A wild time with Mad Mex

I can tell you there was a lack of atmosphere amongst the riders and mechanics as it hit home just how dangerous this country can be. 

 

But as they say the show must go on. 

 

With the altitude of Guadalajara higher than thunder valley in America and temperatures well into the mid 30s I knew the bike was going to be slower than normal and keeping it cool was going to be tough. 

 

At altitude there is less oxygen, so less oxygen means less fuel injected for combustion resulting in less power. Altitude and heat are a mechanic's worst nightmare. 

 

With all the precautions taken we never actually got round to the qualifying race as all but two GP riders boycotted it, claiming that the track was too dusty and dangerous to ride. 

 

Come Sunday morning it was a different story.  The track was flooded completely like a mud race, with standing water added to the list of problems.

 

After warm-up washing the bike took forever in the shoddily-prepared wash bays provided  by the Mexicans. 

 

Getting the bike ready for the heat wasn't such a big stress as we kitted ourselves out with a compressor from Walmart and used ice in a kid's paddling pool to submerge the fuel can to keep it as cold as possible. 

 

After a poor start in the first heat I changed up the gearing for race two which seemed to do the trick, as Jake went 10-6 for seventh overall. 

 

After the heats it was a mad rush to clean the bikes and get everything packed back into the flight case to be sent off to Brazil that night. 

 

Luckily for us we were flying on Tuesday so Monday I had a easy day by the pool sampling some local Coronas. 

 

Tuesday came around way too quickly and the 2am wake up call was shock to the system, but I was happy to be getting out of Mexico after some of the sights I saw and stories I heard.

 

Twenty-two hours and three flights later I found myself in Brazil, rather tired and longing for a bed.  

 

As the bikes didn't turn up in Brazil until the late hours of Thursday evening it made Friday a long day, cleaning and preparing the race bike. 

 

But with that sorted and the cooler conditions it made for some good riding in front of a sellout crowd. 

 

Over the weekend Jake struggled as he caught a bout of food poisoning from a local restaurant.  

 

He actually had to come in for a toilet-break halfway through the pre-qualifying session. 

 

But come Sunday morning it didn't really matter how you qualified as it rained all night and due to the limited parts and luxuries at the track every rider chose not to ride the morning warm-up apart from the mx1 Suzuki team. 

 

As it rained so much and everyone was under-prepared I stopped off on the way to the track to pick up some mud-prep supplies from the local supermarket.

 

The first heat was a right mud fest with all the Brits riding as expected ,but come the second heat Jake was just done for.

 

Struggling with his sickness, he just tried to salvage some points.  

 

Getting out of the place afterwards was another mission in itself. 

 

I think all 21,000 fans tried to get into the pit tent to catch a glimpse of the riders or get some memorabilia. 

 

It was totally crazy but good fun – although getting back home was a relief. 

 

Nine flights, two gps and more than 18,000 miles covered was a busy and tiring two weeks. 

 

After a little suspension test at Lommel we made some big progress and headed off to the sixth round of the Dutch championships. 

 

With a more confident Jake and a better handling bike he claimed second overall and moved into third in the championship. 

 

That was the motivation we all needed as I had to work my weekend off getting the Brazil bike back up to GP standard ready for France.  

 

Saint Jean didn't really go as well as we hoped, but we came away with a good amount of points. 

 

Saturday we struggled a bit with bike set up and couldn't get Jake as confident as we liked. 

 

But with a new shock-setting and a new day he was feeling a lot more confident and ready for the racing ahead. 

 

Average starts and a graded track made making up time difficult as everyone in the top ten was pretty much on the same pace, but on the whole Jake was riding well, even though we didn't really get the results we were hoping for. 

 

After a quick road-trip across Spain it was time to spend a couple days on the beach, taking some well-earned rest before heading up to the track in Portugal.    

 

This track always holds some amazing races and this year was no exception. 

 

Saturday was a disaster in our camp though, as a mechanical problem forced us out of the heat race after ten minutes.

 

With gate pick 38 we didn't hold out much hope for Sunday, but as the rain started falling on Saturday evening I was hoping it would continue, as it would make the start more fair. 

 

A seventh-place start from gate pick 38 was more than we could have hoped for and a solid sixth in moto one was well deserved.

 

And for Jake to back it up in the second heat with a fifth place made my 2,000km trip back to the workshop well worth it. 

 

With only a day in the workshop before we head to the next Gp in Belgium this will be a pretty busy time and the midnight oil will be burning brightly.

 

But as they say you only get out what you put in. 

 

Until next month ...take it steady.