EP29: Ireland, the Last Bastion of Road Racing

In this episode of ‘The Motoring Historian’ with Jon Summers, he is joined by returning guest John Garcia, delving into the niche world of Irish road racing. The show begins by recounting personal motorcycle anecdotes and transitions to a discussion about the unique culture of road racing in Ireland, contrasting it with more mainstream events like the Isle of Man TT. John Garcia shares his recent experiences riding in Ireland, highlighting the grassroots nature of the sport and his participation in a local motorcycle rally. The narrative also addresses the challenges facing this form of motorsport, including safety and insurance issues. Additionally, there are side stories of memorable motorcycle rides, encounters with local characters, and personal reflections on the changing landscape of San Francisco’s motorcycling community.

Notes

Jon Summers is the Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. On his show he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, motoring travel.

Whiskey In The Jar
John Garcia, and Remus his dog
Samson – Riding With The Angles
The Yamaha XS650 which brought us together
The Free Motorcycle
A Motorcycle Love Letter
Irish Neil, Construction guy, AMA Champion
A bad highside
Stripping racebikes in a wheelchair
Neil’s Hayabusa sales technique
Cholmondeley-Tapper buying a Bugatti for the same reason
A shipping crate full of Hayabusas
Irish road racers in California
Gaz and the Bandit
Gaz’ x-ray image
Speeding ticket vs. pool
Gary Moore – Nuclear Attack
Sharing a warehouse with Irish Moving
“When Amazon moved in, we got kicked out”
The Boys Are Back In Town
Mark Gammie and Seat Cupras
Cupra Formentor rental car
John rides in Ireland
The traditional closed roads triangle course
Falling off on cow sh1t
Wheelieing a ‘91 GSXR 1100. In the rain.
Suzuki B-King
Fore Race course
Derek Shiels
The Seven Wonders pub
A Sierra and a dry stone wall
Neil’s brother’s Marker Stone
Whiskey in the Jar
Appendix A – Gaz’ second “close one”

Transcript

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] John Summers is the motoring historian. He was a company car thrashing, technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of cheap and fast, and not much reliable. On his show, he gets together with various co hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, Motorbikes, motor racing and motoring travel.

Jon Summers: Good day. Good morning. Good afternoon. And welcome to the motoring historian with John Summers. And today with John Garcia, who you might remember from the snake shopping with a porn star episode from about, I think that was episode number three or something like that. This time I’ve set the microphone up.

So you’re actually going to be able to hear. [00:01:00] John speak a bit more clearly than before. We didn’t do a very good job. I didn’t do a good job with the, uh, with the mic before, but look, we’re not about professional recording here, are we? Um, guys, if we hit in, listeners, if you hear heavy breathing in the background, it’s dogs.

We’ve got dogs. So this episode’s on Irish road racing. And really it’s because John had an experience recently, which made me want to do this episode.

John Garcia: Well, it’s good, good to be back here again, surrounded by all these guys. Good motoring history. Yeah. Legends.

Jon Summers: Yeah, well, Eric, Eric, the producer guy, apparently Patreons get the video version of some of the pods, whereas I only do an audio version, so I don’t, I don’t know.

It’s all right. Mr. John Garcia, let’s, let’s position you a little bit. First of all, um, we first met about 200 yards away from here, didn’t we? Yeah. Um, The story of that first meeting is is worth sharing and we’ll go into that in a moment But but look where we’re where we’re coming [00:02:00] from with this particular episode of the pod is many people are familiar with the Isle of Man TT What we want to do with this pod is look a little bit deeper than just the Isle of Man TT and and look at the Irish road racing community which Supports the the Isle of Man TT guy So in other words, right the people who race at the Isle of Man TT tend to be drawn from Ireland, Northern Ireland Scotland Wales and Northern England less so Southern England, you know, it’s not a coincidence that John McGinnis is from, you know, the Dunlop brothers were from Ireland.

John McGinnis is from Morecambe in Lancashire in, in Northern England. Whereas Barry Sheen was from London, right? Sheeny naturally would do, because, because they didn’t, because people in London didn’t look at the Isle of Man TT in quite the same way. Certainly not by the, by the 1970s. The dog’s rolling on his back in the most ridiculous way.

Ridiculous [00:03:00] way at the moment. I mean I’m gonna try and trim the sound but basically you can’t do it You like you like the rug. Do you Remus you like the rug good good for you

So my interest in what we’re talking about at the moment is grassroots motorsport. You might want to think of this as the Irish version of The American dirt track on the edge of every town. And I guess the, the important thing and the reason why I wanted to do this episode is, is with that, um, sort of recognition that in the world of motorcycle road racing, there’s the peak of the Isle of Man TT and events like Macau.

And then there are races in countries like Estonia, but, but. primarily, um, [00:04:00] traditionally in, in Southern Ireland. And I think it’s worth talking about this because I do feel like it’s, it’s going away, um, because of insurance reasons and safety and all of this kind of business. So, um, yeah, this is the last bastion of, of real open road racing.

And that’s why I wanted to do this, this, this episode. Um, so let’s begin, um, at the beginning, John, and, and with, with how we, how we met, um, I did an ethnographic interview with Olly, Olly had to do an interview with a, with an immigrant to America. And I’m the obvious person to choose. I emigrated to America in, in 2004, I knew one person, um, Mark Newton, he’s the Mexican guy on the, uh, on a.

Uh, like a episode. Um. I’ll talk over myself and let you know what episode that is in a moment. Um, but Newton was the only person that I knew when I first moved to California. Um, I contacted him. I met him at the Italian [00:05:00] Grand Prix. Um, at Monza the year before we got on really well, he’d lived in America.

He came back here. He’s from Santa Rosa, just north of San Francisco. And when I first met him, Move there. I called him and said to him, um, you know, I’m, I’m here and he went, do you want to ride motorcycles? I’ve got a spare one. And I went, all right then. So, so I did. I, and that first weekend that I was here, we went out on his two bikes.

He had at the time a Honda super Hawk and a, the ex Berkeley police, 1969 Harley. Custom bike. Wow. Now that bike, at the time, at the moment it’s in this army kind of colour. At the time it was in, it was in black, black and chrome, it had these big ape hanger fairings on it. It’s a foot clutch and a hand shift.

And it was a police bike in the bay area. So you think about that when you stop at some traffic [00:06:00] lights, you have to, you’ve only got one foot to put down because you have to have the other one on the clutch. So you have to have really good balance to be able to ride it. And for that reason, Mark never let me ride it.

The other thing about that bike was the speedo always over read. So Mark would think you were doing 65, but actually you’d be rolling at 85 because the speedo I’m under read on that. Um, So that was that very first, uh, the very first weekend. And the only person that I, uh, that, that I knew it, well, Mark was like, do you have any transportation?

And I was like, no. And he went, do you want this Yamaha XS 650? I’ve got, I went, yeah. All right. And typical Mark’s style, it didn’t run and it had been outside his shop because it had pissed him off because he’d put a battery on it, but it had still, it worked for a little bit, but it had not run. This is a recurring theme with said 78 Yamaha XS650.

Yeah, I

John Garcia: really wish I still had that bike, man. I’ve been looking forward to, I remember your face when I [00:07:00] told you I sold it when I was moving to Hawaii. Yeah.

Jon Summers: Yeah. Yeah, so we should, so we should join up the dots here. So one day, it’s Fleet Week, and actually it’s Fleet Week in San Francisco just this weekend.

It was Fleet Week, and Newton and I rode from Santa Rosa. We came down 101, across, and across the Golden Gate Bridge, splitting lanes. When I came out of the gas Fucking thing died. Well, I just bump started it on the bridge, right? And we got off the bridge and into the Marina District. And at the big intersection at the Marina District, it had nothing more, right?

It had no spark. And so there’s me at the intersection. I, I, like, limped it into the middle of the intersection, but then it stalled. And, and I, uh, was kicking it, and I fell off, and it pinned me, there’s this recurring theme with me with motorcycle stories of the bike pinning me and me being, so Mark, park the Harley up on the curb, the cop’s like, you can’t [00:08:00] park there.

Mark’s like, I’m parking there to help my friend. The cop’s like, you can’t park there. And they’re at fisticuffs with each other. Meantime, I’m pinned under the XS650, blocking three ways of traffic. This is Marina Green on Fleet Week Sunday. Anyway, so I was, uh, so when that whole situation resolves itself, Mark didn’t get arrested.

The policeman, uh, Was able to focus on the important thing of me being pinned under the, uh, anyway. So I left it parked up in the Marina for about a week, hating on it, then got it going again and was riding it around. However. I won the free motorcycle, didn’t I? I’ll put a link into that story. I, uh, won a Suzuki GSX R.

But I had no way to keep it, because the XS had been street parking just, uh, just a couple of hundred yards from, uh, from where we’re sitting, making this recording, where I live, uh, where I live now. [00:09:00] Um, so, uh, So yeah, so it got to that winter time where it rains a lot in, uh, in San Francisco and I’d, I’d won the Gixxer, had nowhere to keep it, had a temporary place where I was, uh, cause it was with Bobby for a little bit, wasn’t it?

Or maybe it was with Bobby after seeing her, I can’t remember. Anyway, uh, long and short was this XS650 was somewhat forgotten, kept on being knocked over on the street and John put a note. on it. And I don’t remember exactly what the note said, but it had three paragraphs. I remember it was like three and he felt bad for the motorcycle.

And as I was reading the note, I’m thinking to myself, I don’t want this motorcycle anymore. This bloke clearly loves it. I wonder if I can do some deal where I can give him the bike in return for him storing the motorcycle. The new one because, uh, he clearly lives just like up the road from where I’m living at the moment.

He did. He lived three doors up the, up the, up the, uh, up the hill. So that was, uh, that was how we met. So, um, an [00:10:00] increase. And over the years I’ve had a lot of motorcycles. My best motorcycles in fairness, uh, are ones that, that John’s, uh, previously owned. Um, he has a nice feel for, uh, he’s a good mechanic, not a candid bad one like, like myself.

That’s the, uh, that’s, that’s the bottom line. He’s So let’s try and tie this up a little bit and move towards talking about these Irish road racers. Some years ago you had a neighbour, I’m not sure if we should name him given we’re gonna talk about probably Illegal activity in terms of speeding and that kind of stuff.

But you had a neighbor who was an Irish guy who was in construction who did who at the time when you were friends with him was doing really well in the Suzuki SV 650 championship. A. M. A. Yeah, so to

John Garcia: tie up the dots, [00:11:00] um, when I, when I moved to Hawaii, After I’d gotten your XS650, I had to sell the XS650 and move to Hawaii for a couple of years.

Fast forward two years after, I moved back to San Francisco and lived in a sunset in 2009, 2010. I had a neighbor named Neil that lived two houses from me. And the first time we met, he handed me a vice grip. It’s like, you want this? Someone tried to steal my RV and they left it. And then he saw that I was working on motorcycles.

And then like, yeah, it’s like, yeah, just simply like humbly like, yeah, yeah. I ride motorcycles too. It turns out that his RV was the one that he uses when he goes around races. Right. And he’s a, he’s a contractor. So Monday through Friday work. And 9 to 5, I’d [00:12:00] leave early around 10, he’d be out of the house, I’d be back at 5, have dinner with family, work.

At that time, he didn’t have a family yet. He had a girlfriend. And he would work on the bikes to race for the weekend. Right? And little did I know that, you know, he was the champion for AFM for 2009, 10, 11. And 2012, he was leading the race, right, in points, in Thunder Hill, and the race itself. When he high sided.

Got helicoptered out. He was in the wheelchair for mines. Titanium disk. Titanium disk. I remember this because

Jon Summers: he had a

John Garcia: young family at the time, didn’t he? His wife. I saw his wife and this is how I found out that he had a crash. It was a bad one too. He got helicoptered. Um. Because he broke his femur and there’s a thing when you break your femur It’s one of the major arteries that goes to your heart so [00:13:00] you could actually literally die if that gets clogged It gets pierced by the bone, by your femur.

But anyway, I found out from his wife who was at that time three months pregnant with a second child It’s like, yeah, Red had a bad crash. Broke this, broke that, broke this, broke that. So he’s gonna be in a hospital for a long time. And oh, yeah, by the way If you see him, he’s not giving you a finger. He broke his middle finger as well.

Just like that, and I was just in shock. I was just in shock. And we actually talked about this the last time I saw her.

John Garcia: was just in shock.

But,

John Garcia: you know, nine months after he was started to heal, a month after, a month and a half, or three months or however long, He came back to house. Next day, I was walking next to his house, and I saw his garage open.

He was on a wheelchair. His bike was dangling from a lift. He [00:14:00] was trying to get the engine up. Give me a hand here. I need to sell this thing. I need to make money, you know, pay for bills. Yeah, so the engine was

Jon Summers: When you knock it off dude We just walked you to make you settle down and then you are barking and interrupting The recording the

John Garcia: engine that needs to be sold.

The engine that needs to be sold is about five grand I wish I really regret not buying his bike because he had two bikes A and B and the B one was still in one piece But the A1 Oh, this was selling the race bikes? Yeah, this was selling the race bikes. I really wish I would have gotten it. But anyway, we’ve been friends ever since.

He’s up several times. Um, if I’m stuck somewhere, he’ll come in and do it. And 10 minutes. You know, like he’d always help me. He’s always there to like, one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. Help you out and like, his [00:15:00] timing is always perfect. So if I ever get stuck, he’s always there.

Jon Summers: So I met him when he was selling a Hayabusa, and it was a 99 Hayabusa, and I looked at the bike and nearly bought it, even though I’d not ridden for years and years and years.

I dismissed it, because I was like, I’d not ridden for Five years or so at that time and it didn’t feel like that was a sensible bike To be like, you know coming so I I didn’t buy bitterly regret not buying that bike Yeah, do you remember the story that you told me about the guy who did buy the bike?

John Garcia: Yeah No, he told me a story again when I saw him. I reminded him. It’s like yeah that guy who bought the bike The

Jon Summers: story you told me was that the guy had come to look at the bike and Neil said, do you want to ride? The guy said, I don’t have my helmet. Neil went, that’s all right. You [00:16:00] can wear mine. And the guy’s riding pillion with Neil’s helmet on and Neil is riding without a helmet.

And on that part of your street where there’s the little divot, Neil pulled a wheelie. Yeah. And the guy, when they got, came back from the test ride Didn’t even negotiate and his hand was going like this his hand was shaking and he didn’t even negotiate on price Yeah,

John Garcia: yeah,

Jon Summers: and and i’m reminded of of uh bugatti Um a biography is written by a guy called chumley chap tapper um British guy and it’s the, it’s a story of, remember I’ve told you that story of that office that I worked in the city of London, uh, by the Royal exchange by the Bank of England, Cornhill.

I watched a guy wheelie a CBR up there and it was one of the things that made me think I need to get out of the, uh, the corporate world. Up Cornhill, a, that guy bought his first Bugatti. This is like over a hundred years ago now because they did. [00:17:00] 70 miles an hour up Corn Hill early one morning him and the dealer and he was like I was so excited I didn’t negotiate on price and it always reminds me of the guy buying the Hayabusa If you do a test drive that that is where the car is really fast People do just they’re just like I fucking want this straight away.

They don’t negotiate on price. It’s uh, It’s a definite sales technique for the For the test drive, not to be a drive around the block yawn for the test drive to be a like a bam. That’s why you’re not buying a Hayabusa because you want to get from A to B. You’re buying a Hayabusa to thrill the shit out of you.

Yeah.

Jon Summers: That’s uh, no, that’s a pretty nice bike. I’m still in the market for a Hayabusa. How many, when Neil moved back to the Emerald Isle, how many did he take with him? He had four

John Garcia: copper. First generation 97, [00:18:00] unrestricted, in mint condition. I helped him create it up in Bayview, at the warehouse. And uh,

Jon Summers: yeah, among others.

So you, you fell into riding with him and his friends, like on a Sunday morning. And this is not like, there’s a, There’s a, like, a Bay Area Riders Forum, like a bath ride, isn’t there, every Sunday? And my sense is your ride with the Irish guys was a little bit more wild than the ride, than the normal bath Sunday morning cruise.

John Garcia: We would go on the weekends. We’d do a, like, a three day run. We’d do a tour of California. Go up Eureka, 266, 36, all that route. Go there. It would, it would, it would be a, a proper blast. How many of you? [00:19:00] Um, the last time I went over to Death Valley, there’s only four of us. Because everyone’s going back to Ireland.

You know, Gas is going back, went back to Ireland. Neil went back to Ireland. Now there’s two of us. Yeah, now there’s only John Toey. So

Jon Summers: on the subject of Gaz, um, Remind us of that, or remind me of the story of Gaz and the bandit.

John Garcia: So I have the bandit now. It’s the same thing. 1998, unrestricted, um, first generation.

If you ever get a chance to get one of those spike, I mean, you can get them fairly cheap. I saw one somewhere here for like 25. Yeah. They are cheap bike. They are a bargain bike. It’s a GSXR 1100. Anyway. Um, I have one and gas gave it to me. Burgundy

Jon Summers: if you want to picture it guys.

John Garcia: Yeah. The red, uh, the red bandit.

1, 200. 1, 200 S with the fairing. But anyway, we were chasing Yeah, 1, 200 S. Yeah, so he’s [00:20:00] got a line, yeah. That was just a normal ride. Um, Peter, Towie, John Towie’s brother was there, which is rare because they don’t really ride together. Um, a catch for safety reasons. You know, they own a company. But anyway, after having coffee in Marin, equator coffee, in the first five minutes, Peter crashes.

He crashes. He low sides and he’s on the sidewalk. So Sparks, one of the first left turns, right? And this was a time where Daniel Cooper was riding with us for the first time. It’s the first time he’s meeting the Irish guys. I told him about the Irish guys, too. He’s a more proper by the book kind of type of guy, but he’s also fast.

He’s on a 1290 Super Adventure. Right, and this is the first time everyone’s meeting each other. So on the takeaway, when we took off, not even five minutes, Peter Toey crashes on the side of the, the ditch. I just saw sparks. So I have to lift it up and test, test the tire pressure. It [00:21:00] was like 10%. I’m thinking to myself, these are the pros, you know.

Thankfully, the guy with the BMW had all the equipment, right? I had the pump, so I pumped it up and You know, we’re riding, and in my head, I’m thinking this guy just crashed, he’s probably gonna calm down, so he’s like next to me, he’s behind me, he’s probably checking the bike to see if it’s alright. But as soon as he got the confidence again, he passes me, right, so it’s that kind of like feeling already, like everyone’s trying to pass each other, right.

So we go up Marshall, and Gas is behind me, right. So I’m trying to chase. Um, the guy in front of me who was Toi and Daniel Cooper

Jon Summers: toy’s riding,

John Garcia: I, I, I, I don’t a Gs uh, TOI is riding a rt. Okay. B-M-W-R-T. He likes it ’cause it slows him down. Mm-hmm . You know, and then Daniel Cooper is riding a 12 man adventure, but he can ride that RT like no one’s business.[00:22:00]

And then. You know, Peter crashes already. We saw a cop, a sheriff. Um, I passed by a cop. And gas is like chasing me. You know, I can tell this day had a faster pace. Right. I see him behind me. He’s like standing up because it’s kind of martial, uh, the, the area that we go to is like the, it’s kind of rough.

Right. So I’m looking at him in a side mirror and I see him standing up because that bandit doesn’t have the same suspension as the newer bike. He doesn’t understand that. Right. So I know what you’re writing, your BMW, our team, uh, I’m writing the R okay. BMW are the one I have now my daily. But I’m, I’m looking at him, he’s like bouncing around, right, chasing after me on a downhill slope, and I’m like, this guy is not going to stop, he’s just going to hit me.

So I let him go. I’m like, you know what, someone already crashed, I saw a sheriff, I listened to my instincts, right? So he passes me, right, on the straightaway, he passes me, I’m like, alright, well, after he passed me, I just kind of chase him up. [00:23:00] You know, that’s like the natural reaction, it’s like you chase him, right?

Yeah. He just, that day he just had a faster pace, cause he wanted to chase Daniel Cooper. Alright, so Daniel Cooper was next. And like, trying to chase him, he’s trying to chase after Daniel Cooper. Daniel Cooper’s trying to chase after John Tobey. Right? And then all of a sudden, I just see smoke, dust, right?

The bikes inside the farm.

And then Gas is looking for his wallet. He’s like limping, he’s looking for his wallet. And I’m like, this guy’s on third gear. He’s just like So what kind of a turn? It was a right turn, downhill right turn.

Jon Summers: At what sort of speed?

John Garcia: I don’t know, I don’t know what the speed is, but I didn’t see him. I just saw the aftermath.

I didn’t, I didn’t, I have no idea. But I know this. There was three crosses. [00:24:00] I forgot the names but I did research on it. It was recent, it was 2011, but there were three crosses where he crashed. Yeah. And then the owner comes out on his ATV, he’s like, you guys are going fast, blah, blah, blah. And guys was like, how much is that fence?

I’ll pay for it. You know, like genuinely, like he felt bad that he caused destruction, but his wallet was inside the fence, like 50 feet out. What, come out of his pocket? Came out of his pocket. I mean, his gear was all ripped. You know.

Jon Summers: But he was walking around and talking?

John Garcia: Yeah. He was limping around. He’s conscious, but Yeah, he’s shocked that that happened.

Yeah. I can tell because after that he kind of changed a little bit. That kind of spooked him out a little bit, you know? Yeah. It can happen. But the only thing is the next day he sends us this picture. He says, yeah, I just got out of the hospital. You know that X ray?

Jon Summers: Yeah, yeah, [00:25:00] we will post it if we can, uh, if we can find the exit.

The other thing I remember about that story was, was, uh, that he had said to you afterwards, that was a near miss. And you’d been like, if it was a near miss, what does the actual fucking crash look

John Garcia: like? That was a close one. That

Jon Summers: was a close one. I mean, someone was

John Garcia: definitely looking after him that day.

Yeah. For sure. Walk away from that was just

Jon Summers: Um, the other, the other story that I’ve got noted down here from, from those uh, Irish rides was uh, I wrote down Swimming Pool Lady. The swimming pool lady.

John Garcia: Oh, when he got pushed by John Tobey?

Jon Summers: When you were, when there was a, the, the, the tradition in the group, and this is why I’m right with the group, is the tradition in the group is, is that if there’s a cop, you’re not going to stop.

Well, if you’re not going to stop, you definitely don’t want to be at the back. Do you so this keeps the pace of the group [00:26:00] ride? Extremely high because nobody wants to be at the back to be To be pulled over so in one of these situations I don’t know if the cop was coming the other way or something like that, but oh, I remember gas

John Garcia: wasn’t there It was John Azarani the other guy we uh, we did the A loop, across Yosemite and back Sonora, 108 to 120, a good pace.

And I told him too, you know, because we camped in Yosemite,

and

John Garcia: I told him, once you get to Sonora Pass, you better slow down because cops don’t have anything better to do than to pull over people, and they will. And sometimes people call it in. But anyway, I was following him, he crossed the double yellow line on the turn, and So I did the same thing, except that there was a cop in front of me.

You know, so, I mean, alright, you gotta pay to play, I get it. So a cop turns around, pulls me over, right? And he says to me, [00:27:00] Follow me, let’s go get your buddy. So this greedy, this greedy guy wanted to get the, the both of us, right? And the moment he passed me, I was like, you know what, how stupid do you think I am?

I just made a U turn and just gunned it, you know? And I went up this driveway to just basically hide. So I hid behind this tree and there was a swimming pool in the, in some owner’s, some homeowner’s place. There was a swimming pool, right? And it was 94 degrees. We have been looking for a swimming pool for the longest time.

So I’m just waiting for things to happen. I’m waiting for his phone call, right? I’m waiting there and it’s super hot. And I just figure, you know what? What’s going to happen if I ask the owner if I can just jump in the pool? So I knock on the door, this old lady with grey hair opens the door and I’m like, Hey, how are you?

You know what, I was riding, it’s 94 degrees and it’s super hot, and I saw your swimming pool. [00:28:00] And I was wondering if I could just jump right in. And she was like, go right ahead. So I sent him a picture of me. I don’t do selfies, but this was one time, like, I did a selfie and I sent it to him. I didn’t get any response.

I was waiting for him, because I thought he was going to come back and, you know, I thought he ran away from the cop. I thought he gunned it and got away. Because the moment the cop said, Come here, follow me, let’s get your buddy. He kept on going. And I just didn’t see him. So I thought he went. So I thought he got away.

But, turns out that wasn’t the story. Turns out he got a ticket. And he was so pissed that I was, that I sent him that picture. Because he said right after he got the ticket, the cop, the cop followed him for like 30 minutes.

Jon Summers: And then he checks his phone, there’s a picture of you in the pool. Yeah.[00:29:00]

So just as an aside to complete the sort of Period of your life. The other thing for us to think about is that through those Irish guys, they’re involved in construction, but everyone in San Francisco knows the Irish moving trucks and through those guys, you had a storage facility down in a not so nice part of San Francisco.

Where you shared a space with these Irish guys, there was a cool shop, there was a snooker table, there was, you know, and, and there were, and as, as you said, when, uh, when you had to move out of there, it’s a shame because anytime I was getting [00:30:00] pissed off working on a motorcycle, I could just go and talk with one of the Irish guys and have a game of billions or snooker or pool or whatever that, whatever that was.

And we were at the

John Garcia: same level too, so it was like a good, it was a proper game, it was a good game. It was a good match. But that spot, I really missed that. That was actually Butchertown. It was called Butchertown back in the day in Bayview. That’s where they slaughtered the cows. Oh, okay. And it also became the storage space for the bombs after World War II.

Oh, okay. It’s a very historical place. But I mean, it was a 25, 000 square feet.

Jon Summers: Yeah, it was these old like World War Two kind of, they, they were, and I know the buildings from the kind of, they were the kind of warehouse that Mark used to be in, in East LA, where it was thrown up terrible building standards in the 1940s and it had survived.

Well, it survived up until Amazon hadn’t it? Because that’s why when Amazon

John Garcia: moved in, we got kicked out. So that’s the story.

Jon Summers: Yeah. So, uh, [00:31:00] And that’s a Bay Area story, right? Isn’t it? That’s another piece of, you know, San Francisco history which has changed as a result of the, uh, of the tech revolution. Which, by the way, of course, I represent, right?

All my income’s there. Come from from text. I don’t want to be hypocritical about it, but there is a sense that San Francisco’s changed and no more. So on that piece of town, uh, no, no more. So in, uh, than in, you know, in, in that sense, trim that bit out, um, the other thing I was going to say, John warehouse was that whenever you do a GPS there, it puts you on the freeway and it used to drive you on the freeway and you’d be driving on the freeway at 60 miles an hour.

And it would say you have arrived and it was because yeah. Your warehouse was directly under that bit of the freeway and it would guide you to Yeah, it’s the best part of the

John Garcia: neighborhood and that’s why Remus, my pit bull dog, came in handy. Yeah. I drove around with my truck, windows down, parked it, keys in the car, [00:32:00] ignition.

Jon Summers: Yeah.

John Garcia: Never had any issues, you know.

The racing history in Ireland is something that I feel is slowly going away.

Jon Summers: Well, okay. So that we’ve so we’ve we’ve moved. We’ve set the scene, haven’t we? And it’s taken us about a half an hour to do it, but that’s how it’s how it should be. So you’ve the reason that we’re doing this presentation today is this thing today.

Really is that the Irish guys by and large moved home. Neil moved home, uh, and always said to you, come visit, come visit. Obviously I’m English and always encouraged you to, to ride in Europe as well. And thanks to a new girlfriend, [00:33:00] you actually did a European trip. So a bit of time, a bit of time in England, a bit of time in Ireland and some time riding with these, uh, With these Irish road racers.

Just before we, before I ask you about that, I just want to say, I just want to say that when the Irish guys moved back, they did leave one motorcycle in particular, which I think deserves special mention, which is the Yamaha R6. Track bike, which has wide bars on it. It has race plastic on it, and on the tailpipe it says nobody cares.

And that bike, I mean, how many Irish guys have crushed it?

John Garcia: I mean, well, I don’t know how many, but there’s a few. Um, and it’s funny you say that because right now it’s in the back of the Sprinter van.

Jon Summers: Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is the Ratt. Uh, yeah, so it stayed and a bunch of, uh, [00:34:00] of the other stuff stayed, didn’t it?

But they’ve largely largely moved back. So, all right, so let’s, let’s talk about your driving experience in Europe. First of all, talk about, talk about what you did with cars. First of all, and the whole business of driving on the other side and how you found that. And then we’ll talk about the bikes and the ride that you did with Neil in Ireland.

John Garcia: Yes.

Jon Summers: What are you looking for?

John Garcia: My phone. Trying to remember the, uh The brand of the car that I rented. It was like a Spanish brand that just came out. Saya? No. Oh. You’ve never heard of it. Initially when I, um, made my reservation, I wanted to get a Kia Sportage because of the fuel mileage. I didn’t realize how economically it was to rent a car in Ireland.

There is an option for an automatic in a manual the manual is half the price of an automatic I was Surprised and I’m like, [00:35:00] of course, I’m gonna get a

Jon Summers: manual. It’s because lots of people can’t do Can’t drive. I know manuals The other thing is is for somebody like even somebody who can drive a manual if you’re not used to driving if you’re from, Texas the The streets are so narrow and winding.

You just, you know, it’s like a racing car. Don’t worry about the transmission. Just concentrate on the basics.

John Garcia: Yeah, but that was a big deal because I’m driving on the left hand drive on the left hand side of the road for the very first time. Right. So the shifting is on my left side, but I was like, you know what?

That’s going to be not a big deal. Like you said, it’s going to be okay. Which it was okay until I made my first left and muscle memory kicked in and I was on the right side of the road and I’m like, yeah, muscle memory kicked in. Yeah, but that was the first time and last time I ever did that because I’m making a point to learn from [00:36:00] my mistakes.

Jon Summers: Yes.

John Garcia: You know,

Jon Summers: I, I remember the time I did that in a, when I, I, when I came here for the first time in 95 with Mark Gammy and we, Bought and lived in a 79 Lincoln town car and traveled around in that. And I remember tired one night pulling out onto the wrong side of a dual carriageway and seeing the oncoming traffic and getting straight over onto like, you know, the service road at the side.

It was like in a sort of industrial area.

John Garcia: Yeah,

Jon Summers: it was a Cooper. Oh, for a mentor it was a

John Garcia: Ra

Jon Summers: Cupra

John Garcia: for a mentor.

Jon Summers: Yeah. Yeah. So Mark Gamy had a series of, say, lay on Coopers. They were basically like nicer versions of golf GTIs. He had two, 200,000 miles on them altogether. Really? Yeah. And any car that can wear the, where that Mark GAMI, cause Mark GAMI, he’s not a [00:37:00] abusive driver, but he drives hard and fast and only does the required maintenance.

He’s not like a washer or a tinkerer or a, you know, he gets driven and then he puts it away and then it gets driven again. So the, let’s say, um, SUV thing. SUV.

John Garcia: Yeah. Super Cooper. Yeah. Yeah. Cupra for mentor. Yeah. Uh, manual six speed. Yeah. It was great. Diesel. Diesel. Yeah. Yeah. SUV. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was, um, comparable to X three.

Jon Summers: you got it in Dublin airport. Yeah. Yeah.

John Garcia: And then, um, I enjoy driving. I enjoy where, how far away is Neil from Dublin? I like Neil is about 45 minutes away. Yeah. And then Gaz is in Clare. But uh, first night when we got, uh, first day when we got there, we [00:38:00] went to Galway and then Ennis and then met up with Gaz the first night.

Because we weren’t thinking about staying there for a very long time. We were just there for four days. And then met Neil the last day, or second to the last day, and coincidentally there was a rally, it was a motorcycle rally that was going on. Sponsored by the, uh, Highsiders of Ireland. And, um, he asked me if I wanted to go for a ride, go for a spin.

And it was kind of tricky because I really had to be I mean, when he, when he asks you for a spin, it’s like hours. And it was hard for me to, uh, make a proposal to Paige. But I just had to do it. You know, we were gone for about five hours, six hours for a proper ride. And, I mean, I’m really happy I was able to do that because it kind of really put me in [00:39:00] perspective.

Whenever I watch Northwest 200, Scarys, um, I know there’s the Isle of Man and there’s Macau that I still want to see.

Jon Summers: They’re different from what there is actually in Ireland.

John Garcia: When I see those pictures of Michael Dunlop like inches away from the stone hedges and stone walls, like now I know why they ride like that because that’s how you have to ride those narrow roads.

When I was following Neil, it was just like

Jon Summers: This is this Irish road racing that it’s and the reason that I love it is I feel that it’s a very pure old fashioned kind of motorsport. It is

John Garcia: pure. It’s pure than Macau, right? Yeah, no sponsors. There’s no, it’s really small. So it’s this business that’s

Jon Summers: three communities.

close the roads between them and there’s a triangular course and this is the race course this is the the [00:40:00] pattern in ireland it was the pattern in countries like france and italy in the last century that that that’s and i feel that’s really that these triangle courses between communities on um closed public roads they’re absolutely the essence of of really it

John Garcia: is pure and there’s no This was, um, we were just talking about this like there’s no um, sponsors, it’s just pure racing.

Right? Like John Toye was saying back in the day in the Northwest 200, which he lives in Donegal, it’s not that far from that place but you can actually walk up and talk to Michael Dunlop and Joey Dunlop, it would just be like informal. They’re not winning big prizes. And that’s how he was. Like early seventies where Neil was or is in chaos.

That four racing was just like, [00:41:00] it’s something else. Cause he took me around a couple of times. All right, I went around maybe around four times and the, uh, what a lap of, uh, lap, it’s like four corners and it’s like 2. 3 miles or something short. It’s very short, but it’s very trickery. It’s very tricky because it’s narrow road.

And when we went, it was raining, it was dark. There’s literally pool on the road from horses or cows. Yeah.

Jon Summers: Yeah. Just as a side, um, Mark Gami, once, uh, the worst fall he ever had off his 90cc, you know, Honda Cub 90 was on horse shit on a country lane.

John Garcia: Yeah. Cause that thing is slippery. Right. But if you have a good guy leading you like Neil, I mean, I mean, I tried to keep up.

He was on the GSXR 1100, 90, 91, just like the one that, whoa. You have the blue one. He has the, [00:42:00] you have the grey one. He has the blue one. He has the blue one behind. Yeah, blue and white. You said

Jon Summers: he wheelied.

John Garcia: Yeah, that’s the first time I’ve seen someone do that on a GSXR 1100. One of the first times when we took off.

In, in the wet? In the wet. What did he give you to ride? So, he said, which one do you want to ride? When we were at this warehouse, I mean, he has this really big warehouse that’s just like a museum. And I was like, you know what, I’ll go for the 1, 300. Cause I know what’s, I know what’s gonna happen, you know, I’m gonna try and chase him.

You know, if he’s gonna be 1, 100, I might have a chance. Or so I thought, you know. But, it wasn’t like that. It was just like, I was on a B King. Um, it’s the bike that has the same engine as a Hayabusa. But, unlike the Hayabusa, this one doesn’t have any fairings. It’s a limited, kind of a rare bike. It’s only a two year bike here.

It’s [00:43:00] like 2006 or 2007. Yeah, I remember them, yeah. Wide bars. Wide bars, yeah. So how did it corner? It cornered really well. Really? Yeah. Better than I did, I guess, but

Jon Summers: I’d always worry with a bike like that, it would not, you’d struggle to, like, lean it over. No, that’s

John Garcia: the other thing, right? Like, I saw Neil, he was, like, tuning it up when I was there in the garage.

He was tuning it and, like Lubing the chain, checking the tire pressure. So I was really confident with that bike and uh, Yeah, I know Neil and his bikes But I mean that ride is something else man we went around four and What four different tracks? No four is the name of the place. Okay F O U R. F O R E.

Okay. There’s also four racing Okay, for racing starting in 73 and ended in 97.

Mm hmm.

John Garcia: All right, so when We stopped somewhere [00:44:00] We went for a ride after a few arguments with the bird. I Just basically just Grabbed my ear and went it was great because I knew that I wasn’t gonna think be thinking about anything else after that I had to it was just like that moment You know, and I was like, let’s go.

If this is it, this is it. You know, Neil was like, well, ride your ride, ride your ride. Yeah, yeah, sure. You know, but in my head, it’s just like, I’m going to try and keep up with you. I am going to try and keep up. So I thought again, but no, but he’s actually, he’s, he’s very, very smooth. I think when it comes to that, he used to lead when you rode together in California, right?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And he would set the pace. He would set the pace. But he would just like, drop down and like, keep up. Just like nothing. He would actually, sometimes you’d see him stop. He’d just wait and just, just go. [00:45:00] And from the back he would just like, The way he rode is different. The way he rode, like he could tell this guy is different.

Like he just like, He passes you in a different, with a different sound, just all out. Like he knows how to use the power of the engine.

Mmm.

John Garcia: Right? Yeah. And um, we went to this bar, right? Really small bar. We, you know, we go up to the counter and there was a lady that was a bartender, right? And he knows the person next to me.

He’s like, chatted for a little bit, you know, what are you up to, blah, blah, blah. And everyone knows everyone. He knows the brother, like they kind of grew up together. There’s pictures of the Dunlop brothers at the bar. And on the top, there’s also a picture of Derek Shields. Yeah, that’s our guy. He’s from here.

It’s just short racing in the purest form. I didn’t even know that. [00:46:00] The, the floor was like

Jon Summers: a really big

John Garcia: um,

Jon Summers: raise. Yeah. And I’d never heard of the place before, but I was, when we talked, uh, when we walked the dogs the other day, we talked about this the first time I was conscious as I said to you before. I feel like there’s some places where motorsport ingrained in the culture.

I felt that in Italy, I felt that very much around Charlotte and, you know, NASCAR countries may be faded now a little bit. I. It’s awesome that you found it in Ireland. That’s really, really an awesome thing. That’s the bar. Awesome. We’ll include that picture. Send me that picture.

John Garcia: The seven wonders. I wish I would have taken a picture inside by just like

Jon Summers: No, these experiences are not necessarily to be digitally preserved.

That’s the exact thing, right? That’s to be had there and then. If you’re in your phone, you’re not building rapport. That’s the other

John Garcia: thing why I didn’t bring the GoPro. I don’t want to be fucking [00:47:00] around with something when I really just have to concentrate on one thing. I just want to be back in one piece.

Yeah. Because, mind you, this was at night. Yeah. It was raining, and my eyesight’s not the best.

Jon Summers: Well, you also said, you said something that really made me laugh when we were walking, uh, that, that you were like, And these lanes, they’re all like, they’re all stonehenge y. at the side, you said. I understand that.

And, and, and I, I was going to share, we, we call those dry stone walls. I’m going to share a story with you now. My friend from university, John Hopkins, leave the pub one night in his dad’s Sierra diesel station wagon on the way from the pub. He’s doing the thing that people do in that part of the country, where as you approach a turn, you turn the lights off.

And if. You can, if you can’t see any light coming the other way, you know, there’s nobody around the turn. So you then turn the lights back on and you can take a full racing line around the turn. So that’s [00:48:00] how people in the country in, in drive, drive like that. Um, anyway, he did a bit of a Duke’s a hazard moment, put the tail into the, into a dry stone wall, knocked it down and we sped off.

We like left the scene of the crime. The farmer followed us, fucking chased us down. Made us come back the following day and rebuild it. So whenever I see dry stone walls, I always think of that. Um, obviously they’re pretty unforgiving. Um, you know, they’re an unforgiving place to crash against.

John Garcia: Yeah. That might be the last time you ever crash.

Jon Summers: Um, you visited the memorial for Neal’s brother.

John Garcia: Yeah. So he explained to me when he was, um, taking me around the, the, the track, um, or the roads, he was explaining to me, yeah, that’s where it started. And I know his brother had passed away from racing.

Jon Summers: This is which, this is which circuit. This is the fourth circuit.

This is [00:49:00] the fourth circuit. Yeah.

John Garcia: Yeah. And he was explaining to me that that’s where it starts and I’ll show you what happened. And like, you know, and we park on the side of the road. And, you know, I was taking a picture of the bikes and he was like trying to clean up something on the side. And I was like, what is that?

And he’s like, yeah, this is where my, this is where my brother, um, got hit. He lost control over there on the turn and over the crest someone didn’t see him and basically just hit him in 1997. That was about the last time that they, they raced him before. And then he shows me this, this stone dedicated to his brother.

It’s headstone. Wow. And it’s kind of funny because you remember how I described him? How I described Neil? And I can barely read it, but it says something, um, Something about a helping hand. For those who knew him don’t [00:50:00] understand, He’s A willing smile and a helping hand for those he loved don’t understand the reason why you are gone but in my heart you go on and on there’s a neil o’reilly memorial that happens also

Crew Chief Brad: yeah

John Garcia: i didn’t realize he was a you know he was a big deal back then but yeah that’s the reason why it’s going away it’s going away and it’s it’s like you said it’s insurance reasons So meeting people that are raw and

Jon Summers: well, it’s also it’s the triumph of the individual right but all of us feel like the individual is More important than the event the attitude used to be that the event Was bigger than the life of any one individual Do you remember that Cars and Coffee we went to up in, uh, up in, um,

John Garcia: Nevada, or?

Yeah, we went to a

Jon Summers: Cars and Coffee [00:51:00] up in Nevada the first time I’m, um, Well, the only time I met Gaz, the only time I met John Toey.

Yeah.

Jon Summers: As we were walking away afterwards, Ollie was only, you know, six or seven at the time. And as we were walking away, we were holding hands. And you know, do you remember what you said to him?

I may have told you this before. You said to me, Irish people use the F word a lot.

And, and, you know, so I actually think we’re going to leave it there because I really, for a long time, have wanted to pay a meaningful tribute to the awesomeness of Irish road racing, and I feel like your visit and riding with Neil, and then the inadvertent discovery of that memorial, That’s everything, isn’t it?

It’s, it’s, uh, it’s everything about the sport. Um, Yeah, the dogs are just like spoiling the meaningful [00:52:00] moment here by wrestling with each other. Um, John, thank you very much for appearing with me today.

John Garcia: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jon Summers: Appendix A, Gaz’s second close one is from Sunday World Newspaper, dated Monday, December 2nd, 2024. Exclusive, Farmer shot 8 times by drunken neighbour. Shocked, as shooter walks free. A [00:53:00] farmer shot by his drunken neighbor has said that he will never forget the pain and that his attacker deliberately aimed his head.

Construction worker Adrian Collins, Gaz, 48, walked free from court with a suspended sentence despite shooting innocent neighbor Andrew Cotter, 65. eight times whilst the victim was out tending to his cattle in rural County Clare on February the 26th last year. Collins had been out drinking at his niece’s christening in the hours before he got his double barrelled shotgun and loaded it with cartridges before he shot Mr.

Cotter eight times without warning, hitting him in the shoulder and head. Astonishingly, Collins then gave out to Mr. Cotter and told him to move his vehicle from outside his property when the victim called to his house in Enar, Kilkishan, covered in blood [00:54:00] following the attack. Despite having shot his innocent neighbor, drunken Collins then went off to the pub while the armed response unit was dispatched from Galway to deal with the incident.

I should say that John said to me that apparently it had taken them more than an hour to get there, which was how it was Gaz had been able to dispense with the trespasser on his property and return to the pub. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday World, Mr. Cotter said he’ll never forget the pain of being shot in the head.

Jesus! It’s actually written J A Y S U S. I’ll never forget the burning. I won’t try and do an Irish accent. I put my hand up to my head and it was all blood, he said. He said there had been no personal animosity between himself and Collins before the shooting incident. He was off his fucking game. He’s an oddball now and that’s the [00:55:00] truth.

He never came to me to apologize. I had no issues with that man ever. It was just reckless. If I followed the cow when the last two shots went off, I’d have had my sight lost or I’d have been killed, one or the other. That is definite. Mr. Cotter explains that he owns a field adjacent to Collins property and was tending to his cattle on the night of the incident.

One of his cows was sick. His vehicle, which Collins recognised, was parked on the road and, as it was dark, he was using a headlamp. The next thing, two shots went off and struck my shoulder, he said. The innocent gun victim said he initially thought it was kids messing with a pellet gun or something like that.

I thought it was young lads who was firing. Mr. Cotter said he was so concerned with his sick cow that he initially didn’t understand the seriousness of what was happening or that it was a real gun. I was wired to the [00:56:00] cows because she was sick. I started to walk the cow towards where I had silage. I didn’t know who was firing.

I knew someone had fired, but it was dark. I didn’t realize at the time it was wheel shots. Collins had fired two more shots, hitting Mr. Cotter in the shoulder again. Then I brought the cow into a circular feeder to feed her, and two more shots went off and struck me in the shoulder again. I could hear the pellets hitting the tin of the feeder.

Yeah. At this stage, six shots had been fired and Mr. Cotter said his cow wouldn’t eat and moved in the direction of where the shots were coming from. She walked that way. Luckily enough, I walked the other way to my gate. I was ringing my son and the next thing two more shots went off and struck me right here, in the head.

He said the pain was excruciating and the pellets from the blast were lodged in his head above. [00:57:00] Beside and below his eye. The burning was brutal. I didn’t think it was a real shotgun until the last two. I was completely stupid in one way. I put my hand up to my head and it was all blood. Mr. Cotter realized afterwards that Collins had been deliberately aiming at his head using the headlamp as a guide.

His son who had been on the phone to him rushed to the scene. He said to me, you’re all blood. I said, I’ll go into Collins and see what the hell they’re at. Collins came to the door, but was far from apologetic. He came out to the door. I said, was that you firing shots? He said, you were snooping around my house in the middle of the night.

I pulled out my phone and said, it’s twenty to eight. How’s that the middle of the night? I could smell the drink on him then. I said to him, You knew where you, where, that where you were firing, I have cattle in there, and they’re only in there once a year, and I’m the [00:58:00] only one who’s using that road in there in the wintertime.

He said, why didn’t you notify me you were gonna be there? I said, you could see my car there at the end of the road. Mr. Cotter’s son called Gardai and paramedics, and Collins went back into his house before coming back out angrily. He came back out and said, MOVE THEM CARS OUT OF MY DRIVEWAY! Unarmed guard I arrived, but couldn’t approach Collins as he was armed.

So they had to wait for the armed response unit to come from Galway, which Mr. Cotter said took some time. My son went down with them, and when they did get down, eventually, they knocked in, and the wife, she was there, and she said, Collins was gone to the pub. They got the gun off her and asked if they could go, if they could go in the back and see if there were any empty cartridges and she said no.

Mr. Cotter said that given how long it took for the armed guard eye to arrive, he had feared Collins could have shot more people due to the drunken state he was in. [00:59:00] If he went in after talking to me and the wife reared up on him, he could have shot the wife and the children. Guards went into local pub, guard eye went into local pubs looking for him.

I thought it was a brutal wait for the armed response. It was his wife and children I was figuring. They was fierce lucky. A fella off his game. Mr Cotter was treated by paramedics at the scene who removed as many pellets from his face as they could before rushing him to the hospital for further treatment.

He said there was two that they couldn’t get out above and below his eye as doctors feared they could cause damage by removing them. They said if they took the one out under the eye they could damage the nerve and I could lose my sight or be disfigured. Eventually, as a result of another medical issue, he had to have them removed.

I had to sign forms saying I was doing it at my own risk, he said. The Sunday World called to Mr Collins home for comment, but his wife said he didn’t want to comment on the case. She also claimed that her husband now gets [01:00:00] on fine with Mr Cotter. However, that was news to Mr Cotter. Whatever few friends he had locally, he has none after this.

He never came to apologise. He added that he was surprised Collins didn’t get jail for the gun attack. Even the solicitor told the guard he would get a gun sentence, he would get a jail sentence over it. He got off very light, he said. Mr. Cotter said he doesn’t believe his neighbour’s claim that he thought somebody was snooping near his property.

However, Mr. Collins wife said that being relieved not to be jailed, her husband was upset that now he has a conviction which will follow him around and the fallout from his unprovoked gun attack on Mr. Cotter had been tough on her husband.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like [01:01:00] this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brake Fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.

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