Heaven is a race track

At 8:45am this morning i left home to ride the 35 miles to Ashford in Kent to collect my ride for the morning. Overcast and cooler than of late i had trouble getting heat into the Racetecs and had a steady, if uneasy ride to Laguna Motorcycles and was praying it would stay dry for the next 4 hours. At 9:15 Steve the salesman handed me the keys and showed me around the dash and controls and tbh it all looked very familiar, after all, just how much can they change in the way of controls and dash?. I must admit the dash did look very Race-esque with the revcounter the most prominent thing you notice. The nice added touch of being able to cycle through all the settings via a left thumb switch and easily used with a gloved hand, instead of having to stop and press tiny buttons like i do on the gixxer dash. After riding inline fours for the last 5 years I was slighlty worried about the transition to a twin again after so much time away. My last bike was an early 999 and before that a 74...

Bike Racers... what makes them tick? what exactly is it that drives them on? how do they think?    As a non-racer myself but privileged enough to be able to be on "the inside", i'll tell you about my experiences in the paddock. If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you will know that i am part of the "Team" that makes up Awesome Racing. If you're not then i'll explain. it isn't a big budget top race team but a New Era MCC Ducati one make series 'budget' Club racing team. My involvement is one of helping out when I can in bike preperation between rounds (rebuilds if the rider has had a trip into the scenery, which has been twice this season!) and when work and family allow it, I travel to the circuits for race weekends with the rider, as his spanner man and pit board operator. but i draw the line at being his brolly dolly!  So, what does a racer have, that us road riders do not?  Drive? ambition? big balls? No brains? Deep pockets? lack...

For those of you that have read my previous blogs, it is pretty obvious that i have a passion for everything bikes. I am lucky enough to own a pretty special road going superbike, a GSX-R1000 K8 '58 reg. I purchased this bike in September 2009 when the bike was 11 months old and had a little over 1000 miles on the clock, for a paltry amount of money in relative terms. List price at the time was a little over £8500 needless to say i payed a lot less than that! In fact I got it so cheap that i had it valued in April this year and I havn't lost any money on it. Now, i had traded a GSX-R600 for it and was pretty excited at the thought of having over 165BHP at my beck and call, but also fully aware that this machine would need respect in terms of how i used my right wrist. This model does have a switchable throttle map on the right switchgear next to my right thumb and the rider is able to switch between modes from 125bhp-150bhp-165bhp but i would rather use my better judgement and...

My good friend Matt Lawson ((Awesome Lawson) is a racer, you may have read about his 2010 Ducati Desmo season in one of my previous blogs); invited me to be his spanner man at Mallory park which was round 2 of the 2011 season. After several days of badgering the missus and re-organising my work diary, i accepted; and it turned out to be one of the most fun filled and frightening 48 hours of my life. Now, as you know i am a biker, but with limited track experience and having never experienced life inside the paddock on a race weekend i was actually beginning to get very nervous and unsure of what to expect, but Matt constantly reassured me i would be fine. Now, i am going to rewind back to March and round 1 and fill you in on the story so far, the story that led Matt to asking me to spanner for him. Brands Hatch was not a total disaster as Matt scored 2 very respectable 2nd places and a solid 40 points. in most peoples eyes a success. In the build up to the Saturday races Matt had a ...

Casey Stoner is 25 years old and with multiple 125cc, 250cc and Motogp wins and 1 world title with Ducati in 2007, which obviously goes to prove this young Australian has a wealth of talent. After 3 years of trying to regain his world title without success he saw an opportunity to jump ship from Ducati and was offered a unprecendented 3rd bike at Repsol Honda, partnering Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso. For most fans and riders this was the right move at the right time because towards the end of the 2010 season the Honda seemed to have the edge over Yamaha and Ducati. Casey has already ridden a Honda during the 2006 season, his first season in MotoGP and finished 8th overall with his highest finish a 2nd place in Turkey and only being beaten by Marco Melandri in the final turn. Ducati obviously saw a talent and signed him on a 1 year contract and promptly won the title in his first year, with 6 pole positions and 10 race wins. Pretty astonishing for a 21 year old. The following 2 ...

No, you didn't read the title wrong. Let me explain. I have what most people would say is an unhealthy obsession with all things World War 2, yes i know; another passion of mine and all started when i was very young sitting with my grandad watching the legend that is John Mills in The Colditz story. The true story of the allied escape from Colditz castle deep in the heart of Saxony, Germany. An apparantly unescapeable POW camp. From this moment on i was hooked, if it was a true story and WW2, i watched it or read it, and still do today. I have managed to amass around 60 dvd's and maybe the same amount of Books over the last 10 years and never tire of watching or reading them. i am always on the lookout for new material and beginning to get fed up looking.Each and every book or movie that i own are Historically factual or based on real events and they never cease to amaze me. Amaze me? what i really mean is, The men or women that these books or movies portray are amazing, bar...

Awesome Lawson, My mate Matt. Possibly another almost 40 something, going through a mid-life crisis. A Family man with 2 teenage sons and an established business who decided 3 years ago he would buy a race bike and go out and race.  When he told me i thought he was mad! For many years we have been doing track days on our bikes at various circuits around the country just for the thrill and escapism it provides, Track days are a risky business if you ride your road bike, but excellent fun, and better still if you are lucky enough to own a bike just for track days. neither of us did and when Matt realised that he was a lot quicker than most other track day riders he decided he would naturally take the next step...and RACE! Bike racing isn't for the young at heart, it's for the young of body!!!!! or so i thought. After spending the summer of 2008 getting his ACU race licence he decided to enter the desmo due one make Ducati race series.  i'll briefly explain what this ra...

Biking....my first passion.  Spring is here and that means the bike racing season is upon us. This means Motogp, WSB, BSB and such delights as IOM TT and Northwest 200. if it has 2 wheels and an engine and its televised, i watch it.  i have been a biker for 10 years this year and have had the pleasure of watching Valentino Rossi thorought his MotoGP career and i truly believe he is the Greatest of all time (GOAT). I have never missed a GP in ten years and this season will be no different. For many years Rossi has always had it his own way with many big name contenders falling by the way side in his wake, Capirossi, Biaggi, Gibernau and Pedrosa. some huge stars with equally big ego's and all have ridden for teams capable of beating him, but none succeeded and all fell foul of the Rossi's mindgames and dropped from grace with the top teams for not producing the results they wanted. 7 world titles speaks for itself in the record books and some riders, Gibernau in particular...