Stoked!
By TMX Archives on 11th Mar 04
AFTER PLENTY of waiting around the time finally arrived to get the racing under way with the first round of the Spanish championships and also to head to France for the WEC pre-season presentation.After much debate I decided to send the team AFTER PLENTY of waiting around the time finally arrived to get the racing under way with the first round of the Spanish championships and also to head to France for the WEC pre-season presentation.After much debate I decided to send the team to France as I figured it would be good PR. And after all the talk of 'this will happen and that will happen' we managed to get a little bit of riding in too. No-one looked like they wanted to be there but I felt that it wasn't all that bad, especially when the preview managed to get 20 minutes of exposure on Motors TV. Not too bad and certainly a lot better than in previous years, so after thrashing the Sprinter there and back in just two days it was a well worthwhile trip.I've been flat-out training, testing and putting the team together and it's been great! Yep, I'm well happy and feel really pumped with the bike. Speaking of which, our final WEC machine set-up is now done and I'm currently working on signing up a full-time mechanic from Italy at the moment.On the downside, I'm still waiting for the truck to be finished and it's doubtful that it will be ready for the Weston Indoor Arena enduro or the first round of the Fast Eddy series. I'm keen to make sure that it's finished properly and ready to go to the races fully loaded - not a half-hearted job. I think when she's finished you certainly won't miss her in the paddock and with the awning on the side we should have enough room for you all!Anyway, enough of that and onto the first round of the Spanish Enduro Championship - an event that's more like a WEC round than a national championship. I was optimistic about having a good result and also looking forward just to being able to race again on a machine that is proven and more than good enough to win on.One thing about racing in Spain is how chilled out everyone is and the one-day events are mega - and not just because you don't have to change tyres. The buzz from riding in Europe is without a doubt the best experience ever and so is racing against WEC #1 Juha Salminen. This bloke is a true champ and certainly gets the job done.After a bit of practice and walking of tests it was soon Sunday morning and the moment of truth - time to see if all my hard work had paid off. I felt quietly confident as I've been practising with some top class MXers and felt my pace against them was pretty good.Now being an old boy it normally takes me a bit of time to get going (I'm sure you know the feeling Mr Lawless) but after exiting the first test of the day I found myself winning the damn thing. I couldn't believe it! Not too bad for an old 'un - it must be the Viagra or maybe just the Honda which I think definitely has something to do with it. I got third on test two and from there on out it was a mixed day with some good tests and the odd bad test. The day ended with a good result - third in class behind Salminen and Cervantes wasn't too shabby for starters. For me it was a lot of personal satisfaction knowing that I can genuinely run with these guys who I must say are bloody good riders.After flying home I had to have a trip to the Weston Arena to finalise things for the indoor enduro. I must say the two guys down there put a lot of effort into the place and if we had more guys like them then, for sure, lots of good things would happen in our sport. Anyway, the course is going to be well good and a proper enduro event with logs, rocks, jumps, water splashes and anything else we can think of to throw at the riders. I'm also looking forward to racing it.Speaking of which I've got six weeks of continuous competition ahead of me and I can't wait. I'm really enjoying riding these two-stroke machines and I'm really happy to be racing in the UK again so I can show everyone that I'm still the daddy - just wait and see!Words by Paul Edmondson