星期四 - 萬事俱備，只欠天氣
Thursday, no practice for the bikes so we spend the whole day getting the ready for Friday testing, I have recently rebuilt my R1 engine and made a modification that I was eager to test, should be quite a bit faster. So thursday was a bit of a tease, the bikes were ready, Nick was ready, I was ready, but we couldn't ride. Hurry up Friday ...

星期五 - 濕地練習(re-built後的R1比以前更快，正！)

Friday, aaarrgh! it's wet. Fortunately the track was drying fast but we had to wait until the afternoon until we could test. Then we went, Nick shot off but we both had new front tyres to run in so we took it easy for the first lap. I came into the pits to adjust my gear lever and have a look over the bike to make sure everything was OK, I saw Nick comming out of T14 so I left the pit lane to give chase, Andy went past too on his R6, good, someone to follow before I go after Nick and see that I'm still 'up to speed'. after a couple of laps I past Andy and had Nick in my sights, this is all practice so we're all taking it easy but to test a bike (and yourself) you have to be going close to race speed. I passed Andy, hard on the brakes into T14, the last turn, then flat out down the straight, my bike was definatly faster than last race, it excellerated much harder and I remember smiling to myself thinking 'great, I'll beat Nick in the race with this, no excuses'

【零掣動！前掣動桿軟綿綿一扣到底！我放開掣動桿再扣...仍是沒有反應！】
Nick braked and turned in front of me, I sat up, as normal, grabbed the brake lever and it just came right back to the handle bar, 'oh no, not again', I let go a pumped the lever again, nothing. At that point I would have been travelling at about 160mph (according to the data lagger on Nicks bike), as I went towards the gravel trap I tried to jump off, it's not easy but I remember pushing the bike away from me, it wouldn't fall down. Then I hit the ground, almost relieved that I had got away from the bike, it's all quite clear in my mind, hitting the ground, bumping around a bit, then nothing.

【回復意識後我不知身在何處，漆黑中我胸囗受到重壓，呼吸變得越來越困難，手臂也因為血液循環不良而開始麻痺...】
I awoke to the sound of voices, I tried to get up but couldn't, I couldn't see anything, I couldn't move my arms, 'oh shit, the bike must be on top of me' I shouted out, 'get it off, get the bike off me!' but nothing happened, I tried to kick my legs out but I was trapped. So I figured something was wrong, it was getting hard to breath, I could feel a huge weight on my chest, it hurt, and my hands started to go numb as the blood circulation was cut off, I was kinda face down with my arms underneath, very awkward. 'OK' I thought, 'stop shouting and start breathing, slowly, smoothly, try and relax ... shit it hurts ... where the F*** am I'.

　

【戰車衝起了六層厚的輪胎，跨過了十呎高的圍欄飛出賽道外圍。人則被埋在六層厚的輪胎下消失於人們的視線中...】
Daylight! it was like someone just opened the door. When I went into the gravel trap, the bike was still upright and travelling so fast, it just skimmed accross the gravel and didn't slow down, I managed to get off the bike and hit the grass just after the gravel, this slowed me down just enough that the bike hit the tyre wall a split second before me, the tyre wall was lifted as the bike hit it, I went under the tyre wall (which is 6 tyres high and about 6 deep) the biked flipped over the 10 foot high fence surrounding the circuit, and the tyre wall ... came back down on top of me, I was trapped underneath! When the marshalls arrived at the corner (lucky it was T1 so everyone could hear and see the crash) they couldn't see any bike and all they saw of me was my foot sticking out from under the tyre wall. I had just dissappeared.

　

【我被朋友們救出時，看見他們渾身濕透滿身泥濘...這感覺是我有生以來，感覺最美妙的一刻....】
I had been unconcious under the tyres for about 10 minutes and it was another 5 minutes before they got me out, talk about lucky! There was a big crowd of people around by then, I was covered in mud, had a big bump on my head and everything hurt, but man, I was so happy to see my friends there, it's the best feeling I've ever had.

　

So, after a few sips of water and about 20 more minutes, I was off to hospital, they did some xrays but it took a long time because I couldn't move very much. The doctor looked at the xrays and said nothing was broken ... 'wow, nothing?' it felt like everything was broken. So I went home and my flat mate 'Olivier' went and got a big bucket of KFC, that made me feel better.

　

I stayed at home all day Saturday. Nick qualified on the front row so he was happy enough, qaulifying was wet but the times were very fast considering, I had dinner with the boys that night and I really don't know what made me decide to race the next day but I wanted to, I really wanted to get back on a bike. The R1 was completely destroyed, frame, forks, everything, but I still had an R6, I could race it in both classes, I thought, the doctor says I'm OK, I should ride.

　

【我真是一個白痴！朋友們排除萬難把我救出，對我悉心照料，而我竟然以重返比賽作為回報！我究竟在做什麼？！】

What an idiot! What was I thinking. My friends had just pulled me out from the tyre wall after hitting it with my body at 150mph, they took me to hospital, waited for me while I cryed and shouted with every move I made, fed me my favourite food and my way of saying thanks was to get back on a bike and do it again? What an idiot! I feel really stupid now but I just remember how strongly I wanted to get back on the bike and race.

As it happens it was a great race, I started from the back and was in about 6th place on the first lap, I forgot about the pain in my ribs, my back, my wrists, my legs and my head. I finished 3rd in the open class 1, Nick was beaten by 'Mr wet weather' Paulwhy but managed to set the fastest lap of the race, 3 consecutive laps os 1:51 ... in the wet! So it proves that old guys can go fast, amaizing.

Then it was the 600SS race, again, I started from the back, got quite a good start and had a good dice with Lee Yu Cheong and Nick for about 3 or 4 laps, I got in front of them both on the second lap, the track was dry but there were a few channels of water running accross turn 1 and turn 7. On the 3rd lap I went through the water and the back wheel stepped out, not too bad normally but I felt it twist my back as I tried to controll it. It was a bit like being hit with a hammer.

 So Cheong jai got past, then Nick but I managed to pass Nick back one more time after that. He's improved a lot on the 600 and he carries a lot more corner speed than the last race, maybe it was because I was chasing, ha ha. Anyway, Nick was 6th and I was 7th, not bad but it was great fun.

1 hour later and we had race 2 of the open class, this time I started from 8th on the grid, I was feeling OK, must have been the adrenalin. Paulwhy was on pole and then Nick, the lights changed and we screamed down to turn 1, there was still a wet line accross the turn but I took a wide line in, straightened the bike up an rode accross it like it was dry. Then Nick and Paulwhy had the inside line for turn3 so I followed them hoping to pass on the brakes at turn4 but I couldn't. Nick was with the 2 BG bikes but was pushing hard, with a dry track Paulwhy didn't seem so confident and I stayed right on his tail for the first 2 laps, Nick pulled away and took the race victory, his best time was 1:43.9 (with some wet patches on the track!). On the 3rd lap I followed Paulwhy into turn4, positioning myself to carry the speed through the corner, swing around the outside and have the correct line for Turn 6 so that he'd have to back off, problem was I nearly ran into him at T4, I shut the throttle, picked the bike up and was off the track ... in the mud again!!!, fortunatly I kept the bike upright and as it was already pointing out of the turn, I just hit the throttle and the rear wheel spun in the mud as I got back on the track. I was a bit worried about entering the next turn with muddy tyres so I dropped back a bit. Then towards the end of the race I started to feel a bit sore. I could see the number 46 bike of Koon Yue but he was in class 2, as we entered the final turn he passed me, I picked the bike up 'no problem' I though, I'll still have 3rd in class 1, then Ming came screaming past me on the straight with his GSXR1000, just before the line, 'damn'.

　

Oh well, at least I'm still in one piece, just. I decided not to do the second 600SS race.

My Doctor came to visit me today in Zhuhai, he keeps a bike with me and he came to ride with his father. While he was here he took a look at my xrays that were done in China, appart from the Xrays being really bad quality, he pointed out that I had a crack in my left wrist, a break in my right wrist, a break in my right arm, near the wrist and two, probably cracked, ribs.

　

我要感謝所有施予援手，把我從輪胎牆和泥濘中挖掘出來的朋友，包括BG的Steven Tsui。對於我傷後再參加比賽的愚蠢行為，我要向他們說聲「真的很對不起！」，大恩大德，無以為報！

Now I feel really stupid. I want to say thanks to everyone that helped dig me out of the tyre, including Steven Tsui who also got covered in mud. And I want to say sorry for racing after, that was no way to say thank you.

　

The pain is something I can deal with, and I wasn't scared to get back on the bike, I'm still not. But I've proved nothing by doing it. I'm going to stick to do something safer in future ... just stunt shows.

　

See you at the next race Jimbo (retired racer, full time teacher and stunt rider, ha harrrrr)這是充滿無奈的苦笑嗎？ 編按： <<這一刻我們感到Jimbo是抱著覺悟的心情來寫這份車手報告。但一向以頑強生命力和驚人康服力見稱的占保，當他的傷勢好轉後，會否忘掉這一切一切，再度披甲上陣再次下海呢？>>