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MARCH 19, 2007: The ground-work has been done and now it’s a matter of reaping what’s been sown.
That’s certainly the hope of Taranaki's Hayden “Blondini” Fitzgerald, on his way back to the United Kingdom after making his debut there last year.
The talented 22-year-old Bell Block man packs his leather race suit, helmet, gloves and boots and flies halfway around the world this week, where he'll join the high-profile NCT Yamaha Race Team and begin testing ahead of the British Superbike Championships.
There will be little time to catch his breath with Fitzgerald straight into testing at Mallory Park, in the Midlands, and then more bike testing at Snetterton the following weekend.
He raced as a privateer in the lesser ACU Star Champs series last season and impressed by finishing runner-up to eventual champion James Rose (Yamaha).
Fitzgerald was approached by the factory supported Yamaha team in England late last year and invited to join it, although there was a catch -- he had to buy his way in.
He would not reveal the exact figure but it’s in the tens of thousands and he admits it is not cheap.
“But it's half of what any other rider would have to pay,” he said. “They had heard plenty about me and read material and seen photos in magazines over there. I was getting good publicity for my exploits.
“I received six separate offers to ride in various teams but I chose this one, despite the buy-in price. My attitude is that you've got to spend money to make money in this game and it's all by instalments anyway. Hopefully a bit of prize money will pay some of those instalments.”
This year he'll be based in Chesterfield, near Birmingham, and contest all 13 rounds of the superstock championship on board a Yamaha R1.
“I want to go all the way to the top,” said Fitzgerald, whose father, Terry, was the national formula three champion last year, although beaten into second place this season.
“I want to race the British Superbike Champs, the World Superbike Champs and maybe MotoGP.
“If I had chosen to take the AMA (United States) route, I probably could make more money but I'd also probably end up becoming comfortable and staying there and not getting to the world championships. It would be nice to win a world motorcycling title.”
He had a mixed campaign in this year’s New Zealand Motorcycle Championships, which wrapped up at Pukekohe nearly a fortnight ago.
“My season started pretty well (in Invercargill in early January). I qualified second fastest and then finished fifth and third in the two superbike races, going under the lap record. It was my first ever podium finish in superbikes here.
“I went under the lap record during qualifying at round two (at Timaru in January) but then had a massive 280 km/h get-off on the back straight. I was okay and used my back-up bike for the rest of the day but I then had mechanical problems and scored no points for the day.”
Fitzgerald (riding a Honda) bagged two fifth placings at Pukekohe’s final round (on March 11) and finished the six-round series seventh overall, just two points shy of taking the No 6 spot.
New Zealand has a proud motorcycling history at world championship level and, if Fitzgerald has anything to say about it, that looks set to continue.
“Watch this space,” he said.
As for the Blondini nickname, what’s the story there?
“That was just a name a few guys gave me years back. I thought it was because they believed me to be some kind of magician or something. It turns out it’s because I look like the main character on the Goodbye Pork Pie car Kiwi chase movie, a hard-case mini driver who wore funny glasses and a clip-on moustache.
“He had bushy eye-brows just like mine.”
