Busy body!
By TMX Archives on 14th Sep 05
Well guys, since last month things have been pretty busy with racing and doing some other stuff like my training school days and Kawasaki dealer days.I started off with a Dutch championship race and with me still leading the championship I was Well guys, since last month things have been pretty busy with racing and doing some other stuff like my training school days and Kawasaki dealer days.I started off with a Dutch championship race and with me still leading the championship I was eager to do well. The day started off with heavy rain so the track was very boggy in places but it soon dried up when the sun came out.I ended up with a pair of second places and extended my lead from five points to 23 in the championship. We've only got one more round to go on the ninth of October at Mill.The week after that I arranged some training schools at Winterbourne Gunner. I had three great days down there with great bunches of kids and adult riders. It made me realise how lucky I am to be racing for a living and how lucky I am to have these people want to come and ride and learn from me for the day. Thank you all for coming - I hope you all learned something and had a great day.When the final training school was done and dusted I packed my camper and headed to Holland to do some riding with the team before the German GP at Gaildorf. I got to Gaildorf on the Thursday and the weather was really hot so I was drinking plenty of water expecting it to be a really hot race.But as usual - for this year - the heavens opened on Friday afternoon and turned the track into a mud bath. The track was very muddy, sticky and rutty. On Sunday it stopped raining but the damage was already done to the track and there was just one dry line all the way around.The races didn't go so well for me - I got bad starts and had too many crashes. My speed was okay but I just had too many crashes (didn't you just say that? - Sutty). I was disappointed because I don't mind the mud so I was hoping for a better day.The week leading up to the Isle of Wight GP involved spending two days at the Kawasaki dealer and try out days. It was a good couple of days' riding and it was great to see so many guys come out and try the bikes.On Friday morning I had to get in the camper and drive down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry over the GP. I rolled up to the port at about 8.30am so that was perfect timing as I was booked on the nine o'clock crossing.I saw Nunny's camper so I popped over to see what boat he was on. Bubbs was in the driving seat and Nunny was in the back still asleep so I woke him up by shouting at him. We had a coffee on the boat before getting off and heading to the track.As we pulled into the circuit it all looked mega - I couldn't wait to get out and ride it. I felt really good on the bike all day on Saturday even though I had to go to the LCQ after a silly crash in my heat race - I still felt positive for Sunday though.In heat one I got a bad start from the outside but was making progress through the pack in the first few laps before getting rammed from behind by David Philippaerts - cheers Dave! I remounted but way down the pack and had my moments in the race where I put in a few good laps.Race two wasn't much better. After another bad start I was coming through well until Patrick Caps crashed on one of the tabletops and I landed on his bike. By the time I got the bikes separated and then started my Kawasaki I was a lap down so I didn't continue. Not a great day for my home GP but I've still got Desertmartin to try and win.Well guys, that's it for another month so good luck with your racing and riding.See yaWords by Stephen Sword Photo by Alex Hodgkinson