Time for my screen test - Jack Sheppard
By TMX Archives on 29th Jun 12
The 18-year-old Jitsie factory Beta rider tells us about his progress in the Junior division of the 2012 FIM Trial World Championship, life in front of the TV cameras, and going to Goodwood...
Since my last column, I have competed in three more rounds of the 2012 FIM Trial World Championship, in Australia, Japan and Spain, all of them two-day events.
So it's been a busy month and I won't be slowing down any time soon.
In fact, at the time of writing this, I am in the team truck travelling from Spain to Andorra for the fifth round of the series.
After a difficult start to the championship, it looked as though things were beginning to go my way in Australia.
I was fourth on both days there and only missed out on third place by three marks.
This was a big improvement on my results in the French opening round and moved me up from ninth to fifth position overall.
So, when I arrived in Japan a week later to compete in the third round of the series I was feeling a lot more confident.
Unfortunately this did not translate into my results as I dropped to fifth place on day one and then to ninth place on day two, although I did manage to hold on to fifth overall.
After Japan, I spent a week in the UK, including a day in London filming for a prime time TV show.
I'm afraid I'm not allowed to tell you anything more about that just yet – other than it was good fun. So watch this space (or your TV guide) to find out which show.
Then it was over to Spain for the fourth round of the World Championship, where some unusually dry and slippery conditions caused me to crash on the first section of the opening day.
I smashed into some rocks and lost my helmet in the process, so as you can imagine my face didn't look too pretty afterwards.
Luckily all my teeth are still intact and my nose isn't broken, just a few cuts and bruises.
I finished the day in ninth place, which was a good result considering the shaky start I'd had.
I'd hoped for a better result the next day, but unfortunately I slipped down to thirteenth.
Although I'm still in the top-five in current championship standings, my results in the series to date haven't quite been what I had originally hoped for.
It's frustrating because I know I am capable of much more. I missed out on quite a lot of bike time and training before the series started, due to recovering from wrist surgery and I think this has showed at times.
Also, with this being a short season there has not been much time to let my wrist recover between rounds.
However, it is getting stronger, and with three rounds (Andorra, Italy and Great Britain) still to go, my aim is to finally make it onto the podium and move up the rankings.
After Andorra, it's back to the UK and to the Festival of Speed at Goodwood. I've never been or ridden in the event before so I'm really looking forward to it. I'll let you know how I get on in may next column. Bye for now!
