Good Friday.

We arrived at Mallory Park late on Thursday evening. I hadn't seen my team mate "Lethal" Leigh Hutchinson, and his brother Alex since the last round of last year at Brands Hatch so it was good to catch up. However we were all quite sensible for a change and turned in fairly early for the early start tomorrow.

After signing on in the morning we got the bikes ready and went out for the first session. It felt good to back out on track so soon after Brands and it didnt take me too long to get into a good rhythm. The bike felt spot on once again. However it seemed Leigh had forgotten to tighten a few things up, so when I returned after the end of the session I thought it would be a good idea at the time to take the piss! I wish I hadn't now.

And sure enough, karma dictated my second session would be cut short, on the out lap! When my gear linkage fell off. Watching Leigh go round for 20 minutes was annoying to say the least and what made it worse was me thinking how much he would be able to rip the piss in return. I limped the bike back to the paddock in 4th gear and sure enough, he did.

But after we loctited and made sure every bolt on the bikes were secure the day really started to perk up.

We posted some very close times through out the day and our two best were within one-one hundrdeth of a second! Or 0.01. That isnt even a blink. Alex had predicted at the start of the 2008 season that we would be pretty close in times but even he couldnt believe how close his prediction was.

As the day started to wind down we decided to call it a day. Due to Leigh's old age and my sympathy pains. We were both chuffed with how the bikes felt and looked, so I think it was the right decision.

Onto Brands for the first round!

Brands Hatch Testing 21st/22nd Feb

The build up to the BEMSEE Brands Hatch "Rookie" weekend was frantic to say the least. The weekend is designed for rookies to get a feel of how a race weekend works, sit their ACU CTC course and to be examined on track. However BEMSEE was also running a test day for regualr racers.

This was my first proper outing since completing the bike. I would also be helping out two of my mates, Frank O'Reilly who was starting out out racing in the MZ class. And Tori Miller who was starting out in the Minitwins class with myself.

I had agreed to pick up Tori's bike and take it to the track for her, so Tuesday night I went to pick the bike up. I gave it a check over when I got home and to cut a very long story short, her engine was F**ked! The water jacket had cracked allowing the water and oil to mix. There was no way her bike was going to be ready for the weekend.

So I came to the decision I would lend her my bike... with my spangly new paint job. Oh dear! But to be fair she got through the weekend unscathed and got her ACU licence. As did Frank on his smokey MZ, when he remembered to turn off the kill switch.

As for myslef, I had a great time. The bike felt great, nothing fell off and I didn't bin it, however I did come close at one point. I was also posting lap times within half a second of my fastest time around Brands last year. So all is looking good for this season.

It's Finished!!

After what has seemed like an eternity, the bike is now finished! The final touch was the new paint job, designed by my team mate Leigh and I'm chuffed to bits with how good it looks.

I am off to Brands and Mallory before the season starts to see how much of this riding lark I have forgotten over the winter and hopefully blow out a few cobwebs.

I will also be lending my bike in its new fresh state to a mate of mine who is starting as a rookie. She does have her own bike but three days before her BEMSEE rookie day her engine decided to die. We think a cracked cylinder head is at fault causing all of her water to drain into the sump!

Please dont drop It!!!! :-)

Pre season build up

Well I made it back home safe and sound from my tour, but because of this instead of five months to prep the bike for the season I was left with just two.

Everything to date has felt rushed, but short of respraying the bike in the '09' colours I am ready to go.

The changes have been pretty minimal as the bike felt pretty good all last year. The main things to be changed are the reworked front forks and new race rear subframe, thanks to Steve, at Steve Jordan Motorcycles. I have also been tarting up the bike, powder coating the wheels, replacing anything that had started to rust and respraying a few components. I have also switched to GSXR1000K6 Bodywork.

I had my first outing of the year at Snetterton on the 1st of February, to check things were all OK and nothing was about to fall off. I braved the -1'C temperatures and snow! To put in about 25 hand numbing laps. But it was worth it as everything felt great. I'm booked into Mallory Park and Brands Indy before the season start too and I cant wait.

A rushed end to the season

Well I finally did it, my first race win! I left it until the last round of the year at Brands Hatch GP, but unfortunately the thrill was shortlived as in less than 48 hours I would be nearly 4000 miles away on one of my Government funded, all inclusive sandy holidays.

However I enjoyed the rest of the weekend picking up two more trophies along the way. A 3rd, 3rd and finally a 4th.

I arrived back home on the Sunday evening with only a few hours left to double check I had packed all of my kit that I would need for the next few months and to possibly get a few hours sleep. So the bike was abandoned in the garage and I was off.

Two months without a bike to tinker with in the off season was going to drive me mad!