Great Holiday At Home, Back In The UK, Spanish Testing and Hectic Living!

After a testing 2013, ending successfully, I could head home confident in my bike and team to have a great holiday back with my family and friends over the English winter, but South African summer months. It really was so good being home and keeping just as or busier than mid race season, except with things such as fun races, parties, motocross, mountain biking, skatboarding and going to the beach, ending days with a sunny afternoon braai (barbeque) next to the pool over some beers with my mates - a tough life in Africa! But most of all, I was overjoyed with the honour of receiving my national colours - The Protea Blazer!

I enjoyed myself but never slacked off too much, with the help of my long time trainer, Malcolm McCann, keeping me working hard over the months, and putting in the work with me right at the end to make sure I returned fitter than ever, and I can confidently say I feel the healthiest and fittest I ever have as I write this.
Another major issue of my time back home was finding funding for the season as we burned out our Egan family fund in 2012 to get my into the series, and we now rely on sponsors to make the seasons happen.
After many conversations, meetings and letters taking me far down the road, but still without a concrete agreement with anyone other than my ever supportive personal sponsors of Rocket 88 and Leatt, helping me along my way.

I am now back in the UK in the beautiful city of Chester, where I will be living with family for the year. As I landed it's been non stop for me, with late nights and early starts to get my bike built with the team as the 2014 Kawasaki ZX10R deliveries were delayed by so much, but we eventually got it running and ready to ride. On top of that, we were moving house and needed my van to move things, so I was playing delivery driver and removals service ontop of having to train to keep fit for our first test ride abroad. Some days saw me clock up 8hrs of driving time, sometimes on consecutive days, so I was relieved at the fact that we would be flying to Spain for the first test.

All came together in time and we set off for a sunny Cartagena Circuit in the south of Spain. This started out great with beautiful weather and ideal riding conditions, and after a day of setting things up. We were ready for our upcoming 3 day test. Fortunately we managed to get out for the final 30min session of the test day before ours, so I could have extra time to find my way round the new circuit, this was super important as I would not see all my due track time over the next few days...

The bike felt great straight away with the settings we finished last year on, which we all worked very hard to find for me. I made some changes throughout our first full day, learning the track nicely and enjoying the new bike. Our lap times came surprisingly quickly and I was really enjoying riding it, so we made the decision to put new tyres on for my final session of the day to push for the fastest time I could, as we would be changing suspension for day 2 and needed a lap time to compare with.

With the new tyres fitted, I treated the session as I would qualifying, taking a lap to get into it, then start pushing harder and harder. The setup we had was getting better the harder I pushed and I felt the bike like I've never felt it before, the feeling I was looking for all of last year, which gave me the confidence I've wanted to push the bike comfortably. We reached the lap time we had hoped to achieve by the end of the 3 days on about lap 5 of the session, and I wasn't push too hard. I built up more and we went even faster and consistently stayed fast as I was happy with the bike. We eventually got over 0.5s faster than our goal time when I went a tiny bit too hard on the brakes into one of the corners (coming off the infamous fast right hand sweeper round the back of the track) and the front tucked on me. I went down smoothly and the bike and I just slid along up to the gravel trap, but that's where the smoothly part ended...
The gravel was very deep and soft, which is good for cars, but terrible for bikes as my bike slid onto the traps it dug in and flung up into the air coming down, tumbling end over end to come to a rest on the other side of the barriers, in the access roads on outside of the track! I did the same backwards somersaults as I hit the gravel trap, thankfully my Leatt brace took a lot of the force when I tumbled onto my head. What started as a small front end crash, spelled the end of my 3 day test.

Although a crash is never a good things, especially one this excessively damaging to the bike, we took a lot of very valuable information away from the laps before, which is setup data that will directly help us go faster in races. So a disappointment to miss out on the last 2 days of riding, but a day and a bit saw us not just reach, but exceed our goal laptime which is the major achievement!

The work never stopped when we got back to the UK as we had to source parts and spares from wherever we could to keep the crash budget as low as possible for me, the seriously under funded South African! This meant hours and hours of phone calling and string pulling by Mark, our team boss, for which I'm extremely grateful! The bikes landed back a week later, so Mark and myself  fetched them and headed back to Northern Ireland to get mine rebuilt. The bike is busy being built back up at the moment and our next outing on it will be our 2 day test at Snetterton Circuit on 8/9 April.

I'd like to say a massive thank you to Mark, Dan, Ian, Rob, Taka and all the team who helped me out in Spain and a special thanks again to Mark for all he's done to make it as affordable as possible for me to rebuild, as well as Mark Linton who is rebuilding the bike for us!
I have a couple £X,000s which I need to finance the rebuild and am working hard to come up with, via sponsors, donations, and any means possible. I will be looking for sponsors to get spots on my helmet starting from R5,000 or £300 which will go towards funding my race season to make sure we have a successful 2014! I will post the final details on that soon. Until then, that's pretty much what I've been up to in the racing world.

I can't wait to get back out on the bike after Spain, but a few more weeks of training will come first.
Cheers for now!
James81

Brands Hatch GP - Season Finale!

Our races leading up to this weekend have been the proof of our hard work over the initial months of the race season. My team and I working to change so much to get me happy on the bike so I can push it hard for fast lap times, which is exactly what we started seeing!

The weekend's forecast was typically English with rain showers on and off over the whole weekend, so predicting what setups we'd need for which sessions was called just minutes before we were due on track. Something I've grown accustomed to riding around this year! Our practice session was wet, but our qualifying was damp-drying, always the trickiest conditions of all when there's a dry line in some areas of the circuit, but still damp in others. Wet tyres would tear up and not grip at all, dry tyres would have to go on but had very little grip at all in the damp sections - Some seriously calculated riding was required! By the end of the session, there was a narrow dry line nearly the whole way round the track, and we managed to get a decent lap in to get us 26th spot on the grid for race day. The second qualifying session was full wet, which unfortunately meant it didn't count as the laps in the damp-drying session were quicker, but we managed 17th in the rain, which would have been a great spot to start from! On the plus side, it looked like we were in for a wet race and our wet pace was looking good!

We got everything ready for the race and retired to the restaurant for a good team meal, always good having a laugh with all the guys before race day.

Sunday morning was beautiful and sunny, the other side of all the rain clouds... After a good warm up session in the wet, we were ready for the race and took up our 26th position with our wet tyres and setup. The lights went out and after a good launch, I darted for the inside line into turn 1 and again into turn 2, fortunately getting a whole bunch of positions nice and early in the race and we were knocking on the top 20. Ironically, us South Africans tend go well in the wet with our very limited knowledge and experience in wet conditions. More bravery than brains perhaps?? Well I quickly took notice that another nation that seem to know nothing about wet race tracks is the Americans! USA Supersport rider James Rispoli sat on my outside of the turn 2 hairpin and as I flicked the bike over to brake into the notoriously treacherous Graham Hill bend, he just kept it pinned! He hit the brakes and the bike was all over the show, with his feet off the pegs dragging along trying to keep the bike upright, I thought he was going to wipe out the whole pack of riders in front of us, but luckily he slipped neatly through a tiny gap between about 6 bikes and managed to stay on! He rode like this for the opening few laps, punching a hole in the field neatly for me to follow through until he ended up running off at the same corner a few laps later. I kept on at banging out the lap times as fast as I dared in the tricky conditions. Everything was working well so every lap I pushed a little harder and was determined to catch the riders approaching in the distance, amongst which was Isle of Man Legend, John McGuiness! It was one of the most enjoyable races I've had this year and I really had to dig deep to catch them by the end of the race, but we did it and we managed to catch and pass John by the end to secure 17th place and our best race weekend overall! Another lap and we could've had a top 15, but then again if my aunt was a man she'd be my uncle!

I was so pleased with how our race had gone and how our season had ended, I had to give the tyre a good  celebratory burnout before returning to the pits to be greeted by an elated Dad and team. The bike's working great now and I truly am sad the season has ended as I've really started gelling with my bike.

Our team spirit is rare to find and even rarer to match in most paddocks and after all the celebrations, it was a real privilege to thank everyone for everything from the love that goes into the tea, to the passion that goes into my technical setup.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who's supported us and backed us throughout the season - we can't do it without you!
First and foremost, My Mom and Dad, for all the sacrifices they've made for me to chase my dream of the world championship. I couldn't ask for better or more loving and dedicated parents!
Mark Webster and my incredible MWR Kawasaki Team, you guys made me feel so welcome and a real part of the family, even though we've been working together for a season, it feels like many years! I look forward to sharing more success with you guys in the future too! Mark has taken me in and made me feel such a part of his own family, its been great having an 'adopted dad' to share the good times with!

Jason & Donna Davis, my new big brother and sister, and the most loved girls in the paddock - Evie, Holly and Meg! Thank you for always being there when I need a helping hand in every aspect of my British life. I'm very grateful to have a family like you to call my British family!
Uncle Keith and Aunty Kath, thank you for caring for me with the love you have, and always having the open door and welcoming meal at your home!

Evie & Rab, the chairman and woman of my very own fan club! We've had such good times over the last two years and I look forward to many, many more. Thank you for always supporting me with 110% effort on and off the track!
A special thanks must be said to my two main men on the race bike - Dan and Jay. I think we've done a fair job from where we started at the beginning of the season to finishing as strong as we have with so many unknowns thrown at us during the season. It's been an absolute pleasure working with you two!
To everyone who supports us, near and far, thank you so much! You don't know how much it means to me when I receive comments and messages for race weekends!

I'd like to say a special thank you to all of our sponsors from myself and everyone involved with our MWR Kawasaki team.
My Dad, Mike, for making Rocket 88 a part of my career.
Chris Leatt and the whole Leatt team for looking after me and my health! I never ride without the best neck protection in the world - my Leatt Brace!
Jonny and all the guys at Moto Direct for the best kit around - RST race suits, gloves and boots and the best helmets in the business, Arai!
Stuart at Forcefield Body Armour for the quality base layers, chest and back protectors keeping comfortable and safe!
Clayton Francois for the big efforts put in to helping us along the way on this pricey, risky path to the World Championship!
You have all made this season yet another special one to go down in the books!

This is has been the toughest race season of my career with so much thrown at me to deal with on top of the racing and I'm glad I've had all of you helping me in each of your ways to make the most out of it.
Here's to a successful 2014.

I really am disappointed it has all come to and end already, we are carrying so much momentum now with our results becoming competitive and consistent. I can't wait to get riding again!

Cheers for now,
James81

Silverstone GP Rd. 11 - Best Weekend So Far

We got to the gigantic grand prix circuit ready for a weekend that had a recipe for a good result. We had tested here once earlier in the year, the bike has been feeling constantly better the past few rounds and we have been making fewer changes, finishing closer to the front each time. I enjoy racing at Silverstone, being a fast and flowing track, so I just needed to learn changes in my race lines and a few other riding bits to suit my super powerful 1000cc Kawasaki to the track.

As usual, our ever valuable first practice session on Friday turned out wet and rainy, but unfortunately I had more a grip problem than everybody else... My clutch cover gasket blew on my out lap, and I had a big moment when I got on the power, loading up my now well oiled wet rear tyre! I initially thought maybe the tyre needed to scrub in a bit but after 3 laps of suspiciously slippery corners, I pulled in to find oil pouring out the side of my bike. The session was red flagged and I vacated pitlane hastily - I was that guy, the one who dumped oil all over the track and delayed events by 30mins! It was an unfortunate happening, but the gasket was quickly replaced and we were back in action.

After everything was checked on the dyno, we prepped for a dry qualifying 1, not ideal as I had only got 3 laps of practice, but we knew our setup wasn't far off right.

We set out on track and the bike felt pretty good, but I had noted a few changes I wanted. With Quali. 1 being like our first practice session, I wasn't phased with our 33rd position.

Saturday afternoon would see us head out for our final qualifying session, confident of improvement, I headed straight out with our new setup and put my head down to get a good feel for the new settings. I pitted with about 10 mins to go, corrected tyre pressures, and took a breather to prepare for a fast lap to get inside the top 30. Tyre warmers came off, and I rode out of pitlane onto the massive track. I got a warm up lap in and put my head down to do a time, getting us a 2:13.1 lap time, 30th place. The next lap I knew I had to find a bit more. Timing worked out well as I came up behind a cruising Tristan Palmer on his Ducati Panigale. The good guy he is, he saw me approaching and gave me a tow and a slipstream onto the long Hangar staright. The rest of the lap went well and we dipped into the 2:12.7. I got one last lap in and managed a 2:12.5, getting us 27th place for the race - happy with the lap time, only 2sec off pole position, which around Silverstone, is more like 1sec on a normal size track, the closest we've been all year!

Unfortunately the nature of the class is so competitive, the positions are filled by many with such small amounts of time!

I noted a few changes I wanted to try in warm up before the race, and after the team had the bike prepped for Sunday, we headed out for a good team meal!

Sunday was upon us, I liked our changes and I was keen to get to the start line. The lights went out, and I got probably the best start I've ever had, catapulting from 27th, up to the top 20 by turn 1. I passed a few more people into the next series of corners before the long back straight. Luck would have a rider about 2 bikes in front of me have a big moment as we got onto the straight, forcing me and a few around me to hit the brakes to avoid him, letting all those people I had just passed, back past as I furiously tried to regain the positions.

The bike was feeling good, and we were lapping over 0.5s faster than qualifying. We were up to the top 25 and chasing down the top 20 consistently, and with 1 lap to go, I managed to close in on 19th place but couldn't make the pass stick in the last corner and we got our 20th place finish.

20th is not our position best finish, as we had 16th at Donington Park in July, but this was the closest we've been to the podium in time behind the winners, in reality making it our best finish! We dipped into the 2:11.9 lap time twice in the race and ran low 12s all race long, making us only 1sec off the 2nd placed Hudson Kennaugh, who is also the championship leader!

I really like the way the bike's handling now, it's more familiar to how I've always set my bikes up to my style, as opposed to how we we've been trying to set it up following general setup info for Kawasakis, which I battle to get comfortable with.

A big thanks to Mark and our whole MWR Kawasaki team, Dan and Jason for the bike setup, Donna & the girls and everyone supporting us! Our great sponsors (doubling as parents) Mom & Dad, Rocket 88, Leatt Brace, RST Race Suits, Arai Helmets, Clayton Francois of SA Racers and all our team sponsors.

The final round of the series comes upon us next weekend (20 Oct 2013) at the legendary Brands Hatch GP circuit, and our season draws to an end, ALREADY! My dad will be back for this round, I'm sure he can't wait to get back here and back to the race track again! This season has just disappeared and I feel like we've run out of time, wishing we had a few more races to get some solid position results!

I'm looking forward to getting to Brands Hatch and back on my ZX10R with my Dad again!

Cheers,
James