VOL. 55 ISSUE 27 JULY 10, 2018 P99
For the sixth time in one
hour, I found myself taking a
leak inside the plastic porta-
potty. Bladder movements
are more frequent in the
hours and minutes leading
up to the start of the Pikes
Peak International Hill Climb,
because you have plenty of
time to sit and think about
the task ahead of you. And
plenty of time to ask yourself
why you're doing it.
Tension is part of the
game in racing, but it's put
on hyper-status at America's
Mountain. It's how you deal
with it that makes for your
mindset as you blip the
motor down the corridor of
well-wishers, with light-man
Frank waiting for you at the
start line.
There's a possibility Frank
will be the last person you
ever speak to.
I try to think about any-
thing other than the race.
Last night saw only fractured
sleep and I find myself en-
gaged in a conversation with
Chris Fillmore's girlfriend,
Joanna, about the nuances
of good comedians and the
politics of joke deliverance,
to chatting with Greg Tracy
and listening to his stories
of crashing cars on movie
sets in his role as an A-list
stuntman.
Next to my Team Cycle
News/KTM North America
1290 Super Duke R in the
Ducati Hot Grid sits Carlin
Dunne's Ducati Multistrada
MTS1260 Pikes Peak racer
and the small army of Spider
Grips Ducati personnel at-
tending to it.
Carlin is nowhere to be
seen and appears at the very
last possible minute, like a
kind of red-and-black Stig.
He climbs on board and
rides to the line, and 30 sec-
onds later he's doing over
120 mph between trees.
One minute passes, and
I am called. As pole sitter,
I am the last to take the
start. Earplugs in, helmet
strapped, gloves on, Alpin-
estars airbag lights lit green,
I click first gear and roll to
Frank.
It's go time, once again.
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY CHEN
Charging
through
Boulder Park
on Day Three of
practice. It was
all clicking at
this point.
