In the mid 90’s, at the height of all our careers, a man with a van arrived at the door one morning to deliver this gift from my boss. It was a spare race bike from a Japanese race team. I had never been so amazed at how perfect a gift this was. I still see it everyday in my garage and remain flattered by her generosity.

And so began a fantastic adventure where in between filming TV shows and touring I would venture down from Northern California to the scary dusty desert track of Willow Springs. Sometimes I rented an Astro van which allowed me to fit in the bike and still have room to sleep. I would park up on Friday night right in the spot where Christian Bale threw the wrench at Matt Damon in Ford Versus Ferrari and try and learn how to race by taking classes taught by the late great Willow specialist Danny Farnsworth and shared the asphalt with local stars such as Chuck Graves, Curtis Adams, Vincent Haskovec and even BevelHeaven owner Steve Allen. In the end I was able to secure a 3rd place in Novice Class. Later I took track days at my local circuit, Laguna Seca, until my luck finally ran out and I lost the front diving in the inside of the hairpin and broke my scapula. The arrival of my son Thomas in 1998 suggested that I should pause pretending to race and this bike hasn’t run since, but I’ve been collecting parts for it and every year, bar none, I vow to get it back to the track.