The bike’s prepped, the body’s ripped and Jake’s counting down the days until the season kicks off…
Hi everyone – how’s it going? It’s been another busy happening month for myself along with everyone else involved in the sport. Everything’s really starting to kick off now which is cool and there’s a fair bit of excitement about the upcoming series plus the current SX championship in America. Will Roczen be able to sustain throughout the year? I think it’s going to be really tough for him to do so against a well-rested and prepared GP field. But he’s always good for a surprise and I’m glad he’s coming back to do the series after small talk of him wanting to stay in CA blah blah blah. In one respect who can blame the kid, how many of us at 16 had chicks with silicone bits chasing after us? Ha ha ha!
I’m excited about it all and enjoying my riding a lot on the new bike. I’ve clocked a good number of hours up on it now and also got a few in in some sloppy conditions since I’ve been back. Since I last wrote I competed in a cool race I mentioned last time called the Golden Nuggets in Greymouth – the weird name is because the track’s on the edge of an old river bed where they’ve found a lot of gold so each podium trophy has a few flakes of gold in it which is pretty cool. I brought the winner’s trophy back to sunny Suffolk which was nice.
We raced three 15-minute motos on both Saturday and Sunday. It was a cool event, really family-orientated and a rough track. A little like Brampton but a bit firmer. It was also cool to see the M2 division mixed with 250Fs and 250 two-strokes like they do in amateur racing in America. It’s such a good idea and I wish it would take off over here because I love 250 smokers and because it allows privateers to still be competitive as it’s cheaper for them to have fast bikes which they can do most of the work on themselves. Hope this happens one day…
From the race onwards JC and I really worked really hard on sharpening every part of our riding up and thanks to Mike Church again for pit-boarding us the whole time. Poor ol’ Mike was juggling between two phones trying to time us both and pit-board too – he did a good job though. Tom would be proud! I was sad to leave NZ and the Coppins/Church family behind, they’ve been so good to me and I felt at home 24/7. I was sad to see the back of my bike too after looking after it so well and it being so good to me. Big thanks to KTM for helping me with the bike.
I flew back in normal seats which wasn’t too smokey after being spoilt in first class on the way out – especially when within a minute of sitting down I could smell some old munter’s feet who must have been on some nature trek! I wasn’t happy at the time but 30 hours or so later I was greeted by Blu at the airport and soon after that by my Jack Russell, Percy, in the car. I was happy but spaced right out by the flight so I went out for a nice big roast the next day and rested up before testing the following day at my track. It was a bit too close for my liking but WP had been booked and I wasn’t up for missing out on getting set up.
It was nice to see Wayne and Jeremy again after a few cold months, they have been working ridiculously hard as usual to keep the wheels rolling and building us bikes. First day of the test was good – I was still spaced out as I hadn’t slept that well but man was it nice to ride my track. I hadn’t ridden the MX track since the day I broke my leg (which is pretty good nowadays actually – a bit stiff when cold but not too bad) on November 4 and it hasn’t been graded since it got built in April. It roughed up good with myself and team-mates Irwin and Booker thrashing around.
The second day was much better – I felt at home and the bike felt really good. The track was getting very rough and I felt fast. I did a lot of riding then did my first bit of boxing in a while that night which was fun – it took some getting into though. First few rounds I was a bit loose and got a few smacks which I wasn’t too pumped on but then I woke up and started giving them back which felt good. Meanwhile, the Holeshot King was giving the mechanics and riders a boxing lesson and had them doing a bit with each other. They seemed to enjoy it and I got a serious sweat on after about 20 minutes of not leaving the ring.
Next day we left the house at 6am for FatCats near Doncaster – what a place that is! I’d read about it but didn’t realise what a cool all-weather set-up they’ve got there. I was so tired and it rained all day so I sat in the van and said ‘I will ride tomorrow, I need my rest’. Next day I rode every session possible and had a awesome day’s riding in the Lommel-like sand up there. Highly recommend that track to anyone.
I came home and Wayne and I tested a few more bits the next day and David Knight came up to try his bike before the Muntjac Enduro that Sunday. It was cool to have him up – he’s a top bloke. I had the weekend completely off after a hectic week. My mates and I drove up and watched Knighter and the rest of the enduro boys ride on Sunday which was nice for a change and I wish I could have done it to be honest if I had the energy.
I’m sat here in our conservatory typing this at 10pm after two solid days riding and a long 360-mile round trip to north Lincolnshire to ride today at a cool track called Salters Lane. So it’s a shower then bed for me, a nice rest tomorrow then just the finishing touches for the weekend and the first round of the Maxxis British championship. I’m up for it and I know I’ve worked so hard for it and I can’t wait to get the racing under way…
