When BSB racer Taylor Mackenzie jumped on his WD40 backed Kawasaki ZX-10R at Snetterton yesterday, he had no idea that he’d bag 50k hits on YouTube within 24 hours. He also had no idea what it felt like to ride a bike that was on fire. All that would change by the end of race two. We gave him a call and asked him a couple of burning questions, you can read his answers and watch the poor quality video while we get our coat for writing so many crappy puns about fire.
SB: How fast were you going and in what gear were you in when you realised you were on fire?
TM: I was in third gear, doing about 90mph
Taylor Mackenzie, not on fire, recently.
SB: What were your first thoughts?
TM: My first thought was ‘Fuck!’ Then I thought about getting off or trying to ride it out
Taylor Mackenzie, very much on fire, recently.
SB: When did you know you’d have to bail out?
TM: When my leg went hotter than I’ve ever felt before in my entire life. I just jumped as quickly as I could. At first my brain wouldn’t let me let go of the bars, my leg made an executive decision about 0.1 seconds later when my boot started melting around my foot.
Melted toesliders? Pfft.
SB: What was wrong with the bike?
TM: I’m still not sure, clearly something had broken and fuel got onto the top of the red-hot engine.
SB: What hurts today?
TM: I managed to avoid burning myself, but I gave my shoulder a whack when I hit the ground.
SB: Is it true you kissed a Belgian truck driver on the penis for money?
TM: Just a rumour, but I’ll do most things for a fiver…
You can catch Taylor on Twitter here, better still, bring a fire extinguisher to the next round of BSB and cheer him and the WD40 team along. You can buy tickets here.
Words: Johnatsuperbike Images: Team shots and open source