So when we (Tracy & Juan) were over at Armoy, between ourselves and Gary McKillop we came up with the idea of awarding a “Spirit of Armoy “ of £200 to two individual Newcomers. We weren’t too sure how we were going to do it but the idea was to award it to someone who , as in the title ,was in the spirit of not just the racing but the whole atmosphere, from the journey up to their stories along the way and the memories they would take away from their first time at this legendary circuit. This year recipients are Rudi Paul and Kristian Didelot.
Whilst standing at the scrutineering tent getting as many signatures on a T shirt from the riders as we could to auction later on for an Armoy newcomer, was when we first me Kristian Didelot.
He had travelled from Whitby and was on his way to the ferry when his van decided to play up ! From Carlisle up to the ferry he could only do 20mph . Despite ringing roadside assistance who didn’t show he made it to the ferry and arrived in Ireland in the early hours of Friday morning . He set up then preceded to head to the scrutineers tent . If things weren’t bad enough his helmet then failed scrutineering ! At this point we had to leave to go out on circuit leaving my last sighting of him wandering down the paddock probably thinking , what the hell do I do now!
I said to Juan I really hope he gets sorted as despite all this he was so happy and excited to be at Armoy. I’m happy to say he did make it out on track and into his races . We next caught up with Kristian at the end of racing. He had bought a helmet on site and was left with just enough money to put petrol in his van for the return journey home . A truly well deserved first “spirit of Armoy”for us . What an absolutely lovely fella and such a character. He’s was just so happy to be there and that’s what this award was aimed at . He was the recipient of £200. We wish Kristian all the best in his racing and hopefully one day we will see him at the Manx
Also this morning we had the pleasure of surprising a local newcomer at Armoy Road Races – Rudi Paul with a donation of £200 which was raised from an auction we held on our Face Book page “Tracey’s Pictures”.
The item auctioned was kindly donated by Gary McKillop from the Armoy Road Racing Club – so with that in mind we decided that although the majority of our fund raising effort is for the Manx Grand Prix Newcomers, on this one we felt it was only fitting that something should go to a newcomer at Armoy.
This is something that we hope to build upon in the future – the newcomers are the future of the sport we all love.
We would like to wish Rudi a very safe and successful Armoy and we look forward to following his future in road racing.