Winning ways!
By TMX Archives on 18th May 04
FOR THE first Fast Eddy of the year the going was certainly horrendous to say the least. FOR THE first Fast Eddy of the year the going was certainly horrendous to say the least. The weather before the event was great but, as usual, on the morning of the event the heavens opened and it was torrential rain all round.It's been hard for me to take a back seat for the Fast Eddys as we all care about the events a great deal. One thing I will say is that the new team that's helping run the event is great and during the race I even found time to stop and have a laugh with most of the helpers.Anyway, enough of that and on to the race. For me the game plan was clear - get off the line good and push hard. The plan worked well and after two laps I came across a stricken KTM parked up. It was Knighter who'd had a problem and was out of the event. Once I saw he was out I just cruised. The rest of the race went well and the bike ran perfectly, never missing a beat. The team did good too - Paul Whibley did well finishing second to the boss and young Simon gained valuable experience in the difficult conditions - so all-in-all a great event even if it was a little muddy!After Ellesmere we had a weekend off and I spent mine on a trip to Plymouth for a weekend celebrating the memory of JD (John Deacon) - a great person and a friend to many people. It was two days of trail riding with a lot of John's personal friends organised by his brother Rob. JD's still missed by all of us for sure and always will be.After driving home on Sunday I was booked on a flight first thing on Monday morning to Italy to test and train before the WEC event in Metalica. Giorgio my mechanic had some things for me to test and a new rear shock was high on the list. After a few laps with the old one on he changed it so I could try it back-to-back. The result was about a second-and-a-half gain in nearly two minutes of riding and, just to make sure, he even changed it back again. He was right and the new shock was fitted ready for the race.The event had some long special tests and very fast and flowing MX tests with an enduro test that was half extreme test thrown in for good measure. The first day was dry and I started off well - third on the first test which for me is great as normally I'm a bit slow away.I was soon running second to Salminen but yet again I was about to come across a stricken KTM. This time though it was serious - it was Salminen and he'd thrown a chain and it had gone through the crankcase. Ouch! Realising that there was a great opportunity to take the lead I grabbed it and ended up winning the day. What a day and it just proves that when it looks like a rider has got it all wrapped up things can change.Onto the second day and my game plan was to try to finish second and take some good points. However, overnight rain soon changed that and realising that the Fast Eddy race had done me good I knew that I could compete with Salminen in the mud. The first test gave me a real confidence boost and other than being thrashed on one of the enduros tests the day went really well and I continued to pull away from Juha on every test to finish 14 seconds ahead. Leading the world championship is certainly something I didn't expect to be doing at this stage in the season and I feel very confident now and will make a real push for the rest of the season. The only thing for me to work on now is how to be a little quicker in the dry then I can mount a serious challenge for the title. Anyway, I'm off to France now - I'll keep you posted on how much I've twisted it next month.By Paul Edmondson