A&E!
By TMX Archives on 15th Mar 05
The season is now up and running and I'm writing this just before I pack my race gear and head for Hawkstone Park for the opening date of my 2005 race calendar. The season is now up and running and I'm writing this just before I pack my race gear and head for Hawkstone Park for the opening date of my 2005 race calendar. Among other duties my main activity for the past month has been practising on my Yamaha. I've been trying to focus on preparing on the entire season as opposed to thinking about the first few races only.It's a common mistake for riders in motocross to get so pumped up and enthusiastic at the beginning of the year only to lose interest a couple of months into the season. I don't plan on falling into this trap so for me it's important to not over do it too soon and to be sure I am prepared for a long hot summer of GP racing.My English gentleman friend Gary Freeman popped over to visit me a few weekends ago for a chance to catch up on each other's lives. The weekend he came was the same one as the Irish Racer Magazine Awards dinner so of course we went along to that for a laugh and a night out in a tux.Amy and I were there as guests of Red Bull and had the pleasure of sitting at a table full of Tarmac stars. James Toseland, the World Superbike Champion, was next to me and we spent the whole night chatting about various topics.He is very disciplined about his diet and training from what I could understand. I was glad of his company on that particular evening as it did not make me feel so much of a non-drinking bore with both of us sober while hundreds of others were fully blocked.Steve Dixon and his wife Lavina were also at the awards dinner and we went out riding the next day. Steve has invested in a video camera to add to his toolbox. He took some footage to check out how good the suspension was working and to analyse different things between rider and bike working together.He got some good shots but missed out on a few quid by not managing to capture my enormous crash towards the end of the day. If he'd filmed that one then for sure it would have made it to You've Been Framed. I'm sure the sponsors would be happy of the prime time TV coverage!Next up was for me to catch a cold that put me indoors and off the bike for about 10 days. I went back into my training programme after that and was much happier to be over the cold and feeling much better.I find it really hard to avoid illness at this time of year with the way the weather treats us and also my immune system drops due to hard training sessions. I look forward to the warm sun shining on my back I can tell you!The Bike it rep for Ireland asked me if I could make an appearance at the opening of the new Yamaha dealership that's not far from Belfast. So I went along and performed the standard issue photos and interviews. The shop was packed with people and had a good display of Bike it products.Hopefully in Northern Ireland the awareness of their products will increase with my involvement as a sponsored rider. There's certainly a market for it with the sport growing the way it is here.Last summer when I was off injured I took some time to build a practice track close to home. I let it settle over winter and have just put another day of digger work into it recently to finish it off. Although it has been pretty cold lately it's been extremely dry and this resulted in me getting out on the new track.Apart from the temperature the conditions were awesome - imagine riding something you would find in the summer. I even managed to de-knobble a tyre, quite unheard of this time of year.My friend Mark 'Elly Belly' Elliott and Alex Butler drove over from Northampton to join me for a week's practice. They must have brought some bad luck as a gift for me as the first day we rode I crashed, landing heavy on my head.At first I thought I had knocked all the sense out of me but afterwards I realised I was just as daft as I was before crashing. I continued to ride the rest of the day feeling not too bad and prepared the bike and us to go out again the next morning.During the night I experienced delayed concussion, vomiting all night and spent most of the next day with the worst headache I've ever had. I went to hospital to make sure all was okay upstairs and spent the next few days resting up before I got back on the bike at the end of the week.Jeremy McWilliams is getting himself geared up for a good season in the British Superbike Championship and took a day off to come riding with me as a fun way to get bike fit. He did not fancy the deep sand track too much but was more than happy to create his own enduro/rally/cross-country lap.He's used to the high MPH factor and carries it across to his MX interests. After the high speeds I saw him bomb along at I have him classed as a Throttle Jockey in my book.On the same day after riding I was moving my tool box and managed to tweak a disc in my lower back so the next morning I got straight into see a very good osteopath and had it fixed.I'll stay off the bike for a couple of days and test my race bike just before Hawkstone with the team. The next day we're in Birmingham for a fund-raising dinner for Laurie Squirrell and then on Saturday I have a photoshoot with Onfire for some adverts for their catalogue. After that I get myself over to Hawkstone and into bed early to be sure I'm energised for Sunday's motos.Cheers for reading this - I'll see you at the races.