Double D!
By TMX Archives on 6th Dec 04
Gordy's life revolves around donkeys and discos and just a handful of supercross CONGRATULATIONS to my crazy Finnish friend Jussi on having the courage to get married for the second time in his life before he's even 27 years old. Not that his new wife Hanna is a scary piece of work or anything - she's quite the opposite if you ever get the pleasure of meeting her - but more for obvious reasons that only us men know about! I wish you all the best for the future. For my sake it will hopefully slow his lap times down a bit! Recently in my spare time I got stuck into doing a few home improvements. One of them was to build a house in the front field for Bingo and Mervyn. They are our donkeys in case you thought otherwise. Amy must not think it's fair for them to be stuck out in their house and us to be in ours so on a few Saturday nights when we've come home from the disco in town it's been known for Bingo and Mervyn to join the after party in the living room with all the other asses. I got the chance to catch up with a couple of friends of mine that I haven't seen in a long time. Rob Sartin of Talon wheels was over visiting Big Gambly McGuire and we hooked up down at Grace Neill's restaurant. I was telling Rob it's the oldest pub in Ireland - established in 1611 actually. Later that week Rabbit (Rob Wrayford) phoned to say he was on a plane heading to Belfast to do a spot of work. I met up with the nutter and had a few laughs reminiscing about old bog hopper tales. I spent the day with a couple of hundred kids on the Thursday before the Belfast SX. We explained how it all works with the track, bikes and crashes etc... Funnily enough they all just wanted to talk about what our biggest injuries have been or how fast we've been going when we've crashed. That night Mr Bates kindly organised a charity go-karting night over at Eddie Irvine's new sports centre. Most of the riders were there and it was a brilliant way to start the weekend's fun. I must say it was the slippiest surface I've ever encountered. Worse than any drink-soaked dance floor in the country! We got our practice sessions on Friday morning and also got to check out the imported riders. They were all riding borrowed bikes and some of them brought their own pipes, bars, suspension etc. There wasn't a lot of time to get it all done smoothly so many hands were helping to get the guys on the track on time. Greg Schnell was rushing to fit his forks and shock which he'd brought over from the States. Once he had the bike built he realised that the airline security had let all the gas out of his shock - he was shocked! They must have thought it was going to explode on the plane so I guess that's why they did it - safety first I suppose. Speaking of safety the opening ceremony staff reckoned it would be a great idea to lower me from the ceiling of the stadium for my grand entrance! I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie and instantly agreed. With no rehearsal and only meeting the guys who were controlling the whole 'rope thing' shortly before doing it, I found myself pretty nervous. Especially as one of the guys nickname was Shaky! It all went well and I loved the buzz of doing it. I even managed to get it all on tape as the helmet I was wearing will feature in another one of S.M. Designs 40 PSi DVDs. With that being possibly the scariest thing I've done all year I didn't have any fear of getting nervous for the racing. I got a second, third, second and a third. For me that was okay as my preparation for the event did not really happen - long story! Saturday night was a full house and I did the whole lowering from the ceiling performance again and I earned a new nickname from a few clever clogs...Jacky. 1986 250cc world champion Jacky Vimond broke his back when he was dropped from a ceiling doing a similar entrance on the night of his world championship party. Anyway, my races didn't go so good. My footpeg snapped off when I over-jumped the tabletop in the first race and I got run off the track in the second race. I managed to get second in the third race and in the last race I was just slow. The after party was way too busy and it was planned to be Dobber's retirement gig. I think he might reschedule it for the Cardiff SX which I'm riding in. I haven't been there but I know it's a big track so I'm looking forward to it. That will be my final ride on the red machines too, so you might find me celebrating on the Saturday night along with the Jammy Dobbster. Only kidding Harry and Harv! Okay, I'm off to do some one-legged squats for now and dream of a sunny Christmas. Thinking of the sun, that reminds me of Nick Moores. Not because I think it shines out his backside but more on him heading off to New Zealand for a month with his girlfriend. Be a nice place to get married wouldn't it? Baarrpp! By Gordon Crockard