No way you would have caught me as a youngster. The cops couldn’t!
Thank god most of us survived to be older and wiser. So many near misses.
I got away with speeding more times than I care to remember.
And not just by small amounts either.
But living in a village rather than a suburb likely had something to do with it.
But I was brought up to have respect for elders and those in authority, and kept that respect to a point.
As a young bloke of around 17, the owner of the local servo kind of took me on. He was a great mentor.
Taught me stuff that my father knew bugger all about.
He would help me out with problems, but rarely lifted a spanner to help out.
Academically I was brilliant, but in practical stuff not so much.
He taught me that there is nothing you cant do if you put your mind to it.
He also really pushed it that you might be able to do a passing job, but without lots of practice, you werent going to be an expert.
He gave me the means to do lots of practice.
I had run of the servo whenever I wanted, and even had my own keys for a lot of years.
I started as a bowser boy every second weekend while doing an electronics traineeship during the week.
One of the most important lessons he taught me though, was not to shit in my own nest so to speak.
If I wanted to do some skids and stuff, which even then didnt excite me much, he pointed out there were lots of quiet bits of road where no one would be put out by any antics. Lots of bits of road that had been bypassed, and even an old wartime airstrip.
Even when I had a motocross bike, so as not to upset the other people in the village, I just idled around town and only opened it up once I was out in the bush. All the riders in town back then did the same thing.
We did have one local though, who when he got bored would go and bait the HWP guys in the closest town. He had an old 750/4, which he loved keeping on the back wheel as much as possible.
He would keep them behind him for the 16km from town, go another 5 or so through the local gorge, turn down a dirt track, then once they went past would head back into town, park behind the pub, get a coke, and sit outside watching them go back and forth looking for him.
He thought he wouldnt get caught either.
He ended up doing a decent stretch in Bathurst for it all, and couldnt get a licence until he was over 40 from memory.
But he was the odd one out.
Have come across a few who have said the cops couldnt catch them.
But in the end they did.
Cheers
Rob