The BRITISH GRAND PRIX

Well, it's just about sinking in. I was there, at the British GP, only for the first time since I've been going (1990), I was the other side of the fence, the paddock side. It's difficult to put into words just what this achievement means to me, in fact, just how quickly it has come around, as well.

Main Photo page

When I started adult motocross back in 1989, I was following in my childhood dreams. I'd always wanted to be doing world championship motocross. Back then it was riders like Jem Whatley, Rob Herring, Alex Puzar and Donny Schmidt that had the jobs that I dreamt of. Then in 1990, after being amazed by a bloke called Kevin Schwantz, I went along to Donington Park and the British GP to see what it was all about. With eurosport covering 500GP's, I followed the championship religiously, desperate to see Mr Schwantz become a world champion. Every year since then, I've been at Donington for the British GP, throughout the poor attendance's but every year desperate to come back and witness it all again.

When my time at motocross was cut short (due to thieving baxxxrds), and my road racing days started, I've sat there on the grass at 'Craner' and every year asked myself what it would be like, to just be in the paddock. I've watched the support races, there on the grass, and my Uncle Andy and I, wondered if I could compete, and what it would take at that level. Two years after starting out in 1997 I joined the Aprilia RS250 Challenge, and desperately hoped they would run a round as a support race to the GP (I think they may have done in 1998) but no, it wasn't to be. All this time, the road racing has been getting more out of control, it started out as a bit of fun (a track-day actually) and has escalated to a dream GP250, only without the budget to go with it.

My revised dream seemed to edge nearer after I bought my TZ back at the beginning of 2002. After the great start to the 2002 season, and the real possibility of British GP Wildcards coming from the MRO Championship, the dream was on hold when I broke my wrist. However, watching Chris Sansome and Andy Whittley do an excellent job at the 02 GP, the reality that it could be possible burned inside of me. In fact, I didn't think it would get any better than it did for Chris and Andy, as I spent an excellent sun-drenched weekend on the campsite, lapping up the atmosphere. I reckon I was wrong, (I would say that) as record crowds, more glorious sun and a star studded paddock of GP contenders rolled into the undulating, magnificent Donington Park for 2003.

The weeks leading up to the GP

A difficult time, that's the truth of it. I have so many people to thank in this section but firstly I'll apologise to those that have to put up with me regularly. For me it was a very stressful time, and to those who suffered my frayed patience I am sorry. So much to organise and so little time to sort it. It all started when after a good start to the year, and with the backing of M.R.T.S (www.mrtsllp.co.uk) - BRIDGESTONE and Nick Crocker of Mammoth Motorsport, I felt that with pooled resources we could do a good job, and therefor applied for the ride. At this point I would like to thank Dave Stewart (BEMSEE) and Doug Barnfield (ACU) for their help.

With a long wait before finding out, and a few more MRO rounds to compete at, I concentrated my efforts on these, but was well aware of the commitment necessary should the wildcard ride come-off. Despite those seemingly in the know, and those who have experience, telling me to ready myself. I never felt that I could whole heartily prepare, until I had official confirmation that I had a ride. As much as I was desperate for everything to be perfect should it happen, I don't have the resources to prepare on the basis of we should be in the GP. It doesn't help when you do all the work on the bike yourself, including bodywork repairs. My Dad and I prepared four sets of bodywork for the grand prix, and three sets of them were damaged before hand. That alone counted for pretty much three weekends of work on the run-in.

Truth told, we never knew for definite we had the wildcard ride until 2-weeks prior. Fortunately, my Dad and I had pretty much done the bodywork by then, and thankfully Rick Stringer had offered to take complete responsibility of the motor (and bike) away from me, for the build-up too, and at the GP. Rick enlisted the help of Dave Draper and Tony Evers, who he knew he could trust to do a top job.

Nick Crocker and Paul Street had offered me the use of their 2000 TZ for the GP. This bike was the same one that Stuart Edwards had used in GP's the previous year. Nick and Paul committed themselves too looking after the bike throughout the GP adventure, so with two Yamaha TZ's at my disposal, and a team to look after each, everything was coming together nicely. Both bikes needed overhaul's beforehand, so each engine was fitted with new internal's and built by there respective mechanic's (So nice to say that) so they were ready to run at the highest level, WORLD level.

Official confirmation came the way of a fax, that fax must have cost my parents and I a fortune in phone bills. Having kept very quiet about applying for a wildcard ride, suddenly it was time to live my dream and tell everyone I knew that I was going GP racing. Once I had floated back down to terrafirma, and finished my day at work, it was all systems go. Imagine this, you are going to be in you're home GP, you have a fair amount of spares for your bike, but the last thing you need in qualifying is to either 'bite the dust' and not have the spares to repair your bike. Or blow the engine and not have the bits to rebuild it. So what you going to do, you can't afford to order everything you might possibly want, after all the list would go on and on. Once again this is where I needed some help and back up, to the rescue DENNIS TROLLOPE RACING (DTR), who was brilliant with his enthusiasm and help. I did however, order as much stuff as I could afford (or not), I really wanted the weekend to go as smooth as possible, and to minimise any potential drama's like a lack of spares. Once again, with less than 2-weeks to go, it was a good job that I had listed my stock of spares and completed a couple of order lists ready. DTR got me all the spares I had asked for, in time without any hick-ups. It's worth me saying, that despite the fact that I have mentioned it being less than 2-weeks, in reality it was more like 8 days, due to the fact that I had to make the trip up to Donington on the Wednesday 9/7/03.

Meanwhile, while I was sorting out as much as I could. I was very fortunate to have Nick helping me out no end, by organising the team pit clothing, fuel, and another race van/motorhome to accommodate some of the team and the huge amount of equipment we were transporting up. At this point I'll say a big Thanks to RIVERSIDE MOTORCYCLES of Northampton for the lone of their lorry, and SHOWTRAX for their paddock equipment. Rick was busy organising his work schedule to allow himself, Dave and Tony to make the trip up to on the Friday 11/07/03. Rick also managed to obtain the help of PUTOLINE OILS who wasted no time in shipping there full range of products out to us, Sorted. I had some more strokes of luck when Pete Clarke of RAYTEK (Non-contact infrared temperature measurement solutions) contacted me. With only a few days left before the GP, they showed great enthusiasm and were brilliant in sorting out some stickers and running them up to Donington on the 'Day of Champions 10/07/03). Check out their excellent website at www.raytek.com if you are in the motor trade at all. Lastly but certainly not leastly, EBC pulled out all the stops (literally), with sorting me out with some of their awesome HH Pads and Discs. In fact, I never made contact with them until the 7/7/03 (Monday), and considering I was going up on the Wednesday, they did all they could to supply me with the parts, including getting some extra in for the next day, so helpful.

Testing

We had our work cut out. Major changes to my bike were necessary for the GP, and I needed to test Nick's TZ, if nothing else to set-up the control positions and suspension. Despite desperately trying to get a trackday at Donington (Cheers Brett), we had no success and settled for the Wednesday at Mallory, and Friday at Snetterton, the week proceeding GP week. Not ideal, but fortunately the weather held out at Mallory and good progress was made. Rick and Dave concentrated on sorting my bike out at Mallory, with only four sessions in the afternoon it doesn't leave you with a huge amount of time. But all went well, the changes to the engine seemed to be doing just the job, and we also made progress with the carburation. All in all, I couldn't really ask for things to have gone much better than they did on the Wednesday. Shame the same couldn't be said for Friday. With good progress made, and with us deciding not to put any more miles on the motor, we (The team) made the decision to not take my bike to Snetterton.

Umm, Friday. Not so good. Firstly, the weather was none too brilliant. I had really splashed the cash on this test day, and booked in for the whole day. I wish I hadn't wasted my money! Because the morning sessions were washed away with constant rain. I did venture out on track in one of the sessions, but only to enable me to check the control positions. I wasn't going to learn anything in the wet.

When the sun finally did start to come out, second session of the afternoon, I ventured out onto the track. The track was pretty much dry (remember, pretty much dry), and after a couple of laps I picked up my pace. The motor of this bike surprised me, it was very different in feel to mine, but good nevertheless. I was just getting into it, and thinking to myself, it's good, when bang it was all over. On about my sixth lap, dodging in and out of the traffic I sped around 'Corums' (Bloody fast corner) when I touched a wet patch. The bike snapped sideways and launched me up and over the top. To be honest it was pretty violent, and I was damn lucky to get away as I did. I wrecked my leathers, fortunately my spare set, and managed to do a pretty good job of wrecking the bike. The list of damaged parts included

Front Wheel
Radiator
Exhaust
Handlebar
Rear brake M/Cylinder & Pedal
Footrest & Hanger
Throttle + Cables
Fairing + Seat + Screen
Leathers + Boots

None too clever. I was real lucky not to do some real damage to my body and put me out of the GP. Apart from feeling second hand, a broken toe, and a bruised left hand and thumb I got away with it.

I really didn't need to have done that with so few days to go. Sorry Nick. At least the bike had seemed to be going well. DTR sorted us out yet again with the bits necessary, and Nick got the bike ready in time for the journey up to Donington. That was it, testing done. Next time we fired the bikes up it would be at scrutineering for a noise test, and the best weekend of my life would have begun.

End of Part 1....

.....Part 2 to come soon.

See the Photo pages. Main Photo page, Photo page 1 & Photo page 2