Comment
By TMX Archives on 17th Jul 03
Thankfully, although I'm describing Pit's style in the past tense, this is not an obituary. Pit's paralysed but he's still very much alive and showing the sort of fighting spirit that he always displayed on the track. Thankfully, although I'm describing Pit's style in the past tense, this is not an obituary. Pit's paralysed but he's still very much alive and showing the sort of fighting spirit that he always displayed on the track. Jack Burnicle's dedicated his column to him this month and Alex Hodgkinson pays tribute to Pit's tremendous courage at the start of his GP wrap-up on page 70. It hardly needs me to add that dirtbike fans the world over are rooting for you Pit... Apart from hunting down your mother-in-law with a pack of hounds, riding dirtbikes has got to be the finest form of thrill-seeking known to man. At my kind of pace it's sometimes a little bit risky but at professional level - and I include trials in this - it's downright dangerous. If it wasn't, then where's the thrill? In his interview in dbr a few months back, Carl Nunn said that he respects anyone who goes racing and I reckon you can't say fairer than that. At the start of the year I rattled off lots of hastily conceived (but brilliantly space-filling) predictions about who would do what in '03. A few have failed to come true - Knighter and Eddy haven't won world enduro crowns - but Dougie Lampkin is leading the world trials champs, the Crock Star is the only man to seriously threaten the Everts/Pichon/Smets menage-a-trois in MXGP, Gordy's also in pole to regain his British title and I still reckon Stephen Sword can get on the podium - or even win - at a 125cc GP. My finest hour, however, was when I predicted that Jeff Perrett would holeshot a British championship race. You may think Ric Halsey's photo is open to interpretation but I say it's a holeshot - and as I'm the editor my decision's final! Being a big fan of all things retro when it comes to dirtbiking (although, due to painful past experience, I draw the line at racing twin-shock Maicos), following on from Sutty's verdict on Dirt Riders in last month's Fantastic Reviews I grabbed the office copy in my grubby mitts and took it home. Resisting the temptation to break out the tissues, I settled down on the sofa for a damn good watch and was rewarded with a viewing experience that (and I never thought I'd say this) kicks On Any Sunday's arse all the way to Elsinore. Okay, not all of it - but the segment on the '79 world 500cc championship is awesome. Graham Noyce on full chat at the best MX venue anywhere in the world (Namur) - plus a voice-over that's almost straight out of Pathe News - is the stuff of legend. Get it, watch it and next time you see Noycey (he's at most Brit champs rounds) shake his hand. The man is a legend...