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A MOTOCROSS FAIRY TALE (sort of)
If motocross races were a part of fairytales (of course the fairytales would then have been much better), the circuit of Loket in the Czech Republic would certainly have found a place in one of the stories. Nestled in a beautiful valley, with a backdrop of colourful buildings and lush forest, the track would not have been out of place in any of the Grimm brothers’ stories. In view of this, then, let us tell you the fairytale of the weekend gone by, and you can wait in suspense to see if it has a happy or sad ending.
A (not so) long time ago, in the land of Cross, the swiftest and bravest princes from many countries took part in a series of tournaments across the world to determine who would be king. Three young princes from the Vangani clan took part in these tournaments as well, and although they were much younger than some of their rivals, they were performing very well, for they were brave and strong. However, an evil witch had cast a spell on the princes, and they were not performing as well as they used to. One of the Vangani princes in particular, Ben Townley from the far-off land of New-Zealand, at one stage had a chance of earning the crown, but the evil spell that brought him bad luck, as well as some of his own mistakes (for he was young) meant that he would not be king for a least another year.
The brave and handsome princes travelled to the fairytale land of Bohemia for the penultimate tournament of the annual competition. Princes Townley and Rattray were already qualified for the tournament, and all they had to do was charge around the treacherous battlefiend as fast as they could to see where they would slot into the tournament line-up on the Sunday. Prince Townley (known to his supporters as “Drop Bear”) rode to the sixth fastest time on his trusty orange steed, KTM, whilst prince Rattray (sometimes called “Styla”) was 9th fastest on his steed, also called KTM (all the best steeds of the time were called KTM).
Prince Tanel Leok from the exotic land of Estonia had to qualify to get into the tournament, for not all the competitors were allowed to do battle on the final day. To do so, he had to claim a better position than eighth in a battle of speed. As the combatants sped away on their roaring steeds, things did not look well for prince Tanel at first. He was only 17th at the start of the battle, and he had to dispose of many rivals to allow him entry into the tournament. He spurred KTM on as much as he could, and many rivals fell to his mighty assaults. He used all his skills and most of his weapons, except his broadsword, and when the jester waved the black and white standard to indicate the end of the battle, prince Tanel was in sixth position.
After a good night’s rest, the princes got dressed for Battle Sunday. Disaster struck early for the Vangani clan. Prince Tyla’s steed got attacked by another soon after battle commenced, and the prince dismounted in an undignified manner. By the time he managed to swing a leg over KTM again, all his rivals were far gone. Not much later, prince Ben received one of his most telling blows during the entire year of battle. Two other steeds had fallen at the bottom of a treacherous section where the battlefield simply dropped away ( the princes called it a “huge stepdown” in their secret battle language). By the time prince Ben saw the carnage, it was too late, and he ploughed into it at a speed that had not even been invented yet in the time of fairy tales. The prince was down and hurt, but the druid got him going again after a short recovery period. By now, prince Ben had no chance of winning this battle, but brave warrior that he is, he kept fighting to the end. After the battle his bravery really became apparent, for his hand was swollen like a sack of grain, and it was clear that he fought off great pain .
Prince Tanel was doing the best of the Vangani clan. He did not get into the battle as quickly as he would have liked to, and at the end of the first round of battle, he was 26th amonst the combatans. He is known for his fierce fightbacks, however, and he plucked the courage from his lionheart to enter into battle with some of the best warriors in the world. He had a titanic battle with two of the knights of the green order, but finally he slew prince Espen Blikstad and the American prince Tallon Vohland to claim fifteenth spot in the battle.
Whilst this was happening, prince Styla (he doesn’t mind if we call him that) worked himself into the thick of the battle, and he rode as swift as the wind. He made quick work of disposing of the aforementioned two knights of the green order, who were weakened by the hammering dished out by Prince Tanel before, and as the battle drew to a close, prince Styla was within spitting distance of his friend prince Tanel. Not that this meant anything, for the clan chief had prohibited spitting.
After the final fanfares, the scribe tallied up the totals of the tournaments thus far. Prince Ben was now ranked 6th amongst all the princes, and prince Tyla held onto his seventh spot. Prince Tanel was 22nd of all the warriors in the world, but he had moved closer to the rivals ahead of him, and he has the opportunity of moving in amongst the top 20 warriors in the world. But that’s the story of our next fairy tale.
Unfortunately, this fairytale had an unhappy ending for our brave warriors. The druid is working on a potion to stop the princes from turning into frogs, and we hope to report a “happily ever after” story after the next tournament.
Far, faaarr away from the battle described above, another young prince of the Vangani clan was involved in a battle of his own. The clan chiefs decided to let young prince Richard participate in a local battle to hone his fighting skills. Prince “Wichie” (not to be mistaken with the evil witch mentioned before), was entered for a tournament in the “Open Class” (steeds of all sizes from ponies to flippin’ huge carthorses) in Axel, in the ancient land of Holland. Although KTM was this time outclassed somewhat (only because the other steeds were more than double the size), prince Richard managed to slay most of his enemies, and claimed the third prize in the tournament, which was very pleasing, for the local warriors knew the battlefield well.
On the Southernmost tip of the dark continent of Africa, the smallest prince of the Vangani clan donned his armour to do battle for the title of king of the country. Prince Shaun Kruger had just returned from some tournaments in Europe, and he was determined to improve on his position in this battle. In both battles during the day, he had to overcome initial drawbacks because he just could not get his steed going into the battle well enough, but the plucky warrior made up for it with some courageous battling. After finding himself around 20th spot at the commencement of each battle, he fought forward to fourth and sixth spots in the battles respectively, which gave him the honours of fourth spot for the day’s battle.
Thus ends our fairytale for the week. Tune in at the same place, same time next week for another exciting chapter of our ongoing story.
VANGANI RACING
