Heaven is a race track

It all started about 2 months ago when a friend suggested checking out PTR on the internet and asking me what i thought a and would i be interested?  and as a petrolhead i couldn't resist. PTR is billed as 'The first and most advanced formula racing simulator in the world'. After googling it, they do not lie. The centre is situated only a mile from Gatwick North Terminal and within easy reach of London and the south coast and the home counties. It seemed the perfect location for a meet-up with 9 other like minded friends, so set about organising what could be the best day out for any racing fan remotely interested in F1. After several phone calls to the very helpful staff at PTR the deal was done. 25th April 4pm was written in the diary at a cost of £450 for the race experience plus deal for 10 people. A very reasonable £45 per head for 3x15 minute sessions. A 50% Deposit was taken to confirm the day and the rest settled on arrival. It was booked and all we had to...

On Sunday August 15th 2010, the worst kept secret in MotoGP history finally became official.  9 times world champion Valentino Rossi signed for Ducati. Ducati Corse Press Release: VALENTINO ROSSI AND DUCATI TOGETHER FROM 2011 Ducati and Valentino Rossi have signed a two year agreement for the nine-times World Champion to race with the “Rossa” of Borgo Panigale in the Ducati Marlboro Team from 2011. The arrival of Valentino in Ducati opens a new and exciting chapter in the Italian factory’s sporting history and, indeed, of the whole MotoGP Championship. The opportunity of lining-up such an extraordinary rider and character is considered by Ducati to be a huge value to the whole Ducati MotoGP project. “We are delighted to announce that Valentino Rossi will be with us from 2011,” commented Gabriele Del Torchio, President of Ducati Motor Holding. “He is a paragon of excellence in the world of motorcycling, coherent with our Italian company which is a...

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 ...