Heavy hitter!
By TMX Archives on 21st Oct 03
THE FINAL KWSMX round of the season was held at Bridgnorth and the track had the best soil that I've seen in a long while. THE FINAL KWSMX round of the season was held at Bridgnorth and the track had the best soil that I've seen in a long while. It made the otherwise unchallenging track fun to race on but there was nothing to separate the fast guys from the really fast guys.I pulled my best starts of the year only to be passed by Stephen Sword along the start straight. I guess four-stone in weight made all the difference as Swordy flew past me. We had a good battle in the first moto - which I won - and in the second moto I crashed and could only make it back to third at the flag for second overall. The KWS series will return to Bridgnorth next year and will no doubt continue to develop this facility in the Midlands.The next outing on my calendar was the Donington Park British Superbike round. Myself and Jerry Maguire (my manager) had a great day's craic. It was good to see all the ex-motocross guys kicking ass! Michael Laverty and Karl Harris showed the rest of the racers the way to go - both these guys used to race with me so it was good to see them at the top of their game. Another eye-opener about the British Superbike scene was the flaunting of the wedge! A ***tload of money is involved in the sport, the hospitality was second to none and the campers were of movie star standard. On my return home I received a full set of Alpinestars leathers - they're pretty cool let me tell you. I really fancy a day at the Ron Haslam race school during the off-season.For the Motocross des Nations the rain was unbelievable - if it was at any other venue in the world then the event would have been cancelled.Thank goodness the paddock was on Tarmac so at least the pits were clean and dry. Team Ireland had set a goal - to reach the A Final - and on paper that was going to be bloody tough going. But I'd been practicing during the week with Brian and Adam and we were all up for it. Against all the odds the track dried out fine, although the faces of the jumps and uphill sections of the track were dodgy enough and caused a few clinched butt moments.We achieved more than we ever thought possible. Okay, I may have been third in the final if I'd got a better start but seventh overall for Ireland was fan-bloody-tastic. The fact that RC won is no big surprise - what is though is that I was with him on the opening lap. The final was at five in the afternoon and the sun was blinding everybody. On the approach to this very rutted jump I couldn't see a thing and was slowing down accordingly to pick my line while RC was giving it large on the Honda like he could see where he was going - the point is, he couldn't! He wasn't that much faster than Stefan but the aggression and commitment to passing some of the fastest riders in the world was self-evident during the opening laps of the moto. RC was not going to give anyone a chance to make the break.It's every motocrosser's dream to wheelie your beloved bike down the main street of your local town - well let me tell you, I did and it's the dog's-danglies. The cops even stopped to watch! Thanks to one of Matt Bates' publicity stunts I got to ride my Honda around the streets of Belfast and wheelied around the City Hall. The clock is ticking down for the supercross at the Belfast Odyssey Arena - this will be my chance to make up for last year and I really want to win in front of my home fans. I'll even have a factory 250 Honda to do the job!GordyPS You better be there to cheer me to victory, I may need all the help I can get.