EXCITING CONTENT
Driving between events takes a degree of planning - not literally a university degree but at least a few credits towards one - and Ash is the man responsible for that too .
bring the trucks in on Tuesday morning , that means I have to fly back on the Monday , etc ., So sometimes with only two or three days at home in between certain races , there is no real point going home at times .” Driving between events takes a degree of planning - not literally a university degree but at least a few credits towards one - and Ash is the man responsible for that too . “ I plan the routes so I know how much me and the other Crescent Yamaha driver Andre have to drive . I can do it to the hour in Europe . If it says nine hours , then that is how long its ’ s going to take , nine hours . I am pretty accurate in timings . It is not clever - if you have been doing it for a long time .” What was new for Ash in 2021 was truck carnets , because of Brexit . “ One truck has a European carnet as it is based in Milan , mostly , with bikes , spare parts and so on owned by Yamaha , coming from its technical base near Milan . The other truck is all of Crescent ’ s equipment , which can go back and forth , full of TVs , monitors , etc . Most of them were new for 2021 , so when they go back to the UK they will need all new serial numbers etc , declared on the customs carnet .”
It is not easy being a British based team nowadays , but not impossible , and ideas of improving the way things are now are being looked at . On the road , Ash and Andre always sleep in the trucks , for security as much as anything . Ash says that modern trucks , as a sleeping environment , are beautiful compared to the past . Ash has not always been a race truck driver and tyre man , even though he passed all the tests for HGV vehicles at a relatively young age , and drove commercial vehicles for a time . He was for years a despatch rider - a courier - in London , immediately before becoming a race truck driver . A big accident ended that courier job , as he was off work for five months with a badly broken leg . And this is where it gets really interesting … One of Ash ’ s best mates as a teenager was Colin Wright . Yes , Colin Wright of GSE BSB and WorldSBK racing fame . Long before that , another one of Ash ’ s mates owned a haulage company , who gave Ash a job when he was 17 . “ They were like my family ,” said Ash . “ They
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