It looked fantastic, sat there all mean and moody in the paddock.

It sounded brilliant roaring down the main straight, as I watched from the paddock wall.

I admired its lines as it blasted past me on one of the infield straights, making use of its 60bhp advantage over my poor old 990.

But my favourite view of the 1290 was the one I got coming around the outside of it at Coram one lap later. Unfortunately, I didn't see it again after that