We were originally of Scottish Blood

My life in Pictures

Last Update 11 October 2008

The stories I am trying my best to remember, please correct me if you know better...
Special Delivery....
Author Derek Beattie

As i said earlier in the site Carl Fogarty raced several times for us when i worked for Bill Head Motorcycles in Preston,. at the time of this incident i was Parts Manager at the main retail store.  We were having an open day and Carl was our special guest, this was the year he had left Ducati and signed with Honda but he was having a terrible time setting the Honda up and was regularly beaten by Troy Corser,.  on the many occasions Carl had been in the shop there was always a bit of banter and good humoured practical joking so as he entered the shop but by coincidence i was showing the year befores NW200 on our big screen projector, he walked over to enquire and his face changed,... it was at that precise moment he threw the Duke up the road at Metropole,..  of course he was transfixed, a shop full of customers looking at him and smiling, a lot of them also knew Carl as he was a local lad and often practised on an MX bike at Preston docks,.  so the banter started and as usual Carl took it on the chin,.  later that day he told me the problems he was having setting up the Honda and i asked if Honda had come up with any answers,.  he said he was waiting for some bits to arrive from HRC Japan,,    " Ding dong",. a bell rang in my head,.. time for a special one,..
I went to the back of the stores and found a large Honda placard, big red wing of abour 2' x 3'  went to our comuuter and printed out a large label which said "Urgent F.A.O. Carl Fogarty"    with HRC Japan also printed around it,..   i continued with the plan.  When finished i asked Dorothy in our office if she would pass this on to Carl as it had just arrived in our despatch dept.  "Oh right " she said and set off hurriedly to give it to him,..  she never stopped to wonder how Honda Japan knew Carl was in Preston that day,..?    I could see Carl through the office windows with a small crowd around him chatting away,..   Dorothy handed him the package and waited with everyone else to see what had "Urgently" arrived,.  Carl carefully opened the package and slid out the contents, which were,..
One large plastic coated parts container, he opened it,...  and found the placard on which were fastened two bungie elastics,..  with these instructions accompanied by diagrams,.  the instructions were,..

If after qualifying you find yourself behind Troy Corser (Ducati)  wait till just before the lights change and hook Bungies to the back of his Ducati,.  this will ensure that the problem with grip at the start will more or less be nullified and may also aid you with a slingshot out of the last corner enabling you to cross the line 1st.  (Ps.   remember to reach across and unhook as you pass)    H.R.C.   Sayonara Fogarty san,..

His head lifted and he looked around knowing who the suspect was and saw me through the glass, he was'nt smiling,..  oops,.  problem,..  then he put his head down and brought it up with a wide smile mouthing through the glass what looked like "**** ***"  make your own mind up about that,.. 
  Later we had a laugh about it and he told me that he was genuinely worried as the big Dukes torque off the line was hard to work around, he was leaving black lines everywhere out of every corner just trying to hang on to it.     Later he left to get into his car,  Dorothy had the package in her office when Carl suddenly returned and said "Dorothy give me that please, thats going on the workshop wall, its the best idea anyone has come up with so far".....  

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