5 replies to this topic

[pete beale]

ITS 30 YEARS TODAY SINCE MICK DOWNES WAS KILLED AT SNETTERTON IN A NEWMARKET CLUB 250 PRODUCTION RACE. the accident also left me with multiple injuries including a broken back and neck injuries for wich I am still suffering. But at least I was the lucky one. Mick was a great bloke and it was a pleasure to have known and raced against him. R.I.P

[picblanc]

RIP Mick.

[RC162]

I'm glad you have put this on Peter. We were all a lot younger then and we all knew each other as friends and rivals but Mick's death hit us all. I liked him a lot as we all did and to lose him was terrible but the fact that you pulled through made things easier to cope with. I think about him now and again but I can't see his face as clearly as I could. That's what the passing years can sadly do. Rest in Peace Mick.

[Paul Collins]

I was in the assembly area that day waiting to go out in the next race and despite all the memories from my years of racing I will never forget that day.

The stop engines board being shown to us, followed by complete silence decending across the whole paddock, as though someone had hit the pause button on the entire meeting, and then the clerk of the course making the sad announcement over the tannoy that a rider had lost his life and as a result that the rest of the meeting was being cancelled, my father was standing next to me and visibly shaken he turned to me and said 'son why do you do this?' and I think for the first time in my riding career I actually thought deeply about what he'd just said.

Then we all started to walk in silence back to our vans, there was hardly a word being spoken in the paddock, a very sad day.

[pete beale]

[quote name='Paul Collins' date='Mar 16 2011, 18:51' post='4897333']
I was in the assembly area that day waiting to go out in the next race and despite all the memories from my years of racing I will never forget that day.

The stop engines board being shown to us, followed by complete silence decending across the whole paddock, as though someone had hit the pause button on the entire meeting, and then the clerk of the course making the sad announcement over the tannoy that a rider had lost his life and as a result that the rest of the meeting was being cancelled, my father was standing next to me and visibly shaken he turned to me and said 'son why do you do this?' and I think for the first time in my riding career I actually thought deeply about what he'd just said.

Then we all started to walk in silence back to our vans, there was hardly a word being spoken in the paddock, a very sad day.
[/quote


SADEST DAY OF MY LIFE..

[TonyDavis]

I remember this Peter, think I met Mick at Gerry Pell's a few weeks before, I never raced with the Newmarket club so wasn't at this meeting but news came through, very sad and like many others had to check myself, did I want to carry on, I did and nearly ran over someone a few weeks later at Snett/Coram flat out. Racing was one of those things you just went out and did because it was what you wanted to do more than anything in the world. We were all part of a close knit family really everyone even rivals on the track still close of it.


Thanks for sharing this, I never knew Mick but everyone spoke of him very highly



Mick Downs RIP