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 My
Racing History
I started riding motorbikes when I
was about five, if you could call it a motorbike. It was called
a Rock-Hopper, It was a lawn mower engine with some kind of
frame around it.
Dad use to tie a rope onto the back of the bike
and make me ride it around in circles (like you do with a horse)
until I could ride ok. I use to double my brother Chad around
the paddock after school every day.
I think I was about 8 years old when I had an upgrade in bike to
a Yamaha MX 80, it was a big step at the time but it didn’t take
long to get the hang of it. My brother had started riding my old
bike by then so we spent most of the time riding around annoying
the neighbours.
When I turned 12 I got my first new bike it was a Yamaha YZ 80.
That was when dad decided that it was time to have a go at
racing motocross, went fairly well at my first event but I
thought I was flying. We did as many club races as we could over
the next year but nothing too series just a lot of fun.
When I was 13 years old it started to move on a little, I
started doing some bigger races up and down the coast. That was
when I first saw the young factory backed riders (Mat Maladin,
Anthony Gobert,) and could not believe how fast they were. I
spent most of the year working my way up the field.
When I was 14
years old dad and mum spent more of their hard earn't
money and brought a new Kawasaki KX 80 it was a major step
forward for me and on the track. I started getting results
almost straight away; I thought I was getting the hang of this
motocross thing. By the middle of the year I was starting to get
a bit big for the 80cc so dad decided to buy me a second hand
Yamaha yz 125.
I did the rest of the year doing
both classes gaining more experience and also finding out what
it was like to break bones, but a few broken bones wasn’t going
to stop me I was hooked on the sport. This was about the time
when mum really started to panic about my brother and I getting
hurt (and nothing has changed there). I was starting to do
really well by this stage finishing on the podium every few
weeks.
When I turned 15 my parents traded in the Yamaha 125 on a new
Kawasaki kx 125 and we kept the kx 80 as well.
We had a fairly
serious go at it that year travelling all over the place, I had
some good results wining the mid north coast championship and
finishing in the top 3 in most state championship races.
At 16 years old I left school and was given a motorcycle
apprenticeship with a local dealership called Rock Motorcycles
and I also traded my bikes in on a new Kawasaki kx250 (with my
parents help). I continued with motocross but I also started
doing super cross and flat track when I had the time. I did this
for the next 2 years with some good results.
I was 18 when my boss Peter started telling me that I should
have a go at road racing (Peter had raced in the UK and
Australia). So we did some work on my kx 250 and took it to a
racetrack and did a club race meeting, if you haven’t worked it
out already I loved it. So for the next few months Peter my
parents and I started sorting out a package for the following
year.
It was now 1991 and I was the owner of my 1st road racing bike
it was a Kawasaki KR1S, 250 production racing was the big thing
in Aus at the time and if you planned on going anywhere in
racing than this was the class to start in.
I had a good year
finishing on the podium a few times and really started to
realise that there was more to it than being the best rider you
also had to know how to set a motorbike up.
In 1992 I moved on to a Honda CBR 600, I could not believe the
difference between riding a 4 stroke bike compared to a 2
stroke.
The biggest difference was the weight and the way the
bike handled but I settled in to it. I competed in the super
street championship that year and after my fare share of crashes
I finished 4th in the championship.
In 1993 I was lucky enough to get sponsorship from Kawasaki on a
ZZR 600 they supplied the bike and some spares and we did the
rest.
I competed in the Australian supersport championship which
meant lots of travelling for my parents and I. The closest round
of the series was 5 hours drive away and the furthest was just
short of 50 hours drive each way. We had a fairly good year but
we struggled with the bike a little but we still managed to
finish 4th in the championship which wasn’t too bad.
It was now 1994 and I decided to stay on the Kawasaki because it
was the best backing I could get. I changed brand of race tyres
and the rest was the same as the year before, so at least we
knew where we stood with the package. We struggled with a few
engine problems that year and snapping my bike in 2 pieces at
one of the rounds in the middle of the year didn’t help. But we
managed to get through it and still managed to finish 3rd in the
Australian supersport championship.
For 1995 I was approached by Honda and Steve Crammer who was the
owner of the top 600 team at the time, he was also the Ohlins
importer for AUS and was very switched on with suspension. His
team had won the 600 championship with Graeme Morris for the
last 3 years and I couldn’t believe this was my new team. We had
a great year with lots of podiums and I learnt loads about
setting motorbikes up. The championship was fought out between
Troy Bayliss and I and went all the way to the last round before
I ended up being the Australian Champion.
The next year (1996) I signed a contract with Honda to ride
their factory RC45 Superbike in the Australian Superbike series.
It was a difficult year because we struggled with top speed a
little but I enjoyed every bit of it. I had a few podiums and
managed to finish 4th in the championship, and we also did a
couple of World Superbike rounds which was great experience at
the time.
It was a difficult decision what to do for the 1997 season I
could ether stay in Oz and race Superbike or pack up and go
overseas. I had an offer to go to England and race 600
Supersport for Honda so I decided to go and try it out. I road
for Tony Scott Honda on the CBR600 and we had a very good
season, It took a bit of time to get the hang of the tracks but
we managed to finish 4th in the British championship and I knew
I had made the right decision in moving to the UK. I lived with
Brent and his family at the time and they made it that bit
easier to get used to living in a different Country.
I decided to stay with the same team for the 1998 season but the
team was under a new name GR Motorsport and we had also changed
bikes to Suzuki GSXR 600. The new bike was great to work with
and the first half of the season went really well with some
podiums and some consistent results, but the second half was not
so good. I had a big crash mid season which put me out for the
rest of the year and that meant I only managed to finish 9th in
the championship which didn’t help in negotiating deals for the
following year.
For 1999 I signed for B&H Yamaha, which was owned by Graham &
Mark, it wasn’t a big budget team, but they were fantastic
people to ride for.
I really enjoyed the year because everyone
involved in the team put everything into it, and we managed to
finish 6th in the British championship.
At the end of the season I was offered a deal to ride a Ducati
748 in the year 2000 for a factory backed team called D&E
Racing. It was owned and run by Enzo & Diane and I knew this was
the team I needed to be with to have the best chance of wining
the Championship. It was the first time I had ever ridden a V
Twin engine and I thought it would take some time to get us to
it but I was pleasantly surprised. I got the hang of it straight
off and I new it was the best chance I had at the championship.
We had a good start to the season with a win here and there and
consistent podium finishes, it was really fitting together, the
team was working together brilliantly and the rest of the year
was looking great. We continued on with lap records and podiums
but a fall at one round and an engine problem at another wrecked
any chance of wining the championship. By the end of the season
we ended up finishing 3rd in the championship that wasn’t too
bad I suppose.
I had built up a great working relationship with both Enzo and
the team and I knew that wherever the team was going for 2001 I
was going with them. It was a bit of a mixed up winter we didn’t
know which series we would be racing in, it was ether British
Superbike or world supersport either one was a big step forward.
After a couple of meetings in Italy it was decided that it would
be worlds with Ducati linked in with the Superbike team.
This was a big step for the team and me and it was one that I
had been trying to achieve sense I first started.
My teammate
was Vitto Guareschi and he was a very well known contender in
the world championship. I new that it was going to be a
difficult year and I wasn’t wrong, it started out ok Vitto was
faster in pre season testing but by the middle of the year I had
court up to him.
We where struggling with the speed of the bike all year and we
didn’t seem to have an answer for it. As the year went on it
just seem to get worse, and we where also having some tyre
problems which wasn’t helping matters. So the outcome for the
year was that Vitto and I both finished done in the championship
and the plain was to change manufacturer and to have another go
at trying to win the world supersport championship (or is it).
The 2002-year has just rolled around and it has not been the
start I was looking for. The Dienza performance team has
recently found out that one of their main sponsors has pulled
out and it looks unlikely that the team will compete in the
World Championship this year. So they are frantically trying to
organize a package to compete in the British Superbike
Championship, lets hope it all comes together.
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