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.
I woke up to a warm, sunny day. Mala cooked a tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs with 4 different Scandinavian cheeses and the local wholemeal flatbread. This was washed down with cinnamon tea.
I spent the morning mooching around the house and yard, absorbing the ambience. Hese from ROAD-WEIRDOES, who I met the last time I came to Finland, showed up with his buddy to work on one of the various trucks parked up. Mala hooked me up with some wheels for the weekend... a brand new 'Retro' 125cc scooter from India with only 280km's on the clock. It was great to have some independence and not be reliant on anybody to get around. In the afternoon Eski and Masa arrived and I pitched in and helped load the vans and trucks with musical equipment, merch and camping stuff for the show.
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.
Unfortunately my camera battery ran out so I didn't get as many portraits as I would have liked. Anyway, from the top we got Renzo Ruffo and his lovely wife. He's the son of Italian 50's/60's road racer Bruno Ruffo. Don't know what attracted him to Sideburn but he kept coming back to see us!
Next shot is Jacopo Monti, hot Italian dirt track racer who competes in the UK championship.
The guy in red is Sven from SCRAPERS car club he does a nice mag called MOTORIZED.
Next up is the guy behind SINNER SUPPLY.....sorry but his name escapes me.
The last shot is of the singer of an AC/DC clone band hired to play throughout the day.......not supporters....more like competitors...we got into a soundclash with them with Mr. Martini's 300w amp!
Mr. Martini is a big TRIUMPH dealer in Verona.....across the street from his dealership he operates a small retail shop selling really nice customised vintage and modern Triumphs. The shop looks and feels more like a VIVIAN WESTWOOD/AGENT PROVOCATEUR lingerie emporium than a bike shop. To say Mr. Martini is an Anglophile would be an understatement, for his stand at the show he rented a London double-decker bus and utilised the top floor as a VIP lounge.
The geezer in the last shot is on the Mr. Martini payroll, his neck tattoo says "IT CANNOT RAIN FOREVER".......He's obviously never been to Manchester!!
The Evel Knievel exhibition was on display at the show. It all packs into a big trailer and is on tour throughout Europe for all of 2011. The blue leathers are the ones he wore for the Wembley Stadium Jump. Also on display was the Canyon Sky Cycle (complete with damaged nose cone) his XR750 he used for the jump over the tank of sharks, the EK Dragster and the Jet-Bike. The highlight of the exhibition was a skeleton showing all of Evels broken bones........I purchased an EK bathrobe!
