's Roger
Bloor is
in the USA, working on Larry McBride's Top Fuel Bike team, here's
part 2 of
ROGER'S STORY
This is part 2 of my pro drag racing USA tour.
Well, my flight across the states was five and a half hours long. I got too see how dry most of the states in the western side are. On the eastern side there was a lot of cloud cover so I didn’t see much down below. Upon descending through the clouds for landing a Philadelphia there was a abundance of green and a huge city. The river was so big it had destroyers in it, and large ships were there at the dockyards. This was a couple of hundred miles inland!! So much for the mighty river power of the Waikato. The airport was having the tarmac resurfaced and there was a bottleneck of planes waiting to get to the terminal. The pilot announced that we would have to wait about 10 minutes to depart the plane (yeah right). Thirty five minutes later on the now grumpy pilot announced we were now ready to move to the terminal . This left me about 15 minutes to find out where my next plane was. This was going to be good. At least I had my boarding pass so no queue for me. As soon as I left the plane there was people everywhere. Oh boy, which way is up. After pacing up and down a few times looking at gate numbers, I asked a police officer where the gate was. “Oh you go to gate 16B and catch the bus to the other terminal” was the reply. CATCH A BUS? This was a new concept for me. How big is this place. Now in line at the gate and time running out for me to catch the plane, the bus turned up. On we get and 5 minutes later we were at the other terminal. Now running to the gate. I thought the magic words “F@#@ it “. When I got to the right gate the boarding lady said quite calmly “don’t worry sir your plane is still on the runway trying to get to the terminal.” Cool I love efficiency. Anyway, I made it. Twenty minutes later I boarded the last plane. Looking at the baggage being loaded my bag was not to be seen. Aw well I’ll sort that out when I get to Newport News. Once we got going, I finally got to see how big this airport was. I should of guessed when the gate was 16F {that’s 7 rows of gates with 20 planes on each gate and another smaller terminal for the small planes} another twenty five minutes later and seeing about 15 planes lined up behind us for take-off, we finally were underway. The controllers must love to piss the pilots off. Total controlled chaos.
The flight to Newport News was very relaxing, seeing all that water below again. The large ships that look the models which sure gave me a indication of the size of the waterways in this area. Upon landing, the first thing I noticed was the green forests around the airport. My bags hadn’t made the flight as I thought. So I filled out the appropriate forms and caught a taxi to Larry’s workshop. The last ride was over, here I was at Cycle Specialty, not knowing Larry or Steve I was a little nervous. I walked behind the shop and introduced myself to Larry and Steve who were having a beer there with some good friends (I got to know them real well in the next few weeks). They offered me a beer, which I gladly said yes to, and chatted to everyone. Chuck, Crazy Dave, Jody, Dan, Keith and Geoff all made me feel at home (PS: they all know we have a lot of sheep). Finally I got inside the workshop and saw the bikes for the first time (in a million pieces) and thought “It must be great coming to work and working on the two fastest bikes in the world”. Then we went home and I meet Kathy, Nana (and not forgetting Nemo the cat).
The next day the morning came too fast. I finally had a bit of jet lag. But I managed to get up. It was my first day at the shop and I wanted to look alert. My bags were there by the time I got there with Larry. In the morning I watched Steve do miracles on a legends car head (Yamaha FJ1200). Then in the afternoon they let me loose. But not before going to lunch (I am so going to miss lunch time when I go back). This was great. The Southern accent was really hard for me to pick up. Larry has got used to saying “He’s from New Zealand, he don’t know what he’s eating, just bring something nice”. Back from lunch I proceeded on my mission. Seven lunches , five twelve packs of beer, and half a bin of alloy chips later I came out of my corner . Larry’s first words were “what you doing out of that corner boy, get back in there” (with a big smile on his face). Steve has been snapping photos for the records of the now renamed part of the McBride’s workshop called “Roger’s Corner”. Larry had been warning Athol that he was going to fence me in and I wasn‘t coming back. The first week was over. I had learned so much in the first week my head was whizzing round with all the information Larry and Steve were giving me. The things I learned included trying 9 different beers (Duff wasn’t one of them), trying some moonshine whiskey called plum (it has three real plums in it for flavour, is 85% proof, comes in an Agee preserving jar - and I need to take some home (Mike you would love it)!!! It can rain here too? With a lighting show as well, seeing a squirrel and a racoon, {seeing a these two animals were bonuses, after all, in Australia I still haven’t seen a Koala, everyone said they were in the trees above them in the pits,- must have been too busy to look up} , when you have a little too much, and see lights moving in the air and around the trees, you’re not crazy, it’s lightening bugs (it took me two days to ask what the f ### they were), and oh, you still have head aches here in the mornings from alcohol.
The next week it was time to put the bikes together. Precise is the only way you could describe the way it was done. Everything checked before going on the bike. Three days later the bikes are together and it’s fire up time. Wow, they are very crisp. The body work went on and I finally got to see them together .On the 1st of July came the infamous arresting shots. Dan who I meet on the first night had a 2006 Dodge Charger, limited addition with 425 horse power (that’s right Mike it’s a Hemi). I said to him on the first night I had a friend in NZ who would love to go for a ride (that’s you Mike!!). On the 30th of June Dan turned up to take me for a ride, but it was raining. Still we went but with the computers controlling the throttle - we couldn’t go that fast (traction control). On the 1st the weather was fine and I was keen to see how fast this car was. Off we went, Dan said I could drive but I just can’t get my head around driving on the other side (sorry Mike). We crossed the James River bridge, {which is 4 miles - that is right MILES - long} off to a quiet road. Dan was accelerating on and off to get the computer into race mode. Finally the computer let loose. It was fast and could brake just as quick (0 to 100 miles per hour & back to 0 in 16 seconds). We went back across the James River again and Dan let the car go. Then let lose again, 145 miles per hour and still going before we ran out of road. Guess what Mike it handles too!!!. Back to the work shop for some more beer. Boy that was good. Then we had a visit from the local law enforcement officer. By then we had all had a few. Bugger!! Luckily this was a friendly visit. I looked at the car and saw all the computer gear in the car. Larry said it was all real, so we proceeded on checking everyone’s driving tickets. By now we all were having a good time until Steve brought the camera out and Larry suggested I be arrested. “You can’t come to America and not be arrested”. I went along with it and as you see in the photos, those are real handcuffs (PS they don’t have seats in the back off their cars these days, just a plastic insert). The week carried on with lots of great lunches. This week I noticed the effect off those great lunches. Oh well this was part of enjoying my holiday.
The 4th of July came around fast and Larry gave everyone the day off. That was the first day off since I had been here. If you want to know what Larry’s secret to going fast is, I can tell you it’s working bloody hard!!!! Steve and Larry are there in the shop seven days a week, but they always have good friends to drink with in the evenings at the shop to keep them company. Steve had planned to take me to Crazy Dave’s for the day at Virginia beach. We stopped at the store for the refreshments and forty five minutes later we were at Dave’s. It was about nine in the morning and the first can was opened (after all it was my birthday)!! Dave is part of a Ferrari race team, and his lounge was full of memories. After a couple of hours seeing all Dave’s cool stuff (including his restored 1986 GSX1100 and his 36 year old triumph chopper) we were of to the beach. Guess what, it was white. Steve and I did notice very notable additions to the sand. Very nice they were too. I put my feet in the Atlantic ocean (you know what, its wet too). Off down the board walk for a couple of miles walk, and the three of us agreed it was time to get out of the sun. Back to the car we went and looked at the motels etc. Dave suggested we go to Cape Henry lighthouse. This was in a military camp so as we got there they asked if I had ID on me!! Yeah was my answer. So off we went to get searched. Once through the gate we went to the lighthouse. This was pretty cool considering it was built in 1792 (not any buildings in NZ that old)!! By now it was 110 degrees F (43.3 C), and I must been in brain fade mode (PISSED). I suggested we walk up it. Crazy Dave said he would stay and take photos of us from the bottom (he was really laughing at us to even go there , he new there was 109 steps in the light house plus the hundred you had to go just to get there). Steve and I thought it was a good idea so up we went. Well we made it to the top with one stop (old age you know, me being 41 now (old bastard – ed)) and took photos of the new lighthouse built in 1881, and Dave down below. By now he was sitting under a tree. Time to go down. This was going to be easy (yeah right). A third of the way down our legs started to wobble a little. Half way down we had to stop!! “S@@t what’s going on here” Steve and I remarked. Being the brave men we were, onwards we went. Three more stops later we made it to the bottom. Crazy Dave just laughed, two bow legged men came out of the door. We still had about a hundred more steps to go to get to the car! On the last few steps to the car I did notice the sign warning everyone about the fitness level required to walk up the lighthouse. Did that mean Steve and I were physically fit?? The answer to that is NO, three days later for Steve and four days for me, the aching did stop in our legs. It was back to Dave’s for lunch and drinks. It was a great birthday. Thanks Dave and Steve.
The rest of the week was back to my corner. The next week we were off to Norwalk and I was looking forward to that.
Roger Bloor