Losing my brother
And racing on closed roads
In life, you learn from experience, I had many. Some better than others.
When my brother was 21 he had a fatal motorcycle accident. This shocked my world, but it made me reconsider the things I was doing. His accident didn’t stop me from living on the edge. I had always been an adrenaline junkie. I wasn’t such a nice guy when I was younger. You could say I had a lot of anger in me for not being excepted for whom I was. It also pissed me off that other looked at me as if I was a bit stupid. Looking back, I actually was a big part of the time.
I kicked off my racing career before I lost my brother. But I got more serious after, the only goal I had when I started was to kick ass. I knew that without the necessary backup and with my other passion for Drugs and Parties, I would never be a professional racer. Also, growing up in Belgium taught me there wasn’t any great Belgium Road racer in the past, so this was purely going to be for fun.
In the weekend, I was doing an extra job as a party bus guide. This didn’t make me a lot of money, but I was able to go to big festivals on my own. Party hard and discover these massive techno events in Europe. One time I was guiding a bus to Love Family Park in Germany. After the festival, we would go to an after-party in a club. So before we got going, I already knew it was going to be a crazy one. Little did I know it was going to be even more intense than I expected.
When the people got on the bus, the perfume of speed filled the air. One group was being very rude, Later I came to the conclusion they probably misbehaved because they didn’t like it I was charging more than the other guides. The owner of the company had told me I could choose my own rates. So technically, I wasn’t doing anything wrong. But today I would do it all very different. After a difficult 5-hour bus ride, we arrived at the festival.
At the festival, I got high on LSD and forgot about the bus ride. Other guides stayed sober and were at the bus earlier than the partygoers. Not me, I arrived at the bus just on time and collected everyone, so we could head out to the Robert Johnson. I can tell you that it ain’t as easy as it sounds to get them all aboard. After one hour of driving, we arrived at the club. Most people were already wrecked and stayed on the bus. So persons didn’t get in, so I tried my tricks to get them in, but it didn’t work for them. They just weren’t friendly or in a good vibe. I went back to the club and as always I just walked in. Now, I’m not saying I’m special. I just put my smile on, and it works every time.
After the 5-hour bus ride, 12 hour festival, half hour of looking for missing people, 1 hour of a crazy bus ride to the after-party and 4 hours in the dark rooms of the Robert Johnson. Most of my energy was gone, actually all of it was gone. I was surviving on speed, but when we made a stop, they were now stealing from the bar before my eyes. I could see it, but I wasn’t going to waste energy on it. Then the bus driver told me he had a bad night and that he was tiered. Right away, I had the feeling I knew where the conversation was going. So he asks me if I have anything for him. I know the only reasonable thing would be speed, so I offered it to him.
Now you could say that was stupid, but then I guess you don’t know they give Rilatine to kids from the age of 6 just because they don’t pay attention. I’m happy didn’t give it to me at that age, it would probably have fucked me up. Speed is more effective than Red Bull, and It’s probably just as harmful. Now I’m lucky I had my racing career going on. It always made be come back with both feet on the ground.
When I was going into a race weekend, most of the time I was pretty sober, with some exceptions. Like the first time I went to Chimay, this race takes place on narrow roads in the Belgium Ardennes. Now, the inconvenient thing was that I was during the 10 days of Ghent. It was the last weekend of the party when the race took place at the same time. So after 5 days of partying, I went to bed early on the Thursday night. Like that, I was more or less fresh on the Friday. This was the day I waved goodbye to my mother when I left for the races. This made me feel a bit guilty because she really didn’t know what crazy things I was doing.
When I was driving to do to Chimay I wasn’t feeling so sober, pretty tiered, actually. When I got there on my own, there was one mechanic who I asked to keep a place for me. I looked for him and put my bike in the tent. We had some drinks and I went to bed. The next morning, everything went wrong. It was my first time at Chimay, and it was raining. Now it’s a lot more dangerous in the rain, because the white lines become slippery as ice. To make things worse, I had forgotten a paper for my technical inspection. So I had to run across the paddock to get that paper. Other drivers had a mechanic to do these things. With sweat running down my back, I got ready just before the start of my qualifying round.
With a small heart, I went on to discover the track, I wasn’t going too fast because these conditions were absolutely dangerous. My head was still a bit foggy, and the road was very rainy. After a couple of laps, suddenly a bike speeds past me. At this moment I think to myself “oh my god I am so slow”. One second later, I see his rear tire hit the outside line. One second later, again, I see him flying through the air. His motorcycle explodes and the rider gets catapulted in the other direction. This happened in the fastest corner of the track, where we drive around 250 km/hour in the dry. I maneuvered past the wreckage and made my way to the Paddock which is behind the next turn.
So this wasn’t exactly a good start. Later that day the second qualifying round was dry, I made a pretty good lap times, and I was ready for the race tomorrow. Sunday I did both races and I finished in 7th place. It was really amazing, and I know I could have gone faster, but I played it safe. It was only 3 years later, when I rode there sober, I realized how stupid it was to be in my condition.
One week later, I find myself driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol with my car. Going home from a party, I was actually racing. This was only one week after I did the race at Chimay. When I was almost home the rear tires on my car broke loose. The next thing I know, I open my eyes and I see my friend laying next to me because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. I see that he is ok, so I look up to find out that my front window is completely destroyed. My first reaction is to turn the key to try and drive away. Of course, this is impossible because this was a big bang. I get out of the car and the first thing I see is bricks everywhere, I’m parked in the front door of a house. When I look to the side, I see another car completely smashed on the right side of the road. Then I see yet another car completely smashed on the left side of the road. Then I look up and see around 10 people watching me from their windows. This moment I felt like I really f***** up.
All of these life lessons and many more I want to share with you now. I’m now a lot more careful, although I still take risks. I just know much better how to take risks in a good way instead of in a stupid way. Together we can learn from each other and reach a higher level. I do believe you have to look death in the eyes once in a while if you want to live good.