RIP Birdman. Will never forget what you done for me. I was 19, and the phone rang and it was Birdy. He asked if I would guest ride his bike at the Sunflower races. Told me to negotiate my own appearance money, keep all my prize and bonus money, and cover my expenses. And for good measure he let me use my then team livery. Long story short, we won all the races that weekend and after he flew me in his helicopter to the Port where we had to travel to another post season race. I destroyed one of his bikes in practice that weekend, and he always joked about it afterwards even though it would have amounted to 10’s of thousands. I told him how much it meant to me, as I was able to secure my first mortgage with that huge leg up. That’s one little story of the heart that Birdy had, and how driven he was to win. Our sport will be worse of without Paul Bird. My thoughts are with Frank, Jordan, Lexi and the PBM team.

Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook