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Week before Grand Prix Two, 2002
Well things have been busy in the past couple of weeks, and there’s just time to update before I hit the road for Spain.
I was lucky enough to be invited to Qatar for the International. Along with a whole group of riders I boarded the plane and headed off the Monday night after Valkenswaard .
The first day I spent lazing by the pool, playing ping pong and shooting some pool with Ben Townley, Tyla Rattray, Smets etc. But we soon bored of that and went swimming … it was hot! I mean real hot and humid also.
The service out there was great. I put on about 5 kg as they had a huge buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner: I rolled out of there 3 times a day.
Wednesday was practice. The track was 45 minutes from the hotel. The bus driver got lost on the way … God knows how spectators could find the place.
The track looked awesome. Imagine the sand dunes you’ve seen on all the Crusty Demons of Dirt videos, mark out a track, add some jumps and start tearing it up! It was hard on the bike but my mechanic Fabio kept mine going sweet. I was fastest all day and the cool thing was I was just having fun. The big bikes were killing the 125s on the uphills. I would look back as I passed them just to have a laugh.
That night I was tired so after another pig out at the restaurant it was time to call it a day, but the US Super X from Daytona was on TV so I checked that out and then caught some zzzz’s.
Thursday we arrived at the track for race day to see the bikes had all rusted big time overnight, I mean the pipes, discs etc. You could taste the salt in the sand as you were riding! My new bike wasn’t looking too flash anymore! Poor Fabio.
The day went pretty good, I was 3,2,2. Smets won on a 520 and I was second overall. My teammate Pit Beirer won the first moto but had a big getoff in the 2nd. Luckily no serious injuries.
The 125s got a 20 second head start. They would ride so hard on the flat areas of the track, just to get us smoke them on the uphill.
There was a prize for teams of three riders each. Obviously Pit, Andrea and I were Team Honda Vismara. We cleaned up. Carrado Maddii our Race Manager was stoked.
Friday the whole group of us flew back to Europe. But the airline overbooked the plane by 20 people. I got on but BT (Ben Townley) was left waiting till the last minute. He tried bribing the check-in dude with a hundred bucks U.S. First Benny wanted an upgrade for that, but he ended up settling for an economy seat back with us. I was teasing him as I walked off to the departure gate, “I’ll see ya in Spain. Bad Benny was gutted.
Anyhow back to Belgium for some good training with my trainer Yves D. And then I packed things up yet again to head off to Italy. I flew into Florence on Tuesday night and spent the next two days pedalling some serious laps at the team track at Carrado’s. Two days, 40 litres of gas, 5 rear tyres, 8 litres of water. It was awesome.
Fabio was happy with my riding and so was I. We mostly did a variation of motos and a little bit of testing and I’m happy to say my Honda is going great. Friday I went to the gym and then rested up as that weekend I had an international in Mantova, northern Italy.
I had a pretty average weekend although I still managed third overall. Pit and I stood on the podium, with Carrado as Race Manager. I thought I rode well at times through the weekend, other times I made the odd silly little mistake. My start is normally my forte, but in moto one I was virtually last around the first turn. I rode real hard to get up to fourth in that race and I was pretty stoked with that, I though it was a real good result.
I got the start right in moto two and I was comfortable in second following Pit, thinking I had it all under control. As soon as I thought that of course I made a stupid little crash. I got back up in third and that was my race.
Meanwhile Joel had some mysterious problems with his bike stopping and he ended up a lap down and there went his chance for the weekend after he had looked so fast the whole two days. Pit stood on top of the podium with a pair of second placings.
Now I’m getting in some more good training in Italy before GP2. Roll on Espagne.
Talk to you after that.
Ciao
Josh #6
