Ben Keys’ friends say he is crazy for signing up to be a sidecar swinger. Following Saturday night’s frightening crash, they’ll be quick to remind him again.
The sidecar scare, which saw Ben thrown off his bike and driver Noel Puklowski upside down underneath it, could have ended much worse for the two local men. Running through the moment, Ben says the bike in front of them spun out and they had nowhere to go. “We went sideways into him and just ended up rolling. We were quite bloody lucky there not to have any serious injuries. I woke up on Sunday with a few bruises but that was it,” he says. “The only thing I was worried about was if there were anymore bikes coming.”
Ben signed up to be a swinger for Mike De Gray at the beginning of the season. However, a broken shoulder has left Mike on the sidelines and Ben has been riding with Noel. Despite crashing twice in his debut season, Ben says “it’s one hell of a rush” and he tries not to listen to the concerns from his worried friends.
“Yeah, I tend not to think about that. I know that friends think about how dangerous it is, they don’t like it.”
The pairs focus will quickly turn to this weekend’s sidecar club championships. Having got up from the crash on Saturday to win the second race of the night, Noel and Ben will be confident they can emulate that performance. “It would be nice to take that one. The bike has the potential and everything to do it. It definitely has the speed.”
