Away from the doom and gloom of news hungry news channels every so often we get bad news that impacts us on a personal level.
This week I was saddened to hear of the loss of a friend that I made via my love of motorcycling.
When me and a couple of mates decided to go bike racing it was the Earlystocks race series that we set our sights on. We didn’t know anyone that was involved, nor did we have a bike to start with, but we needn’t have worried, which was handy because we didn’t overly.
Arriving with our bright orange Suzuki GSX1100ET we immediately put the cat amongst the pigeons when Luke Brackenbury stuck the Runt on the podium not once, but twice in its first 
outing. What a result!
Welcoming us to the fold were several Earlystocks regulars, one of which was Pete Boyles who was campaigning a bright yellow Suzuki GSX750.
Pete and his family became more than just faces in the paddock, over the season Luke exchanged elbows with Pete on the track, leaving me and Gary Hurd to exchange cakes baked by the good ladies of the Runt Racing squad with the Earlystocks paddock.
Pete would lend us bits and offer advice to us whippersnappers, come the end of the season and our Runt racer GSX and its jockey Lukey walked away with the 1300cc class title, hurrah!
The following year we let Pete loose on the Runt, it didn’t go exactly to plan!
The upshot was Pete and the Runt had a moment, the moment didn’t last too long, the outcome was a crash that thankfully saw Pete walk away. The Runt wasn’t so lucky, it ended up coming to rest on a four foot high tyre wall, the battery was later returned to the paddock after being found in a field nearby, on the plus side it wasn’t damaged, unlike our trusty Runt.
With entries for the next round already paid for we had our work cut out getting the battered bike ready to rumble. This Gary duly did, with a few late nights and a major raid of his GSX used part stash. The original frame was donald ducked, but we had been working on a Runt 2, so we used the frame that Pete had already braced and painted.
The upshot was we made the next round, and Pete was on the podium in every race he had entered.
The reason that I’m taking this trip down ‘Mallory Lane’ is because Pete sadly passed away earlier this week.
His family notified his friends online and requested that they could have some quiet time.
The thoughts of me, Gary and Lukey are with the Boyles family.
Rest in peace Pete.
