Given that we lost Editor ‘Arris five years ago today, we’d be remiss if we didn’t use the opportunity to share a legendary tale from the past for this installment of Flashback Friday. The year was 2012. CSBK was running a media challenge where us lowly scribes were given the chance to battle it out on a fleet of Honda CBR250Rs. Costa had been running the table at each event but wasn’t able to make it to the race weekend at Shubenacadie. Editor ‘Arris was recovering from knee surgery, so was banking on being the only media in attendance. His hopes of winning by default were dashed by Alex Crookes of EatSleepRide who made the pilgrimage from Ontario. Crookes crashed out during the contest, leaving ‘Arris to cruise across the finish line victoriously in very CMG fashion. ‘Arris explains his strategy for the upcoming weekend in his own words below. RIP. – DW
You’ll be familiar with Costa’s glory during the media challenge part of the new CBR250R racing series. Getting first in the first four races for Team CMG has been exceptional and taking out Booth in the process, the sugar-coated, scotch drenched cherry on top (sorry Dave, we do love you, really)!
Unfortunately Costa is not able to ride the whole series as he has conflicting events for this weekend’s round at Shubenacadie Motorsports Park in Nova Scotia. But hang on, Nova Scotia you say? Isn’t that right next door to Editor Arris’ new abode? You’re right! So it would seem only logical for me to step up and take CMG to further (and rather unfamiliar) racing glory at Shubie. Trouble is, I just had the meniscus cut out of my left knee a mere 9 days ago, and it’s still rather reluctant to bend, not to mention a tad painful. However, there’s one huge factor in my favour; being on the east coast and all the other media being based in Ontario, how many of my colleagues are actually going to bother showing up? I had grand dreams of being the only media on the grid and even with a 10 minute lap time I’d take the checkered flag by default! How CMG would that be? Alas, I see Alex Cookes from ESL has announced that he’ll be there and though a relative novice to the track he’s been doing a lot of it recently.
I also thought I’d retired from track riding when the kids popped out. As a result my leathers have a distinct mildew odour after being dumped in a sealed box and then I had to scramble to find a suitable helmet that was track legal. Still, I’ve managed to assemble all the pieces, booked into a B&B close to the track and printed out a sheet reminding me what the flags mean. Today I leave for the track in the hopes I can get a few laps in to familiarize myself with its layout (as I’ve not ridden Shubie to date). The good news is that it’s mainly right handers so the left knee should get less use. If all goes to plan with internet access, we’ll be posting updates in the CMG news, as and when things happen. So stay tuned, read, look and watch the circus unfold, or if you’re at the track, come by the Honda truck and say hello. Either way, it should all be very CMG and if things stay as they are, I should at least get second. 🙂 For a schedule of the weekend’s events, click here.
