It’s been a busy – and disappointing – few weeks for El Gordo who’s been running his training camps, dialling in his new bike and failing to get a ride at the scene of his first GP win…
I’m writing this from my hotel room in Spain during the last few days of my final camp. It’s night time and I’m exhausted from my work but DBR deadlines wait for no man and I gotta get down to business and type my tripe.
The riding has been awesome out here and I love my Suzuki. The track choice is vast and I have had many different types of terrain to challenge the new bike and get a good feel for the overall package. During the period of being here in Spain I have returned to the UK for two supercross events and also for a day’s testing with the Relentless Suzuki by TAS team mechanic Paul Conway. The race bike the team has produced is excellent so far. We will continue to make improvements once I am home from my work in Spain.
When this issue of DBR hits the shops I will have returned home and be based back in the UK. Testing and development will begin for both rider and machine as race schedules and weather allows us to do so. I’m excited to get progress made from where I finished off in 2010. I think talk’s cheap and I could continue to feed you with very convincing pre-race hype to fill the lines of this column but I’ll do everyone a favour and save you from trawling through such a pointless exercise. I know what I’ve got, I know what I’m going to give – let’s see where it gets me.
The London SX doesn’t please me when I reflect on it. I had sufficient pace and strength although couldn’t make a decent result. I was disappointed as it was my yellow debut. Liverpool was a bit better and I ended up on the podium with a third in the SX1 final.
This weekend coming is the opening race of the Maxxis British championship. I fly from Spain to the UK on Saturday and will be ready to tackle the track at Little Silver fresh on Sunday morning. I have memories from the same event in 2010 popping into my mind as I type this. If it goes as last year did then I’ll be satisfied enough. Too much focus is put on the series opener and everyone is so jacked up about it. Let’s see how it goes, eh?
For some odd logic I seem to be following as I type this, I feel against discussing what I have been doing recently. Almost as if I’m trying to keep my cards close to my chest and be a stealth challenger. Then when you are all least expecting it I’ll pull out my trump card – pow!
I discovered last week that round one of the Spanish MX Elite championship was at Talavera de la Reina. I entered the event as a wildcard, got my start permission and insurance from the MCUI, bought tyres, made numbers, borrowed tear-offs, bought an airbed and sleeping bags, drove the seven hours there from my camp, slept in the freezing cold van for a few cold hours and then woke up on Sunday morning to learn that they would only allow me to race if I’d been there on the Saturday to put the bike through Technical Control.
Talavera is where I won my first GP and it was always the opening GP of each season for a number of years. I was the last winner of a GP there. I have a certain connection to the place and was very, very excited to be returning there to race the track that brought me so much pleasure. Being told I couldn’t race due to a formal rule was a kick in the stones after I had gone to so much effort to try to make it happen. I had hoped they would make an exception. Perhaps next year I’ll get my way. Jonathan Barragan won both motos by the way.
I met an old friend of mine while I was there – Kari Tiainen. He is now running a WRC team for his famous Formula One buddy Kimi Raikkonen. ICE 1 Racing Team it’s called and OMG have they got gazillions of dollars to spend or what. Kari is a multi world enduro champion and I think he will do a superb job of running the team. Good luck to them.
Righto, it’s bed time. My eyes are now stinging and my jaw’s sore from yawning. Hopefully yours aren’t too after reading this.
Adios! El Gordo…
