States date...
By TMX Archives on 12th Jan 04
WELCOME TO 2004! This is the time of year that whatever happened in the last 12 months becomes pretty much irrelevant, whether you had a great season or a crap one, because it's a clean slate for everyone.I enjoyed the Christmas break - WELCOME TO 2004! This is the time of year that whatever happened in the last 12 months becomes pretty much irrelevant, whether you had a great season or a crap one, because it's a clean slate for everyone.I enjoyed the Christmas break - it was a period for family and friends, both of which I don't get to spend enough time with during the racing season. So we make up for it over the festive season!I haven't been able to do a lot of preparation for the Dublin SX because the weather has been crap - one day in Sheffield was all I managed. I'll ride the bike that I won on in Belfast and would very much like to repeat the performance in the Point Arena as it will be my first race with Nick back on the spanners.The only bike riding that I got over the holidays was a local trial at Crossgar. I usually enjoy my trials riding but I rode crap - the sections were marked out badly and it had rained a lot so I must thank Ciaran and Malcolm for making me look like a pure amateur as I finished in a lowly 11th place.Three days after the Dublin SX, myself and Nick jet off to the USA for the start of serious preparation for the 2004 GP season. It's when I probably do more actual bike riding than at any other time during the rest of the season.We arrive at one of the many practice tracks at about 8am and generally don't get packed up until around 4pm, every day for two or three weeks. Tyres, suspension and a host of parts and settings have to be tried and tested on a variety of tracks - this is serious stuff. One of my favourite tracks in the States is Glen Helen Raceway. I'd love to race there and maybe someday I will but at the moment my priorities lie with GPs.I'll be back just in time for the prestigious Irish Racer Motorcycle Awards at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast where there will be televised red carpet interviews, a four-course banquet and a host of personalities and celebrities present. It's going to be a cracking night's entertainment and will give motorcycle sport the lift we need in the public eye.Now to the racing. My first international outing will be late February at Valence in France. Despite the ground being frozen rock solid last year I enjoyed the circuit and had a good result, taking a moto win over a certain Mr Everts. It would be nice to have good results in the early internationals but I have to try to remember that this is all just preparation for what is really important - winning when it counts.Two weeks later and it's back to Hawkstone Park for the UK International meeting and the week after that it's round one of the British championships which will be great preparation for the first GP the following week.On the home front it'll be good to have Josh Coppins racing in the British championship. He's hungry to get back into a full GP season and re-instate himself as a front runner - racing together in the national series will be good for both of us as I'm sure we'll push each other all season.The British scene will definitely be interesting this season with Coppins, Billy Mack and a few others moving into the Open class to make it even more competitive.Speaking of competitive, the 125 class will be worth watching next year. Atsuta and Jussi will have fun battling with a host of GP regulars - all of a sudden the British championship is a full-on international affair. While this will be great for the spectators and will make for some ***t-hot racing, in the short term our home-grown young racers may suffer. But it will help lift riders to the standard needed to compete at GP level.Gordon Crockard