Being a Flaggie is Awesome!

It was a busy weekend.

Had to work Saturday morning, straight from there out to BikeFest where I spent the afternoon catching up with a few people, then Max’s house for a viewing of Stone… after a few bourbons the smart arse comments were flying - was hilarious!!

Sunday morning - I was up before the sun, it was below 0 degrees and I was slightly hungover.  I set off for Goulburn and it was farking freezing! hit a few patches of fog along the way which promptly froze on my visor.  I got into Wakefield at 7:45am.  I was too early, so headed off to the cafe for a bacon and egg roll before the briefing.  Wandering back to the Marshall Shed I realised I’d left my lighter in my bike jacket - spewin.  I asked some people coming the other way for one, got a light and they turned out to be the other flaggies for the day (Mr Wasabi had noted the KSRC jacket).

Eventually we had the briefing and it was confirmed - the four of us were it, none of us had ever done flag marshalling before and it all seemed a little daunting at first!  We had all the flags explained to us and how to use the headsets, then it was time to collect our eskies (containing 3 bottles of water, 2 cans of soft drink, 2 muesli bars and some fruit) and our flags and into the back of the trailer to be delivered to our points.

Because of the shortage of flaggies we had quite large sections to watch.  I was on point 8 which afforded a great view of most of the track :)  The practice sessions started and it was fantastic being so close to the bikes.  The Clerk of the Course made the decision though - if they didn’t get another two flaggies there would be no racing that day. 

A short time later an announcement came over the headsets that two more flaggies had volunteered and they were duly delivered out.  The first was dropped off at turn 3 and doing the sound check they called him “Mark”.  I wondered then if this was in fact Plas… when the second was dropped off at turn 6 I knew when this was announced to be “Nikos”!  Shortly Gos came past in the trailer, tongue hanging out LOL… and that is how KSRC came to dominate the flag marshalling!

The races began with the sidecars - they are amazing to watch so close up - the swingers get bounced around a lot, does not look very comfortable at all!  Some of the most amazing passes were made by the side cars though, some very, very close ones!

I don’t know what all the different classes are… my main purpose for going up had been to check out Billy on the track… and I was a bit confused when a yellow KR came around… with Billy’s helmet, Billy’s leathers, Billy’s shape, Billy’s number… but it was yellow, not green!  he also had a green one out so got to see lots of Billy racing.

In one of the races a dude broke down so parked his bike against my tyres and came and joined me in my hut for the rest of the race… he said I’d looked lonely so he thought he’d come keep me company! 

It was awesome in the racing, in some of the classes there were over 30 bikes on the circuit and hearing them all come roaring down the hill towards me, it was just an amazing thunder. 

I had two crashes in front of me (I had been willing them all NOT to crash on my corner), one just slid out, the other was after a bit of contact… they both got the bikes back up and rejoined though.  There was a two bike crash up on Gos’s point (turn 9) one dude had a nasty cut to his finger but otherwise they were okay.

At lunchtime the trailer came back around to pick us all up and take us back in for lunch - we each had a lunch bag given to us, containing a ham and salad roll which was huge, a bag of chips, an apple and a fun size mars bar, as well as anything we wanted out of the fridge.

After a short break we were back out to our points - we were able to swap if we wanted but we all chose to go back to the same spots. 

The racing continued, the sun got warmer, it was fantastic being out there.

After each race, most of the riders would give a big wave or thumbs up as they passed by… big cases of the warm and fuzzies… Billy even blew me a kiss after his last race  I felt very special.

As soon as the races were over we packed up our gear and back into the trailer for the trip back - the organisers thanked us profusely but we all had such a great day.  Then off to garage 19 to catch up with Billy, he already had the bikes loaded up and was loading some frames onto Gos’s trailer.  A quick catch up with him, and Dave and Cath from Sydney, then everyone was off, after I duly admired Nikos’s new 10 

I set off back to the bike, geared up, and headed off to Goulburn for fuel.  Billy and his mate (whose name I have forgotten already) were there having a quick meal before heading back to Melbourne, so after a quick chat I was back out to the bike.  There were two people standing nearby, wanting to chat a bit but I had to cut it short cuz there was a line up behind me waiting for fuel… oops.  They did make the comment that my bike looks “well used” 

With a full tank of fuel it was onto the Hume then the Federal to home… straight to mum’s for dinner where I promptly fell asleep on the couch 

Was great fun being a flaggie and I would not hesitate to do it again!