Hi guys,

Sorry I haven’t been in contact sooner, I have had a crazy amount of university work to catch up on before my end of year exams in two weeks. Anyway, following is a report on how the wildcard weekend went..

After picking up the bike on Wednesday we headed straight out to the Island, greeted by beautiful weather. Coming from winter here I thought it was pleasantly warm and giggled to myself hearing Europeans complaining about how cold it was. Thursday was spent setting up the bike, walking the track with Darren from the California Superbike School and attending a riders briefing, plus making myself dizzy doing so many laps in my head.

Mum, Shannon, Avalon, Dad and Chris

Before first practise on Friday I was nervous but knew that deep down there was really nothing to worry about, the bike would run fine and this was just about learning the track and getting some feedback from it as to what we can do to move forward next session. Unfortunately the bike just simply wasn’t making any power and was extremely slow. It was cool being on track with the world championship riders. They are the best in the world and I tried to learn what I could from them. After coming in from that session I had the TV crew in my face for the next 20minutes. I didn’t mind but just thought it was funny here they were filming the person in 33^rd place in the time standings.. I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like if I was at the front of the field!

After the session we put the bike issue down to it being far too rich on the engine settings and Ozzy got everything geared up for next session, confident it would be much better. Unfortunately it was just the same. Since there wasn’t much we could do then and there I just kept riding, opting to learn some more and sort out a bit of suspension etc. We put a battery on to my bike for the next day as we thought the stator was at fault.

Fixing the bike in pit lane

Big crowds on Saturday, here watching Casey Stoner in action

Saturday morning: the big day. I woke up feeling confident and was excited that the bike might actually make it over 200km/hr today! Unfortunately we were faced with the exact same issue so we did a swap of the ECU in pit lane half way through the session. Waallaaaaa…  problem fixed! The bike was running much better. But because we had set the engine settings for the underperforming ECU, the engine ran a little too lean and seized up going into Honda hairpin. Next thing I’m going over the bars and the bike is catapulting into my head. I ended up in the medical centre with a headache but luckily no other injuries. I made the decision not to take part in qualifying that afternoon because I certainly wasn’t feeling 100% and didn’t see it as fair for a wildcard to put guys who are fighting for a world championship at risk, especially on a bike we still weren’t sure of.

Photos from: http://motogp.com.au/photos/2011/saturday

By Sunday typical Phillip Island weather had struck and none of the races were 100% dry. It was pretty hard stuff to just be watching but I kept telling myself to learn from this and use it to make me stronger and more determined for the future. I got to spend a bit of time in the media centre meeting some reporters and seeing what goes on behind the scenes. You can listen to a radio interview I did here: http://penandpapersports.com/document.php?docID=406

A thank you goes to Tridon Australia and their ‘BikeService’ brand, Jamie Kett & Dion Sellers for the help, and also Darren, Scott and Cully for their support over the weekend. A very special thanks to Chris Osbourne for his huge amount of work with both the bike and myself for the weekend. Also to my uncle Geoff, without his amazing generosity I would have never even considered competing in this event a possibility. Finally, mum and dad for giving me the confidence, support and a huge amount of effort to chase after my goals. I won’t even begin to explain how many late nights (turned early mornings) dad had in the garage getting the bike ready and packed, but having this support from my family is what keeps me going when the going gets tough as it did this event.

Now on to better and brighter weekends, I am looking forward to racing my Wolfpack Racing Honda CBR600 at Taupo this weekend. Bring it on!!

Thanks for reading,

Avalon.

Hi everyone,

As most have you will have heard I have obtained a wildcard entry to the Australian MotoGP event in the world 125cc class at Phillip Island next weekend. Yep, the 125 class they show on television right before motoGP in over 200 countries around the world. The real deal!

Just how excited I am to have this opportunity probably hasn’t really shown through over the last couple of weeks because there has been so much to do in such a short space of time. I applied for the wildcard earlier in the year but heard that all the Australian spots were already full, so we applied to the FIM. After not hearing back from them all winter my hopes weren’t too high. In fact we had started selling my 125 gear because here I was thinking I would never be racing one again, let alone in a world GP! Then just 3½ weeks a go we had the entry confirmed.

I will be riding essentially the same bike I have raced here for the last 3 years – a honda rs125. A ‘special edition’ however, as I am fortunate enough to have the loan of an engine from the Hoogenboezem family, ignition from Chris Osbourne, forks from Jason Easton and a rear shock from Steve Ward. A big thank you also to Wobbly for his time and making a cylinder head suitable, Kev from RaceSupplies for his support, Kazu for the advice and Steve Bagshaw for some carburetor parts. So many people have all chipped in to put the best bike possible together. I can’t thank everyone enough for their generosity. Although we will still be approximately 20km/hr down on top speed from the world championship regulars, the machine is definitely better than anything I’ve ridden before and I feel it will be capable of getting within 107% of the pole position lap time – which is needed for me to qualify for the race. The biggest challenge we face is having to run the FIM standard of fuel which is not available here.

Dad and I (plus Ozzy, via a very hefty phone bill!) have been out at Pukekohe the last 2 weekends testing the bike and getting the rider up to speed. It hasn’t been smooth sailing but all things considered, so far so good.

The bike has now been packed and shipped to Melbourne. Air freighters take note: MELBOURNE, not Sydney where it ended up last time!! Mum, Dad, Ozzy and I will fly out next Wednesday where we will meet our team owner Geoff (aka my awesome uncle) and head out to the track. Ozzy is super knowledgeable and really helpful so I’m looking forward to working with him over the weekend. I’m also looking forward to having Scott and Cullly -the genius behind my bucket racer – there, along with my best friend Shannon, good friend Julie and a whole heap of kiwi’s who I know are heading over for the weekend. Also Darren from the California Superbike School will be there and has offered some advice.

I don’t think my trainer Tracy is going to buy my idea and swim across the Tasman for some extra fitness training, but her & her family will be there in spirit. I have to say a huge thank you to RacePace for not only the hardcore training but also being there for me over the winter when I needed it most.

Obviously we’re not going to be fighting for the win but to qualify for a world championship race at the Island has been a personal goal of mine for many years now. This will be the last ever MotoGP 125 two-stroke race to ever be staged at the island so here’s to giving it my best shot. I can’t wait to see how all the hard work I have put into 125’s over the last few years compares to the standard of the GP boys.

I’ll try updating my website throughout the weekend so check there if you want to stay updated.

Until next time,

Avgas.