Page 105 - Australian Motorcycle News (January 2020)

Buck’s Party
KELLIE BUCKLEY
Out of this world
MAT OXLEY CALLED them superheroes in his 2010 book An
age of Superheroes. Referring to the protagonists of 500cc
Grand Prix racing in the six seasons spanning between 1988
and 1993, a time, he said, when macho colonials slugged it out
on evil two-strokes capable of well over 300km/h. He’s right.
It was when traction control was unheard of, racetrack safety
was minimal and a rear tyre snapping sideways and launching
riders into orbit was always imminent.
Then, towards the end of last decade, a new
term appeared describing the other-worldly
capabilities of motorcycle racing’s elite.
This time we called them ‘aliens’, referring
to the half-a-dozen front-runners with He had
supernatural levels of talent, ability and
courage; they must be unearthly. everything to
I’ll never downplay the supreme talent
and fearless commitment of a top-level race for, and
MotoGP rider – what they do to earn a
crust is incredible. But if we think about every reason
what might be the toughest day in a to stop
MotoGP rider’s career and compare it to
what Australia’s Toby Price had to endure on
the seventh day of this year’s Dakar Rally; that
is truly something else altogether.
It was the longest day of the rally; 741km in total.
To put that distance into perspective, that’s the Czech,
Austrian, British, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and half of the
Australian Grands Prix all squeezed into a single day of the
7900km, 12-day race.
But 250km before the end, Price came across Paulo
Goncalves, who suffered a crash during a particularly fast
section of the stage. He stopped, called for help and did what
he could to help once medical assistance arrived. He spent an
hour and half with the stricken rider, holding drip bags and
redirecting competitors around the scene as doctors worked at
saving his rival and friend’s life.
Then, when they were unsuccessful, he helped carry
Goncalves’ body to the helicopter.
“It was the right thing to do,” he wrote later.
“I was first at his side and wanted to be the last to leave.”
It’s a harrowing scenario for any person in any situation to
have to endure. One, thankfully, most of us will never have to
go through. But imagine going through an ordeal like that
and then having no option but to climb back onboard
your bike and continue racing. Flat out.
Price had celebrated a stage victory the day
before, clawing back a few important minutes
on rally leader Ricky Brabec. He was sitting
third in the general standings when he
started that day’s 546km-long timed
special. He had everything to race for, and
every reason to stop.
But there’s no red flag in rally racing.
No escape roads, either. The 32-year-old
pulled on his race face and rode 250km,
full noise, across the vast and remote Saudi
Arabian desert. No one knows what was going
through the fiercely talented Aussie’s mind
that afternoon, but after bidding a sorrowful
farewell to the Portuguese rider, Price raced the
equivalent of the Dutch TT and the German Grand Prix,
and finished the day just 7m57s down on stage winner Kevin
Benavides, who had no idea of the tragedy which had unfolded
behind him.
Of course I agree with the well-deserved status of grand
prix racing’s most talented riders; it’d be ridiculous to say they
possess anything less than superhuman determination and
unworldly talent. But if grand prix riders from the early ’90s are
superheroes, and the riders from more recent times are aliens,
what on earth does that make Toby Price?