In February, the time came around for me to hop back on the plane to the UK for my second race season in the British Super Bike series. After a long duo of flights via Dubai, I landed in an icy London Heathrow Airport, snuck through customs and hauled my 30kg bag onto the tube and on to Wimbledon to meet Bjorn, Tammy, Paul and Mat Borra for a big reunion!
I dropped my bags, picked up a laptop and bought my ticket to see Nitro Circus Live, Travis Pastrana's wild crew of some of the most talented bike/car/tricycle/anything Pros to attempt a world record of the most number of simultaneously back-flipping motorcycles! We headed to the O2 Stadium in London and watched the crazy sight of 16 bikes landing that new world record, followed by a 3D showing of their new movie in the massive movie house! Great welcome back to England:)
The next morning, BJ and I headed up to Colchester to collect my van and poor caravan after a cold and snowy winter...I wasn't expecting the best from the contents of the van. BJ grabbed his things and headed back to London before his testing in Spain, and I started the journey up north to Chester.
Fortunately Jason and Donna Davis were good enough to offer me a room in their home while I find a place to stay. They welcomed me warmly and entertained me even better! The next evening Jay and I went to visit my good Aunty Kath and Uncle Keith for some hearty supper before heading into town for the festive Saturday night, a good evening all together!
Monday saw Jay and I meet my team boss, Mark Webster, in Manchester for the first time. A chat about our upcoming season, racing and all things motorbikes kept us all in conversation. It's safe to say we are all looking forward to get the season underway already!
I started the trips into the Midlands viewing flats and houses, starting in my original first choice - Derby. What a disappointment! Not the cleanest or best city I've come across by a long way. Next stop was Ashby (Ashby-De-La-Zouch). This is a nice little town in the rural midlands, good spot and good houses! But the one who won me over was the beautiful Nottingham, a real stunner of a city! It's full of history and old castles along with Robin Hoods Sherwood Forest. Driving through the city, I really enjoyed the ultra modern buildings mixed with the historic buildings, all clean and well maintained. So I now have a short list and some viewings coming up this week in some of the sleek, modern apartment blocks in the city center - quite a change of lifestyle but I'll give the city boy thing a go!
After one of the day trips into the Midlands, I decided to make a pit stop at Oulton Park race track before getting back to the Davis' - a very good decision. The British GT Championship cars were testing, a flock of stupidly fast Le Mans GT racers flying around Oulton! Ferraris, Porsches, Aston Martins, BMWs, McLarens, Ginettas, all blasting around while I drooled on the side of the track. The sights and sounds aren't nearly done justice in the videos!
That's about it so far, but next week sees us start our season officially with my first outing with the team at Donington Park for the Official BSB testing, well overdue in my books! Until then, I'll keep everyone up to date on my happenings on Twitter (@JamesEgan81) and Facebook (James Egan). Definitely give these videos a watch to hear those GT racers in action!
Cheers for now!
James
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