Shake up!
By TMX Archives on 9th Dec 05
So finally the season is over and I can now look forward to 2006. So finally the season is over and I can now look forward to 2006. All-in-all it's not been a bad year as far as results are concerned although maybe I could have done a little bit better in the WEC. Well we've all seen the achievements of Knighter this year and I must say congratulations to him on a fantastic season. I'm sure this will be the first of many titles for the boy. Anyhow, for myself things are changing - big time! I've decided that all the travelling and the cost of the WEC have made it too difficult for myself and the team to continue in the WEC. So for '06 I will be focusing more on the UK events, indoor races and flying across the pond to chase some GNCC dollars! It's been a hard decision to make but I feel from a privateer's point of view the WEC is too costly regarding travelling. Next season with races in Sweden, USA, Canada and Greece I'll need rather a large wallet to be doing the events - too large in fact. So that leaves me out and I'm really fired up to be racing against Juha Salminen again. For '06 I'll continue with nearly all my sponsors and will be calling the team PAR Honda. Paul Rowlands is boss man and joining me are Paul Whibley and young Simon Wakely who has had some cracking results for us this season. Whibs will be back and I guess he will also be doing some races in the USA as Paul (Rowlands) is really keen for us to go and give the Yanks some abuse - or at least try to! You've probably heard that I've just won the BEC which I'm very happy about, although Knighter wasn't there due to other demands. But I'm still pleased to have won a major UK title and I'm sure that I'll again have my hands full defending the crown in '06. I'll be sticking with the CR250 for all events next year and plan on changing nothing from this year's set up. Onto the Fast Eddy race series front and you will see quite a few changes - the first one being that Putoline Oil have come onboard as the title sponsor so we are changing the name from Fast Eddy to the Putoline UKXC Championship. It's something that we'd been thinking about doing for a while but now seems the right time to do it. Also, by finding a big sponsor we can now put all the funds into prize money, trophies and a new website. The plan is to have a six-round championship with all rounds to count running from March through to August, giving everyone a bit of time off towards the end of the season. So what else has been happening? Well before the John Banks I went along to the Stoneleigh Show and saw a few people. The show I must say was very impressive and some of the stands looked really smart and professional. It was good to see that the teams were there showing off the bikes and trucks - just a shame they were outside as it was a bit too cold for me. Anyway, my plan is to have December off, get rid of our team bikes and make way for a fresh start. Finally, I would just like to thank the following people for all their help - PJB, Roger, Paul, Fordy, Karl, Ufo, Putoline and all other technical sponsors. Cheers - have a great Christmas and have a JD for me...