It's the start of the school year and also an opportunity to shine the spotlight on one of the members of the Paddock-GP team.
Christian Bourget, our main photographer, is not what we commonly call a partridge of the year…
Like many members of the current paddock, he tried his hand at motorcycle racing, in this case sidecar racing, before hanging up his leathers and pursuing his passion by immortalizing those who kept going in circles. It was at this time that he met a certain Jacques Hutteau for whom he worked as a mechanic.
In the 70s, he began photographing the main motorcycle competitions for his own pleasure, at a time when photographic films were expensive to develop...
At the beginning of the 2000s, he discovered digital technology and was able to take more photos every weekend.
Until last year when he worked in a more lucrative profession, the man took the road on Thursday evening, arrived at the circuits on Friday morning after a night at the wheel, photographed all day before sleeping a few hours in his car , then went back the opposite way at night from Sunday to Monday to clock in at work on Monday morning.
Did you say passionate? Certainly, especially since the activity barely covers its costs, even though they are kept to a minimum! And always laughing and in a good mood, what’s more! Quite a character...
After a good forty years of this treatment, the one whom the entire paddock nicknames "Santa Claus", because of the size (since shortened) and the color of his hair system, decided to try a new experience by borrowing the different trucks from French equipment manufacturers to cover the Grands Prix of the Czech Republic and Austria.
On the program for this journey which began Monday morning, departure from Haute-Savoie in “Mika's” Shoei truck to, driven by “Pépé”, go to Brno, 1300 km away, sleeping in the cabin of a truck, transfer from Brno to the Red Bull Ring in “Gigi’s” Shark truck, and return to France in the Shoei truck. Unless it's the other way around: even we get a little lost...
As we can see, good understanding is essential in the clan of French equipment manufacturers, and Christian Bourget is welcome everywhere, thanks to his good humor and the relationships he has built over the decades.
Here is a first report (for once carried out on a mobile phone) of this rather atypical trip, with the kilometers passing by, the meeting at the German border and the road with the Elf truck driven by Eddy (you cannot travel in it without having the necessary approval for dangerous materials), the rain in the Czech Republic (we also expect it for Saturday), the small roads obligatory for trucks transporting dangerous materials (where is the logic?), the arrival in Brno and the Waiting for hours in the large parking lot, then entering the circuit and being seated by the centimeter under IRTA guidelines.
You know what happens next, with cleaning the trucks, setting up all the hospitality and boxes…
