I’ve been staying at my brother Michael’s place on the Welsh border for the past week. The moment I arrived home from Valencia I packed up my van with my MX bike, trials bike and pushbike and set off to catch the ferry. Day one was fun, I went motocrossing at a practice track in Worcester. When I turned up I couldn’t believe the riders who were there: Stephen Sword, Billy McKenzie, Jason Dougan, Neville Bradshaw, Scott Probert, Martin Barr and Graeme Irwin to name but a few! Of course I should have entered the Intermediate category but I though screw it, I wanna ride with the pros. That was a decision I would soon regret as I got roosted corner after corner!
My brother Michael lives beside Chaz Davies so we’ve been cycling around the hilly Welsh countryside and riding motocross at Chaz’s track. Michael and I headed down to Brands Hatch to watch John in action during practice before returning to Kinsham to watch the races on TV. John results didn’t reflect the pace he had as he was capable of running top six so I’m really happy that the Kawasaki is showing promise this year.
Tomorrow we’re going to do some supermoto riding here then on Thursday I’m hooking up with Leon Haslam for some trials action. It’s been a fun few weeks since Valencia and on Sunday I’ll return home for a few days before heading to Assen. The Dutch track is a strong one for me and I feel we’ll be capable of fighting for the win once again. Valencia was just one of those weekends where it didn’t come together when needed. My pace was good for the podium but following a small spill in qualifying which forced me back to 13th on the grid then a slow start to the race in damp conditions 9th was all I could manage. I’m still 3rd in the championship so we’re still on course. We learned that bit more at Valencia about how this chassis works so I feel we’ve took another step forward. This is the best bike I’ve ever ridden, I couldn’t ask for much more as it’s strong in every area. Following Assen we have three tracks I’ve never ridden so that will be the big test. Can we fight for the title? We’ll know better after Salt Lake City!
Catch ya next time,
Eugene
