I won’t lie to you. The last few months have been tough. How tough? Well tough enough for me to lie in bed at night wondering if I even really want to be involved in the sport anymore, let alone have it forced fed down my throat like a foie gras goose running this magazine.
After a lifetime of racing bikes, watching bikes, listening to bikes it was all becoming a little too much. Life was starting to get all distorted like those flashbacks in Scobby-do, I couldn’t even think straight. I’ve been emotional and very distressed, I don’t mind admitting that. There I was sat on the train on my way to the London office with an over ripe young lady sat next to me with make up that looked like it had been put on with a hawk and trowel, then just like that I burst into tears in front of her. ‘Get a grip you silly bloody sod!’ I thought. I soon realized if the girl had been crying it would have left ruts in her face deeper than a damp Hawkstone Park. Vindictive as that thought was it cheered me up a little but only for while.
That while was until I got into Chussy’s van with Blissy and Alex, all of us tired and covered in dust from Namur. It was Ray, Paul and Alex’s first visit to the famous old citadel and it didn’t disappoint them. What they felt for the first time must have rubbed off on me because it totally rekindled my dying faith. Good job too because for a while there I thought I was having an early mid life crisis. I still can’t put my finger on it but there was definitely a buzz in the MOTO camp like something magical had happened. Maybe it had. It was a good weekend for British motocross. Dave Thorpe won there again and was getting as many or if not more encouragement from the British fans than Tommy Searle and Billy MacKenzie, both of which had their chance of winning at the grand old lady of motocross but failed to capitalize on it.
Then seven days later I’m off up the M6 all buzzing again to see a healthy crowd at the new Brampton venue for the penultimate round of the Maxxis British championship. Not even yet another British traffic jam could bring me down. What another rip roaring year for the championship it’s been, like a Rocky film it’s going the distance. And just like that those swarms of black thoughts and the need for the shrink’s couch have flown out of my head like bats from a cave. I’ve been enlightened once again. Motocross can sometimes drag you down but then motocross is life for most of us and you can let ‘life’ drag you down now can you?
Thank God Ray Chuss has joined the MOTO team as contributing editor and also the man to get a grip on
http://www.motomagazine.co.uk. He’s pretty stoked with it and so are the rest of us. It’ll only be a matter of time before he’s letting his heart out on there and bursting into tears too! I hope you enjoy the pain of this issue. – Jeff.
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