Monday, November 30, 2009

"Gordon"



As some of you may have already guessed Mike(Spike)Edwards has asked me to look after "Gordon" for 2010, and with all things going to plan I intend to enter all the Supermono Cup rounds on Gordon.

Gordon is a very famous bike in the Supermono world and has had his photo in numerous magazines and newspapers since his birth in 2006, to find out more about Gordon and Mike Edwards please follow the links.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The proposed 2010 Supermono Championship

First of all may I say thank you for following this blog, as you may or may not know I retired from Supermono racing at the end of 2008 but got enticed back as a team owner when a bike was offered at silly money. (Ref to my home page for this blog!). Well I tried it out but found that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Firstly letting someone else ride your pride and joy is a strange feeling, you want them to do well but when they dont come round for the lap you imagine all sorts of things: are they ok? is the bike ok? was it something I did or didn't do to the bike? things like that! Well it got to a stage where I did not have the funds to repair the bike if anything were to happen so I reluctantly sold it. I tried my hand at golf, (I used to be pretty good with a handicap of 7 a few years back), but my passion was with bikes. I attended the last round of the British Supermono Championships at Brands Hatch as an observer only, but on race day I got into the thick of things helping Dijon Compton sort out a non firing MHD Suzuki DR800, I had got the bug again!

With very low grid entries for 2009 the BSA, (British Supermono Association), were at a difficult junction for 2010, there were rumours that this would be the end of Supermono's. Any way, a saviour has thrown the BSA a line in the shape of Dave Stewart, he of Thundersports GB, Dave has proposed a very attractive Championship for 2010 which takes the onus of the BSA in respect of entries etc. There will be 7 rounds, (one a month almost), at prestige circuits, inc Rockingham, Oulton Park, Donington to name a few, there will be 3 races per meeting with the worst points scoring round being dropped from the riders points. The races will be televised on Motors TV and the whole package can only be a step forward for the Supermono's. The only downside is that due to the reduced grids in 2009 the ACU have ceased their support for the Supermono's therefore the BSA cannot class the championship as a British Championship, however Thundersports GB intend to reinstate the Supermono Cup which is eligable to all non National licence holders, but they can also score points for the main Championship also, so really 2 races in one.
After seeing this I decided that I wanted to be a part of it as a rider, so set about sorting out funds for a bike, I also toyed with the idea of using a bike that was not going to be used by its owner and at the end of the season return it to them in the same or better condition than I recieved it. This is a enormous thing to ask of someone and I only mentioned it to a few people and jokingly answered a posting on the BSA website with, " Fantastic, all I need now is a bike!" after the announcement of Thundersports GB. Anyhow I returned home from work one afternoon to find a message on my answer phone and on Facebook to contact a very well known and prolific rider. When I contaced him he asked if I was sitting down? when I said that I was he then asked if I would like to ride his,( quite famous), bike for the 2010 championship!! Well I was gob smacked to say the least but managed to compose myself enough to say "yes"

So thats where I stand at this moment and as soon as it is all finalised I will post some photos and details of the bike and its owner. WATCH THIS SPACE