MotoGP video: We take a flying lap with MotoGP legends Daryl Beattie and Mick Doohan

HOW many times have you headbutted a sporting legend? I’m in double digits.

HOW many times have you headbutted a sporting legend? I’m in double digits.

Former MotoGP star Daryl Beattie probably still has a headache from our lap of Phillip Island with me on the back of his bike.

I’m sure he knew it was coming, given our instructional crash course went like this:

“Do you ride?”

“Nup.”

“Never ridden?”

“No.

“Love it. Jump on.”

WATCH OUR TERRIFIED REPORTER’S HOT LAP IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.

The forces the human body is subjected to while atop one of those ludicrously souped-up pocket rockets are extraordinary, and none more so than when Beattie hits speeds of more than 250km/h, then jams on the brakes and wipes more than half that speed in about a second.

If he’s trying to send me soaring over his head, he almost succeeds as his brick wall braking lifts me off the seat and threatens to have me enter the local airspace.

Unfortunately for Beattie, my own technique for keeping myself from becoming a human track sweeper involves testing the durability of our helmets every time he so much as thinks about touching the brakes.

Whack. Sorry, Daryl.

Crack. My bad, mate.

Sorry, Daryl. Another headbutt for the MotoGP legend.

I lost count of the number of times our heads made contact during our flying lap-and-a-half, but it certainly outnumbered the number of times I blinked during those terrifying three minutes.

I’m not ashamed at all of how leg-quiveringly petrified I was during almost each and every moment. I reckon I’d have been more than justified in soiling the leathers provided by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

Even after hopping off Beattie’s bike and jumping on the back of five-time world champion Mick Doohan’s machine, the nerves were equally palpable

Doohan did his best to alleviate those fears by exploding into a monstrous wheelie as we left the pit lane, then popping the entire bike onto its front wheel as we returned a few minutes later. We’re no longer friends.

What those men do on those two wheels, lap after lap, is nothing short of staggering. The strength and fitness required of them far outstrips most other sports, and we did only one lap with not another soul on the track.

Doing the same with 25 other nutjobs defies comprehension, or sanity.

Plus, you know, there’s always that dying thing.

I’ll leave it to the experts, thanks.

Originally published as MotoGP video: We take a flying lap with MotoGP legends Daryl Beattie and Mick Doohan