Only Human
We’ve all had that dreaded sinking feeling in the pit of our stomachs on one or more occasions throughout our lives. You know the feeling, the one you get when receiving bad news or after stuffing something up royally.
Thankfully for most of us it doesn’t happen that often, but when it does it sucks. It happened to me last month when the magazine arrived back from the printers. I had checked the cover along with the rest of the magazine a week before when signing it off, happy in the fact that the team had produced another excellent issue. Then as I opened a box of freshly printers BRMs, I saw the words ‘Mike Doohan’ on the cover and that sinking feeling kicked in. Okay calling one of motorcycle racing’s greats Mike instead of Mick might not be a cardinal sin, but to me it’s not far off it. While I wasn’t personally responsible for putting the word ‘Mike’ on the cover, I did completely miss the faux pas when final checking (along with the rest of the staff I may add) and as Editor I have to take the blame. So to all our Aussie and race fans out there, please accept my humble apologies.
Another happening that produced a similar sinking feeling this month was hearing the sad news of Paul Dobbs’ tragic death at the Isle of Man TT. Dobsy was one fast rider, whether racing classic or modern sports bikes and he was one of the more colourful characters in New Zealand motorcycle racing circles. Dobsy will be sorely missed by many on the scene and our condolences got out to his wife and children. Deaths at the iconic Manx event are a regular occurrence, par for the course say many, in fact the TT has claimed over 200 lives in its 102 years, not a tally to boast about. One has to wonder how much longer the TT can survive in today’s insular and safety conscious society. Any other event with statistics like the TT would be banned immediately. Yet the riders who compete there are well aware of the risks involved and come back year after year regardless, and if riders still want to race the IOM, then I’m sure the organisers will keep running the iconic event. After all it basically keeps the island’s economy afloat, and let’s be honest, there’s simply something alluring about an event that pits man and machine against a course that is so challenging and historically proven not to take prisoners.
So hopefully there’re no howlers in this issue that will get the emails pouring in, and if there are, I’ll see where I can pass the blame. With everything being written in Word, surely I must be able to spread a bit of it to Mr Gates…
Until next month, ride safe
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