'd been on the podium (with an admittedly
smaller entry) the race before. Still, it was a lot of fun.
Round five took the championship to the big track at
Amman Valley, Wales. The only half-mile on the UK
calendar. Due to work I'd missed the last two visits to
the track. Before that it had been soaked and I hated it.
This area of Wales is notoriously wet, and a scorching,
sunburnt morning gave way to a wet, sludgy afternoon. In
the dry I had a second in my heat race, but I hate racing
on waterlogged tracks. I have no MX background and too
much mechanical sympathy mixed with not quite enough
balls-to-the-wall skill/bravery. After getting through a
year's worth of tear-offs in three laps, I put up my visor
and proceeded to race as fast as I could while my eyeballs
got gritblasted. Fuck this!
My bike felt the same way and started misfiring. I made
both finals, again, but pulled out of one. I race for fun
and this wasn't. By the end of the day, my bike looks like
it had spent an afternoon in the back of a cement mixer.
Next race, the last of the 2014 season, is coming up on
September 21st. I'm praying for sun.
Thanks FTWCo. Keep doing what you do.
Gary Inman
#13R
Dirt Track Riders Association, UK
Gary Inman
I also rode a few borrowed bikes at Perris with the guys from
Deus Ex Machina, Biltwell, Co-Built and other friends. I slid off
Mule Motorcycles' 500 Yamaha while I was there. No damage, but
another crash days after my big one in England and another dent to
my confidence.
Then I went to Castle Rock, entered a rabid over-50s class on a
borrowed Yamaha 500TT and crashed there. I got out in another race
and got a finish, but doubts were entering my head.
My damaged rotator cuff was improving, but was not 100% by the
time the next British DTRA race came around. I went along, with
new bars after bending my last ones, thinking I'd go steady, not
take any risks and see how I went.
Gentle in, gentle out worked on the tricky track. It developed
a wide groove, but off-line it was very tricky for a rider of my
skill. On the line you could pass on the inside if the rider in
front made the slightest mistake. On the entry I could run in
deeper and manage to turn inside a lot of riders, while still
thinking I was riding steady. All day I picked off the odd rider
while I just kept riding steadily. It helped I was getting great
starts and not making mistakes.
I race in two classes, Thunderbikes and Restricted. Restricted
is for second tier riders who haven't made a pro main. I qualified
5 in the 12-rider Thunderbike main and came in fifth (behind three
national numbers and a super-quick Thunderbike rider, Dave
Chadbourne). In the 12-man restricted main I qualified fourth and
came third, getting on the podium for the first time in a few seasons.
After the pain of the last race and the doubts about if I'm cut
out for even amateur racing it was just what I needed.
Gary Inman
#13R, DTRA
Photos: Ian Osborne, DTRA
Gary Inman
I tore something in my shoulder. A rotator cuff injury, I'm
told. The day's racing was over and a cloud descended for a week
or more. I was flying up till that point. I had to drive home
one-handed, tricky in a manual van.
This was the first time I'd really hurt myself crashing a
motorcycle for years. I've crashed on a lot flat tracks, but,
since 1996 and I was knocked off my FZR600, I've always bounced. I
began to feel old and scared.
The accident happened five days before going road tripping with
Sideburn in the US, a tour that had a couple of opportunities to
ride on track.
Julian at Deus Ex Machina organised a night practice at Perris
in So Cal, and invited a bunch of his friends. I rode a ton of
different bikes, but slid off Mule's Yamaha 500, digging the
footpad into the back of my leg. A few days later, the night
before Dirt Quake USA, I borrowed an XT500 and flipped it off the
line at Castle Rock in Washington. I started the exact same way I
do in the UK, but the track had so much traction the front wheel
as at head height, the bike ricocheting off the bike next to me,
before I knew what had happened.
Luckily, I was able to get out and have another race and beat a
few people in the vintage class. If I hadn't have got back on the
horse my head would well and truly have been fried. As it is, my
shoulder's improving and I think I'm going to make the next DTRA race.
I understand if you want the team shirt back. I'm becoming an
embarrassment and a danger to myself.
Cheers for now
Gary Inman, #13
Photos: Ian Roxburgh, DTRA
Tim Neave, Geoff Cain, Drogo Michie, Anthony Brown, and Gary Inman
Here you go, please see attached your FTW riders in all their glory :)
It
was a brilliant day's racing, close, tough but fair. If people want
more information about spectating or riding, check here - http://www.dirttrackriders.co.uk
If people want more information about the photos, then please click here - http://www.thefooleryoftom.com/flat-track
Cheers!
Tom
Gary Inman
One of us! We accept you! Gobble-gobble.
The
British flat track scene is a microcosm of that in the US. There are
some very fast guys - who can go to the US and make the night programme
at Daytona and with time could go much further. Then there are a lots of
old geezers living out On Any Sunday fantasies.
But
because England, where most of the races take place (there is one
scheduled for Wales, none in Scotland) is smaller than 31 US states (and
the whole of the UK - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are
smaller than 11 states!) we're all crammed into one small area, so we
see each other at nearly all the races. It makes for a great atmosphere.
And that's one of the things that makes me going back.
The
other is the feeling of backing into a corner and getting on the gas
fractionally earlier than ever before and riding it out.
I'm pretty sure I've won my last trophy, and I didn't win that many any way.
I don't want to spend money tuning my race bike.
I'm not getting any fitter.
As the scene gets bigger the odd newcomer arrives who can blow me away at his very first race.
But I really don't care.
I love racing my bike.
The UK season starts soon and more people are getting interested all the time. For more info go to http://www.dirttrackriders.co.uk
Gary Inman, 13R
Gary Inman
Here are a couple of images and some blurb.
I
drifted through last season's racing. I'm a hobby racer, an old boy,
I'm doing it for fun, but I'm keen. I try not to miss a race. In 2013, I
missed the first round, because I was working at the Bol D'Or 24-hour
race in France. I rode back, non-stop so I could watch my friends race,
but I knew all along I was too late to get there to make the first
heats.
Ride a framer, like my old twin shock
Wood Rotax, in the UK Dirt Track Riders Association and that allows you
race two classes - Thunderbikes - for other framers and modified street
bikes - and Restricted or Pro Class - where the old twin shockers are up
against 450 DTX bikes. I'm in the restricted, having never made a Pro
class final. The restricted riders and pros race together, but the
points are split. You could be fourth in a heat, but win your class,
because three Pro riders were ahead of you.
Racing
one class isn't enough for me, but racing two is sometimes too much.
Race two classes and it means competing in two practice sessions, six
heats, a semi, possibly a last chance and two finals.
I'll be back for more in 2014.
Thanks to Anthony and his DTRA team and sponsors for keeping flat track racing alive in the UK.
Photos: Lee Grubb, Sunil Shah, sticker art by Chris Watson for Sideburn
Gary Inman
INMAN UPDATE Gary Inman #13R UK dirt tracker It's taken a long time to update my 2013 race progress because
I spend too many hours looking at the screen, but I've raced a
few times in the FTWCo-supported UK DTRA races. I missed the first round, due to work, then at the second race,
at Rye House, I was mid pack in the 12-man heats. The
Thunderbike class, for framers, is now 20-24-strong at most
UK rounds, so there's an A final for the top 12 points scorers
in the three heats and a B-Final. I just missed out on
qualifying for the A Final (squeezed out by someone running
an illegal speedway tyre), but got first pick of the grid
positions in the B Final. I got the holeshot and led every lap. Writing this reminds me that my racing isn't about results.
I'm not troubling the podium any longer because the UK scene
is growing and growing with great bikes and great guys turning
up as novices every year. I go to the races with my 10-year-old, leaving early in the
morning, meet a bunch of friends at the track, race, then drive
home. I have work the next day. I race hard without putting mine
or anyone else's collarbones at risk. I'm too much of a gentleman
to be willing to take one place by racing like a dicl. And I'm not
as skilled as some of the other guys. I don't lack bravery, I lack talent. But I always
go home happy. I own my dream flat tracker, a twin-shock Wood Rotax,
and compete in just about the only level of motorcycle
racing I can afford to be involved with. Perhaps me saying it's not bout the results is self-fulfilling
prophecy. I get a little bit quicker every year, but because
of the influx of new racers I'm either treading water int he
results or going backwards. No problem. Just set different targets.
I know I'm not Sammy Halbert. My racing, and that of my closest friends in the UK scene,
has never been a results based business. It's as much about
the social side. I'm also the editor of Sideburn magazine, which has commissioned
a bunch of artists to create posters to help promote the UK scene
to different people, in an effort to raise its profile. Hopefully
there's room for the posters below. Big thanks to FTWCo, the DTRA, all its racers and sponsors.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)