This is a blog maintained by David Arnold (a.k.a. Mr. Murdo and Dave Skooter-Farm)
I have set this blog up as an online shoebox. It's somewhere I can put junk of interest to me, write down my thoughts, post old photos and maybe share my ideas and let people know what gets my motor running. Also a site which tracks the activities of SKOOTER FARM DIRT TRACK RACING.
It was my Nephew, Jake Roberts 16th Birthday yesterday. As I posted a couple of weeks back, he's recovering from surgery to a splintered collar-bone after a heavy BMX crash whilst training in Denmark.
One positive outcome from all this is Jake can now take his girlfriend, Aimee-Kate to his school Prom Night! The date clashes with a round of the National race championship and he's under contract to attend 'em all...However, he is recuperating...so he's excused.
Jake came round yesterday to raid my attic and try out some suitable threads for the Prom. this is the outfit he picked out.
I know for a fact that his mum has different ideas about this.......thing is.... he's Sixteen now!
He flew out to Copenhagen, Denmark with 12 other top English BMX racers.
They have privately rented the UCI SUPERCROSS track for the weekend. The track is ultra-gnarly......it's BMX on steroids.....super-hero stuff.....the stuff you see in an X-BOX game.
Unfortunately, Jake went down hard on his first attempt to take the fearsome first jump... a 40-footer. According to his Step-Dad, Roy... he did a massive, terminal endo..... landing on his head and breaking his collarbone.
the phone footage is shaky and doesn't show the impact....but it still sickens me to watch.
Over the last 8 years, we have watched Jake grow from a little kid "having a ride round" to becoming one of the most promising racers in the country. He will turn 16 in April, he's the 4 times defending British and National number 1 and is one of only a handful of racers on the BRITISH CYCLING TALENT TEAM.....grooming him to represent his country at the 2016 Olympics (he's just a few months too young for 2012 London)
I'm watching his progress "live" on Facebook....it's a bad break and he's been moved to another hospital to see a surgeon.
Jake is my hero...his first time on one of these "X-Games super tracks", only been there less than one hour, he has the balls to take a jump like that, fully commited, not knowing whether he will make it or not.
Unfortunately, today, it didn't go quite as planned, but knowing Jake like I do, if he had not broken his bones ..I'm 100% certain he would have dusted himself down and tried it again and again ..until he made it.
These modern, made-for-TV tracks make the tracks I raced on back in 1980-81 seem like pre-school.....I wouldn't even ride down that start ramp!!
I'm so proud of his achievements and if he wasn't so damn good at BMX I would have had him on SKOOTER FARM in the junior class in a heartbeat....I know he is in good hands but I am thinking about him....
BTW, Jakes bike sponsor is REDLINE ENGINEERING for those that know their flat track motorcycle history..a company formed by Linn Kastan....originally producing thoroughbred cro-moly race frames before sidestepping into BMX racing in the late 70's!
UPDATE
Jacob is now recovering from his surgery which involved a steel plate and pins. It's a complicated break, he splintered the collar bone into 4 pieces and has been told he can't even begin to do any physio for another 6 weeks. This means he will miss the first few rounds of the British BMX championship...which he's gutted about.
