Brown Nose!
Published: 09th November 2006
Author: Words by Gordon Crockard Photo by Sutty
With an international in Czecho, a supermoto in Belgium, a beach race at Weston and a SX in Sheffield under his belt, Gordyâs got a lot of arse to kiss this monthâ¦
Hey everybody! It’s column time so cheers for taking the time to read this far and now let me try and keep it interesting enough to get your attention right to the end… Plenty of variety spicing up my life over the last few weeks with an international race in Czecho, a show in Germany, a street supermoto race in Belgium, a sidecar three-hour race at Weston and just at the weekend the Sheffield Supercross.
From the beginning of March I’ve raced every single weekend – that’s 34 weekends in total and now finally I won’t be racing so much for a while. You might wonder what I’ll do with my time now seeing as the official season of championship racing doesn’t start until next March which is four whole month’s away.
Well I can tell you now that for sure the time will pass quickly and the list of things to do has never been so big. First on the list is to get a ride sorted out for the 2007 season. Due to the financial state that GP MX is in it appears I may have to look elsewhere towards paying the bills. You might not know it but world championship motocross doesn’t actually pay or provide many opportunities to earn money. There is no prize money, qualifying money, start money appearance money or any sort of money. There’s no money full stop! So how do riders make money? They must rely on agreeing terms with a race team who pays them money. So what if the race teams don’t have any money to pay the riders? The riders ride for no money. Great!
At the moment the only way I’ll get paid to ride is if I take on the delivery boy deal at Pizza Hut. They’ll give me a bike, a uniform, a salary and a street map of Belfast. One-year deal only. Seriously, though I’m only joking about the race-prepped chicken chaser and I do have choices for what to do next year if I was in it to make money I’d have to take the highest payer – and that would possibly be Pizza Hut!
I’m trying to create a period in my life where all my energy is directed into getting as high as possible up the world championship and British championship leaderboard. And I mean to make the equation simple. All I want to be worried about and having to deal with is two things – being the fastest I possibly can be on the race track and getting the maximum out of my body fitness wise week-in, week-out. Being fitter and faster will bring results and that’s what I want.
I mentioned earlier that I’ve still been racing for the last month and I’ve covered quite a wide variety of events. The race in Czecho was an international team event where I joined up with Martin Kohut from Slovakia and Yorkshire’s James Noble. We tied on points for the win but ended up second due to the better last result rule. Good fun trip and a few quid earned with some start money.
The next weekend was Mettet in Belgium for the 20th annual Superbiker street supermoto. It’s a massive event over there and I had been last year so I knew what it was all about. Team McKee were kind enough to lend me a set of wheels for the Wulfsport Honda MX bike I rode and super suspension man Gibber from Russell’s modified the forks and shock into Tarmac spec to keep my Bridgestone slicks glued to the road. Okay, so that last spot of butt kissing is more like an interview from an AMA podium but I must thank the people who get me on a track at the races. Thank you…
A long time ago in the glorious summer I agreed with a friend to contest the Weston Beach Race. No big task you may think but if I were to tell you I did it on a sidecar you might think differently. Oh yes, Kenny Gardener and I finished 26th and, more importantly, in one piece. Not having ever sat on a sidecar before, never mind ride one, made the whole three-hour race that bit more exciting. I was the driver of the CR500 chariot and first held the handlebars in the parc ferme on my way to the startline on Saturday morning. I pretty much learnt the basics by talking to other drivers.
Kenny did a great job as I’m sure he was pretty nervous knowing I was controlling where we were meant to be going. He used to be a passenger in sidecarcross racing on a regular weekend basis but that was 20 years ago. We managed okay and after three hours I had it sorted on the driving side of things and Kenny was totally exhausted. A few spectacular crashes and beginner errors produced the odd bruise here and there but we both enjoyed it immensely. And we raised quite a lot of money for charity and we would both like to thank everyone who contributed and helped the weekend come together. Back-pedalling for a quick second I must thank SM Racing for the lend of the tyre warmers. Many thanks again!
Swiftly moving on from the brown nosing column I’m clearly using as a thank you advert, I’ll report on how the Sheffield Supercross went. I got third. Is that too much detail? No? Okay, I’ll tell more. I borrowed Graeme Jellie’s CR250 two-stroke Honda and Gibber and I took the spanners to prep her up for the tight indoor track. The bike was a lot of fun to ride and I loved getting on the whoops and hearing the two-stroke bark. This was helped by Craig at DEP who supplied me with a special exhaust just to give me that edge. Vuillemin won and an American SX guy called Jason Thomas was second with me to follow in third. Short, sharp dramatic action is what it’s all about!
The Belfast SX is next on my events list and I can’t wait now I’ve got a taste for it again after getting on the Sheffield podium. Also on the Belfast nights – they’re November 24/25 in case you don’t know – is the FMX display. During this show Kenny and I are going to run a set of freestyle sidecar tricks and finish off with a double back-flip. Not a double rotation like Travis but more so a double flip because there will be two of us on the sidecar. Booked your tickets yet?
PS Get well soon Ricky Watt