We gathered at the Shell Petrol Station on the south side of the Westgate freeway in Melbourne Australia shortly after dawn. What a motley crew! A Ducati 900, a Kawasaki 900 Ninja, a Suzuki 7/11 (a 750 with an 1100 engine) fully tricked out with a 1340 kit and all the Yoshimura "gofasta" bits, a few others sports bikes I don't remember (this was a few years back) and me... on my Yamaha XT-600... with the wife... I'm the only one fool enough to be carrying a pillion or to be riding a "chook-chaser".

I, as the organizer, receive a call "I've got a hang-over... I'm not coming" so we're off! Over the bridge and down towards Geelong, we play, like boys do, along the freeway... suddenly there is a Suzuki wheel passing me at eye level! That 7/11 is screaming past me on the back wheel doing some phenomenal speed!

Ducking and diving through the Sunday morning freeway traffic, we make our way down to Geelong and the beginning of "The GO Road" about an hour later, break for a smoke then the Real Fun begins!

Annoyingly, we get stuck behind a caravan at Anglesea, some of my mad (read; better equipped) mates blast past and I'm left to play a game of 'catch-up'.

But I know this bike and what I can do with it, I push every corner, and hammer the poor machine on the straights, what few there are... actually the 7/11 is at a disadvantage, too much power to even use a fraction of it safely, up the inside of a slow right hand hairpin and, bye bye...

Catching the 900 Ninja through a fast left hander, uphill into the sky. Sheer rocky cliff-face on my right and a plunge to a watery death on my left, at the crest the front goes light and vague just as the road bends and cuts right and downhill again, drawing that Ninja closer as he shuts his throttle to keep front end traction. Bottom of the slope is a sharp left hairpin and I'm going around the outside of the Ninja! Remember I'm on a XT-600 dirt bike when I tell you that my boots were scraping... the pegs were scraping and my wife's boots were scraping! I have barely enough room to pass the oncoming car and realise that this is getting silly.

That Ninja just can't get enough clear road to get past me again and my sights are now set on the Ducati, I've got no hope, but at least I can try... and second place means that I only need to shout one person drinks in Lorne, so I'm going at it hammer and tong!

Chasing the Ducati, down the next dale and up the next hill... right on his tail at times... around the inside of a coach loaded with tourists, suddenly a car comes from the other direction and I have nowhere to go, decide to get real friendly with the coach, hold the throttle and the curve, car has past move away and open wide! Pharq! I can't believe I pulled that off!

But that damn Ducati got away...

2nd place... not bad...

Wife told me she loved it... crazy woman!