Earth mover!
By TMX Archives on 16th Nov 05
Words by Stephen Sword Photo by SuttyWith the season coming to an end I had one last stop in Holland for the final round of the Dutch championship. Words by Stephen Sword Photo by SuttyWith the season coming to an end I had one last stop in Holland for the final round of the Dutch championship. The race was held at a place called Mill - I'd been there before but that was almost six years ago when I was riding for the MJ Church team. Even though it was so long since I'd last been the track was exactly the same. Sand of course but still a nice track.I had a healthy lead over second place in the championship but threw most of that away in the first race. I had a big crash on the first lap over a big jump and I was lucky not to injure myself. The bike was okay too so I could continue.The second race went much better. I got a good start, found a good rhythm and when I crossed the line I was the new Dutch champion. It was a great feeling and a good end to a not-so-perfect season. It wasn't as good a feeling as when I won my first British championship but it still felt good.I'm looking forward to coming back to race the British championship next year. With the Dutch race being my last on the 250F we started testing on the 450 ready for next year. I stayed in Holland for a few days before the team and I jumped on a plane to race the last round of the Japanese championships.The testing we did out there went very well and I was really looking forward to my first race on the 450 but the track was in a right mess with all the rain they'd had the night before. They even had to cut out some parts of the track because we couldn't get round.I had a couple of good rides but I couldn't get used to the concrete start at all so I had to come through the pack. All the Japanese guys at Kawasaki made us very welcome and took great care of us while we were there.There was nothing much exciting happening out in Japan aside from the one night when I was in my hotel watching a bit of TV when the room started shaking, then the TV itself started to shake. It took me a while to register that I'd just experienced a small earthquake. I was a bit shocked but it only lasted for about 20 seconds.After I got back home I took a couple of days off to get over the jetlag before I headed up to the show at the NEC. I had a good chat there with two of Kawasaki's road racing men - Chris Walker and Shinya Nakano.I've met Chris a few times before and I knew he'd done a bit of motocross to keep himself fit. He was asking about the 450F because he's thinking about getting one for the winter. Shinya is a good guy too and with him being Japanese I shared the tales from my trip to Japan with him.He also rides a motocross bike to keep himself fit and admitted that he thinks motocross is much more difficult than road racing. I agree but I do have a lot of respect for the Tarmac guys going down straights and taking corners at the kind of speeds they do.Things are pretty quiet for me at the moment and there's just time to have a few weeks rest before firing up the winter training programme. I've got a couple of schoolboy club presentations that I've been asked to present the trophies at so maybe I'll see some of you there. If not, good luck with what you're doing and have fun!See ya!