Episode 1 Road Riders

Those of us that are involved in any shape or form,

we've been kind of brought up with it.

It's a big family.

It's part of our way of life.

-OVER TANNOY:

-'Here we go, guys. Let's get ready to go.'

ENGINES REV

It's the atmosphere we go for, on the tracks. Unbelievable.

I've been around the paddock from when I was in a pram,

running up and down, stealing tools.

And we've tools belonging to Joey Dunlop and...

HE LAUGHS

Road racing is something like a group

which groups up people together, have something to follow.

You have to be part of it. That's all you're asking for.

You just want to be on the track on a race day.

It doesn't matter what, and you want to go.

The paddock, all of a sudden, nearly becomes like a festival.

They're barbecuing and helping with bikes and stuff,

so I do think, yes, it is very family-oriented.

'People here are really good fans.'

Thank you. Really appreciate it.

'They like the style of life, you know,

'to be fans of the road racing.'

It's as if we're approachable.

We're just normal men, you know, like anybody else.

It's just we race a motorbike.

And the spectators respect people for doing it.

Well, an accident can happen any time,

but if you were in that frame of mind,

you wouldn't take part in it.

People start shouting about banning the sport.

Yes, we know it's dangerous,

and we know if something bad was to happen to us,

we're leaving our families and friends behind,

but they understand that too.

People outside don't understand that.

The bike is kind of alive underneath you,

so it's doing its thing, and you're trying to control it.

You can't really afford to make a mistake.

You're absolutely, you know, wide-awake, 100%.

You know, it's scary sometimes.

CRASHING AND CLATTERING

I just think I'm immortal.

I just think that I'm not going to get hurt,

that it's not going to happen to me.

I can't get away from it. I really can't.

I just think it's just the buzz and the love for it that makes me go out

and not think about the negatives of what could happen to me.

Probably get a wee bit nervous whenever we go to go.

If I was to go out on the bike and have that mind-set,

I know I'd be scared.

Every lap I'd go around, I'd be like,

"Oh, God, I'm going to fall off."

But, no, you just have to go out there with a clear mind.

It's crazy, the looks I get.

Like, it's just disbelief, I guess, because I am a girl, obviously,

and the fact that I'm so small too draws attention.

Everything that's done is done by my dad.

Dad prepares the bikes, cleans the bikes.

Like, my dad is such a strong figure to me.

I suppose he's, like, my hero, in a sense.

It was all through Dad.

Dad bought me a bike for my birthday,

just out of the blue.

Then he made me get on it, and that was it.

My mum, you know, she hates me doing it,

but she comes to every race, cos if she didn't come,

she would be beside herself, like,

if anything was to happen to me and she wasn't there.

She won't even watch me. She can't.

She just can't bring herself to watch me.

Just when she goes out now,

like, my heart is going 90 to the dozen,

and my stomach's churning,

and I sit like this here the whole time, which is good.

Yeah. Scary. Yeah.

Once the visor goes down,

I'll get a tap on the back from Dad and he'll give me a thumbs up,

and then I know that's it.

I'm like, "Right, this is... I have to do this."

If I was to fall off,

that's the first person that would come into my head,

is my mum and my dad.

Especially my mum, because I know how much of a worrier she'd be.

She's always going to worry. Always.

Always. But it's never...

When I'm out on the bike,

nothing is in my head, only that road.

COMMENTARY OVER TANNOY

ENGINES ROAR PAST

That's it. She's round that one.

Did she not come around?

Did she not finish?

Melissa!

It was the last lap, and it just let this big, like, clatter out of it,

so I just clutched it and pulled it in.

So, Dad thinks it's the gearbox that's went in it.

But I'm gutted.

Oh, well. Always next year, eh?

It's strange. It's a bit like going into a fight.

Racing, that's what it is.

You know, everybody is wanting the same piece of tarmac

that you're wanting, only they want to get there first.

You know, you just get nervous, you get the butterflies.

And then when you're ready for watching the lights change

or the flag going up and you're just sat on the clutch,

then it's all focus.

And then all that nerve just goes. It just turns into energy.

Yeah, you just... You get in for a fight,

um, and you can get punched.

When you're racing, anything could happen.

You have to be at one with the bike.

You have to feel the road through the tyres and the handlebars.

I'd never fall out with a bike, cos she's bigger than me.

You see these young'uns getting off their smaller bikes

and they're kicking the bike, and I'm like, "Ooh, don't do that.

"She'll get you next time." HE LAUGHS

I think the radiator blew. The radiator.

Oh.

No, I definitely need to get water in it, though.

I don't know. I think there's a leak somewhere.

Usually when I come back in, Jeanette's that full of relief,

I think she's happy just watching the race.

You know, she wants me to do well, but if it was down to her,

you know, she'd have me as a spectator watching everybody else.

Can you see it there? Get that other one there beside it as well.

Because you're that busy, you know,

you bring the bike in and you're doing extra work

and you're getting ready,

and then she'd get to the stage where she'd phone me and,

"Oh, I've not heard from you."

You kind of forget about the ones that are sat watching and worrying.

He's born with race fuel in his blood.

It's like a drug. It's in the blood, and they can't get it out.

Like Warren said, "If I could cut it out,

"if I could stop myself doing this, Jeanette,

"I would, but I can't."

I'd love him to stop.

I really would, cos it really scares me.

Why would you race on crazy roads?

You know, you wouldn't even do 50mph on some of these roads,

and some people are doing over 200.

They're reaching 200mph.

Completely different way of life.

He promised me glamour.

I was thinking Lewis Hamilton kind of stuff and, you know,

high heels and make-up.

Nah. It's wellies and raincoats.

He has a very, very strong racing family.

He couldn't do it on his own. I think he'd be too nervous.

It's normal now.

It's a good life. Scary one.

And you know, like I said, there is a dark side to it.

I've seen it first-hand.

But...

..it's what we do.

-We've no choice.

-SHE LAUGHS

What else would you do on a weekend?

It was a farmer at the time,

he raced scramblers, and I think he got me into motorbikes.

Got my first motorbike when I was about 11,

and used it up and down lanes around his farm.

My mother wasn't happy. HE LAUGHS

And my father, he had motorbikes before,

so he was quite helpful and was able to work at them

and showed me how to work at them.

'I was 16 in my first race.'

That should hopefully keep that from seizing.

'It was a road bike just with the lights taped up.

'Took it out and didn't think much of it against racing bikes,

'but it didn't come last - about midfield,

'so I was happy enough.'

Will you start her, Andrew?

At it ever since.

But I do take it competitive. I like to win, if I can.

You always want to win.

You go out with the bike ready and good tailwind and you try your best.

But some days, some days if it doesn't work out,

it doesn't work out.

There's no point in getting annoyed about it.

-OVER TANNOY:

-'Last bikes in, if there's no breakdowns.

'Time to get in for the next race. There's no messing.'

I bring my children with me to the road races,

and treat it just like a wee holiday.

And the children seem to like it.

A man is not really as good as a woman bringing up children,

but you just have to do your best.

They help me as much as I help them, I'm sure.

There's a lot of things that I can't do,

and I have a different limb for racing

which I can't even walk on.

Even before getting the leg off,

the doctor said that he would make me a limb

for the motorbike, so...

..I'm quite happy with that.

I wouldn't like to see any of them getting injured.

I try to advise them, take up any other sport!

HE LAUGHS

We had to go on the hunt for a new engine, so we got one.

Things are going. It wasn't cheap, but we got there.

We got there.

-OIL SIZZLES

-Oh!

Before the race, before she'd go out,

she'd go to a wee corner and just sit in quiet and maybe,

I don't know, think about things, or whatever, you know.

Then it's just, "I'm off to get my leathers on," and away she goes.

I haven't even had it tested yet, the new engine,

so I'm hoping to expect...

..good performance.

-ENGINE REVS

-Where's Dad?

-What?

-Where's Dad?

What happened?

It's stalled, for some reason. I don't know why.

And then it was panic stations to get back down

to get it started again.

It's been all I've known all my life, is motorbikes.

I know I'm 25 years old.

There's girls that were in school with me, they're all married,

they've got kids, but I have no ties like that.

I have no kids, I have no husband, no boyfriend.

Racing is my love, but until such times

that I have to give it up, yeah, I will.

But at this present moment in time, I'm sweet.

I'm sweet.

Wrecked.

I'm relieved at the finish, because from all the bad luck

that we have been having, but thankfully it was all right.

Sometimes I think when things like that happen,

it's a sign - "Don't go out."

But, no, it was good.

Good. Thank God.

He went out, and me and Bayliss were hanging over the fence.

Next minute, there was a red flag,

and Bayliss shouts, "Mummy, that's Daddy.

"I bet you that's Daddy that's come off."

So, walked over to one of the officials and I asked,

you know, I said, "What happens if one of your riders come off?"

You know, "How do you know if it's them?"

So he asked me what it was. I said, "It's 333."

"Oh, it's yours." And that was it.

And then this woman came up and said,

"You know, Warren's had an accident. They're dealing with him."

To me, dealing with someone at the side of the track means nothing.

Until I see him, then I know myself that he's OK, then.

I just wanted to know if he was breathing.

Broke the wrist. Just sort of diagonal crack.

The hip had come out and it had broke in three places.

They sedated me and popped it back in again.

I woke up in the ambulance on the way to Tallaght Hospital.

I think Jeanette cried a couple of times,

and probably the biggest one was Bayliss.

He was very quiet.

I remember coming back in the ambulance.

I sort of leaned over.

I was in the bed thing and Bayliss was strapped

into one of the ambulance seats.

And I was more concerned for him that I was myself, you know.

He just looked white.

So, I remember sort of leaning back and taking his hand, and I says,

"Are you all right?" And he was like, "Yeah."

Racing is a damn good sport.

Course it is. We have so many friends.

But they take people that you really care about.

You know, don't stand at the track and get excited.

Do you know, if anyone hurts themselves,

you grieve and you mourn for the people

that you've lost in that community.

But some people don't get...

A lot of people don't get that. "Why would you do that?"

"Why would you risk your life?" "Are you selfish?"

"Do you not love your family?"

You run the risk of dying, leaving your children to grow up

without a father or a mother.

Warren doesn't love Bayliss any less because he races a motorbike.

Warren absolutely adores me.

He doesn't love me any less cos he gets on a bike

and goes at stupid speeds, runs the risk.

It's what he does.

And if you can't understand that, then you just don't get it.

That's more or less the damage. Front screen, stuff like that.

It's all very cosmetic kind of stuff,

so she got away with it better than I did...

which is not the way it's supposed to happen.

It does carry risk.

Are you going to fix this?

'But, you know, a lot of things in life do.'

Are you?

My brother Karl, he passed away in 2005.

Your uncle.

'He had an aneurysm in the brain.

'Just one day working away and he just dropped. That was it.

'He ended up in hospital'

for, I think, it was a week on a life-support,

but in my opinion, he was already gone.

Yeah. That was a tough time.

Carries me on the bike. Mm-hm. Yeah.

I look at the things that he didn't get to do,

and that sort of motivates me to do what I like to do,

if you know what I mean, in the racing side of things.

Do what you can while you can.

BERT: Once you do get into a race,

everything is coming that fast, and you have to be more alert.

Trusting yourself and the other competitors.

If you're going to be competing tightly

riding alongside somebody,

you sort of need to know their capabilities, too.

My accident that I had, it wasn't really my fault.

A brand-new motorcycle and it was my first outing on it.

It had new tyres and new suspension and felt comfortable with it.

And the race was going quite well. I was about halfway into it.

Coming down the end of a straight, went to turn into a junction,

and unfortunately another competitor had fell off his motorcycle

and that hit my leg.

CRASHING AND CLATTERING

That was that.

I got up and danced about and got my helmet off,

and I didn't think my leg was all that bad, I suppose,

with adrenaline, shock, whatever.

I can remember the clamp going onto my leg, and that's about it.

It wasn't really until I woke up in hospital

that I realised when I saw the leg in a cage how bad it was.

Took, I suppose, maybe a week of seeing different specialists

to see what they were going to do

or what was possible to be done with the leg.

But, unfortunately, it was in that bad a shape that it had to come off.

I had been hoping maybe within three months or six months

to be better again and be able to ride my motorbikes and stuff again,

but I did try in between times when I had no limb

of trying to ride a motorbike on the road.

Just wanted to see, could I still do it again

and wasn't scared of it.

It's just something you have to get over and get on with it.

We've been through tough times together before. It's awful.

Mal came down here on the Saturday night

and stayed and all, and...

..he left on Sunday, and I wished him luck, you know,

for the North West and everything, you know...

Oh, Jesus.

No, it's definitely been hard. Um...

It's still, like... It's still very raw.

The relationship we had, like,

it wasn't a serious relationship or anything.

It was such a short space of time.

Like, it was just his mentality and his personality.

Just his aura, it was just... It was unreal.

And it's just so sad that he was taken just far too soon.

He was going to get this tattoo whenever he came back,

his sugar skull on the top of his helmet.

And then obviously after Mal had passed,

I kind of thought to myself,

"I wouldn't mind getting a wee tattoo or something,"

just for him, really.

That was definitely fitting for him, anyway.

Mal would never want anybody to, like,

feel down and out about racing.

To be honest, the racing, like,

it gives me something to focus on as well.

Otherwise, I'd just lock myself in my room.

We are selfish people because

we could go out and not come back again.

Because I've had, like, some tragedies happen

within the sport and it's been so close to the heart,

that has gave me a mind-set that, yeah,

like, I do need to think of me.

WARREN: You invest so much,

and different times... I've had two crashes in a day.

I remember another time where I had three crashes in a day,

you know, and still, your last race, you go out

and you're still fired up and you're still going.

This is probably the worst I've ever got injured,

so that's been a bit difficult to sort of get through,

this last few weeks.

If you think about that at the time when you're road racing,

if you're thinking about other things,

then you're not really concentrating

and you'd probably be more of a danger to yourself

and everybody around you.

So, yeah, you've got to block it out.

He said just on the speaker there I got sixth. That's dead on.

I'll take that.

It's his passion. Absolute passion. He deserves it.

I just want it for him so badly.

Very proud of him.

Very, very proud of him.

-Does that mean you owe me money?

-Superstar.

BERT: 44 years of age now.

A lot of competitors have went on till they're 70.

When you have that passion for something,

it does keep you going.

The wintertime is miserable.

Ah, just auld dark, cold days.

We can look forward to the springtime.

You look forward to the next season and look forward to the next race.

Motorbikes and madness. HE LAUGHS