I'm sad to relate that Barry Eastman, co-owner of Storm, passed away on 12th Feb. His funeral is on Thursday. I wrote these words a couple of days ago, and still can't believe that he's gone.
I don't remember the exact occasion, but I would have first met Barry on a windswept airfield somewhere in the countryside in the early 1970s. I would have been around 8 or 9 years old and there with my Dad, Keith, and the rest of my family. Mick Hand would have been there too, and Angus, and many of the other people that we still know as friends 40-odd years later. They would have arrived with bikes in the backs of vans, on trailers and some even in the boots of cars. Usually the bikes would arrive in one piece. Certainly some would not leave that way at the end of the day.
35 years later and Barry is calling me on the phone. Would I like to ride his new bike? Absolutely I would, but why aren’t you riding it yourself? Well, I never really got an answer to that question but I wasn’t about to ask him twice in case he changed his mind. And the burning passion Mick and Barry had for their new project was clear from the start. They were as excited as teenagers, bouncing plans and ideas off each other and making and re-making parts, and Barry seemed to me quite happy that he didn’t need to concern himself with the task of riding. For him, the joy was simply in being involved.
Some people think that drag racing, or any motorsport, is a selfish activity. An individual sport, like sprinting in athletics. I would argue that it is anything but that. The hundreds, no, thousands of hours spent in sheds and workshops, and in vans, caravans and awnings with your teammates must be added to the seconds spent on the race track. And team support comes not from an army of technicians, marketing men and sponsors, but from the acceptance and the love of family and friends, wives and partners. It is, beyond doubt, a team activity.
And Barry recognised this activity for what it is - a little extra that enhances life. A challenge, a dare, something beyond. Everyone goes to work. Everyone goes shopping. Everyone, hopefully, finds someone to love. Not everyone, in addition to these fine things, sets about building one of the fastest bikes on the planet. But Barry did, and he did it very well indeed, earning the respect of his peers worldwide as well as everyone who knew him personally. And I like to think that this activity brought a little extra not just to his life, but to the lives of his family and his friends, of whom there are a great many.
Barry was big-hearted, generous to a fault with his time and in his praise for others, with a warm hug and a secure handshake that only the mechanically-minded (and possibly farmers) possess. It was always a pleasure to greet him every spring when the racing season commenced, to share a drink with him in the summer evenings, and to say farewell to him every autumn. We are deeply saddened that when we did so in October 2018, it was for the last time.
He will be well remembered, and dearly missed.
Lorcan and Sarah.
. You and Charlie are more like Evel Knieval
Hope your feeling better Lorcan 
