Great Brington, Silverstone Schools, and bowling with the Au Pairs

Following my time at the MotoGP event at Silverstone I headed over to Donna and Andy Ibbott's place to spend a couple days relaxing before heading back to Silverstone for a couple California Superbike School days.

Great Brington was an incredibly gorgeous little town with lots of fields and farms all around. Most people's houses were on a decent size plot of land and had large gardens and some people also had chickens and lambs. The weather was pretty awesome for the couple days off, 70 and mostly sunny. I went for multiple walks with Donna and her youngest son Alfie and also went for some early morning runs on my own. On my runs I would just follow a road out of town and then run along the edges of fields and on walking paths through thickly wooded areas, stunning scenery for a morning run.

Random fact- The church in Great Brington is the church where Princess Diana is buried.

On Tuesday the 14th Andy was released from the hospital and cleared to go home. This was a pretty awesome thing to witness considering that 3 months ago Andy suffered a massive life threatening stroke following a surgery to remove a tumor from his carotid artery. Watching Andy walk himself out completely under his own power was humbling and inspiring. I felt honored to be there to be part of that.

Thursday the 16th we started work at Silverstone. We had to single day schools there and all in all the weather held out for us. We had a couple bouts of scattered showers but were lucky enough to not have to coach in the pouring rain. We only got to ride half of the GP track, Silverstone South, but even half was pretty sweet. Some very high speed corners and a sick double apex corner onto the straightaway. Would love to race there someday :)

Friday night after we got all packed up Donna and Andy picked me up from the track. We ate dinner and then I headed out to a local pub with Donna and Andy's au pair Marcy from Poland(au pair is a live in nanny/caretaker/student for those who don't know, I didn't!). Marcy's friends also came with- Mathilde, Stella, and Katy from France, France, and Romania respectively. We started out at the pub and I got Marcy and Stella to take a shot of vodka with me, no chaser! Troopers! lol. Then all of us headed to a nearby bowling alley for some midnight bowling, thanks for the idea Katy! Had an absolute blast hanging out with four foreign girls all night, very spoiled :), and lots of silly pictures lol.

Saturday morning I packed my bags and headed for the Airport... Amsterdam here I come!

Silverstone GP

Last weekend June 10-12 I spent with Joe and Matt Roberts at the Silverstone GP. I felt like a VIP with a fancy pass that could get me just about anywhere. I arrived on Thursday the 9th, and after helping Badger (UK coach) move some bikes into the "Wing", which is the new 100 million dollar building and garages along the front straight, I met up with Joe and Matt and got my Red Bull Rookies pass. The pass allowed me access to the paddock where all the MotoGP teams were set up with their hospitality buildings and trailers all painted and proper. I was blown away by the set-up at a European GP, it goes far beyond anything at Laguna Seca. In the paddock it was common place to see the GP riders walking around or buzzing by on their scooters. I pretty much saw every GP rider at one point or another, and talked with a few of them. Past GP riders like Mick Doohan and Randy Mamola were also there walking around. The Red Bull Rookies pass also got me into the Red Bull Rookies hospitality set-up, where I got delicious two and three course meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday.

So, after getting the pass Joe and I walked around and socialized with people and some of his fellow Red Bull Rookies racers. We found out that the BMW hospi had mountain bikes that we could ride for free so we got a hold of a couple bikes and Joe and I rode around Silverstone after all the spectators had left. There were lots of other riders and team people walking, biking, and using scooters around the track. Afterwards we went over to Colin Edwards' motor home and hung out with him for a while. We watched "The Big Lebowski" which was hilarious to watch with Colin. He showed Joe and I his x-rays from breaking his collarbone the week before. Only broke his collarbone into 7 pieces and had a titanium plate with 12 pins now, no big deal lol. After Joe went to bed I met up with Karel Abraham, one of my students and also a GP racer, and he showed me around his team's garage and showed me his GP bikes. I was incredibly jealous and wished I could put on his leathers and ride them!

Friday was spent hanging out with Joe and getting him ready for the races the following days. We had one practice session and two qualifying sessions. I spent my time going to different parts of the track to watch him ride. Friday night Joe and I went to a field outside the paddock and played football (yes, I'm writing the European word for the sport seeing as I'm in Europe!) with a bunch of the Red Bull Rookie kids. It was very, very fun running around and playing football with little racer kids from all across the globe. Football really is a sport that unites people from all over. I had so much fun that I broke my cheap pay-as-you-go UK phone and spent the rest of the weekend trying to decipher messages through a busted phone haha.

Saturday Joe had his first race in the afternoon. He had qualified 23rd, and got up to 10th during the race. On the last lap he got pushed wide off the track and lost positions and ended up finishing 16th. Bigtime bummer considering Joe had ridden such an excellent race but hey that's racing. Saturday night we hung out with Colin again and then played football before crashing out for the night.

Sunday was race-day for the rest of the paddock. Teams were in high gear buzzing around getting ready for the races. It was pouring down rain and very cold for the entire day, and this means extra preparation for all the teams. Bikes have to be fitted with rain tires, bike set up changes for the rain, both the suspension and electronics, and riders have to make sure they have the proper gear. I watched most of the racing from inside the Red Bull Rookies hospi where they have a live feed of the race. Kind of funny watching a race on TV when the bikes are just outside the door flying around lol. Truth is the coverage is just better on the TV and I didn't have to freeze my balls off outside. At the end of Joe's second race which he finished 14th (pretty good for starting 23rd!) the packing up began. All the GP teams were already in high gear packing up all of their stuff, getting ready to drive to Assen in the Netherlands for the next round. After Joe split with family Matt and I hung out in the motor home that he rented and chatted about racing.

All in all I had an absolutely incredible weekend and felt extremely spoiled. I can't believe that I have 3 (possibly 4) more weekends just like this coming up at different countries throughout Europe.

Boston

On my way from Birmingham, AL to London I had a layover in Boston, Mass. It just so happened that one of my best friends Sean Ferguson was there with his work. So, he came and swooped me from the airport and we went down to a local sports bar right on the water for some beers before my flight. Was rad to get catch up with Sean in Boston at a sick bar with delicious beer. We're makin' moves!

Australia so far... :)

So its been pretty hectic down under. I've been traveling and coaching pretty much the whole time since I arrived.

I landed last Tuesday, Dec. 8th, chilled out in Melbourne and got used to the time difference (5hours). Then on Wednesday I met up with Adam and Lou and drove from Melbourne all the way up to Sydney for some schools at Eastern Creek. It was just over an 8 hour drive and some parts of the Australian countryside reminded me a lot of parts of central California.

Thursday and Friday I coached at Eastern Creek. It is a pretty fun track with some challenging corners. The weather was great, not too hot, and it was a good couple of days.

Friday night there was a Christmas party put on by the school, consisted of bowling and beer, and good company. After that Adam and I and some other guys from the school went out to a club/bar and I had a few drinks. Okay... more than a few lol. It ended up being a long night but all was good in the end.

Then Saturday Adam and I drove back down to Melbourne after attempting to get to the northern beaches in Sydney. Originally we were going to chill out at the beach before driving home, but we ended up just driving in circles before giving up and heading back to Melbourne. lol

Sunday I hung out with Darren, a coach from New Zealand and checked out Melbourne. We cruised around and check out the scenery, it was a very mellow day. We eventually made out way to Phillip Island to get ready for a couple school days... now I was getting really excited...

The last two days have been AMAZING. The weather couldn't have been better and Phillip Island is the most amazing track I've ever ridden, but Jerez is a very close second. The track is really fast and has a really nice flow to it, makes it an absolute pleasure to ride. Not to mention that when you come over the crest on the straightaway you're looking right at the ocean, its a phenomenal view.

Tomorrow I'm hanging out with Kris, another Aussie coach, at some point we're going to make our way to beach because its supposed to be about 105 degrees tomorrow :)

I'm going to hit the hay now, internet has been hard to come by but I'll try to keep you all updated as often as I can!

South Africa

I can't really explain now, but SA is a big change from everywhere else I've been... but still a very cool place.

I've been offered the chance to race a ZX-10 on Saturday, in a spec class. Should be very fun.

Here's the abbreviated version of what my next few days will be like:

Thursday - more coaching at Kyalami
Friday - Yamaha day at Kyalami, includes bs'ing with important Yamaha people and filming
Saturday - Racing at a track called Zwartkops in the ZX-10 Cup, includes TV coverage and a guest interview
Sunday - private coaching at Phakisa, an ex-GP track
Monday - tactical shooting of custom made hand guns, then flying back to London

Pics to come later!

London via motorcycles

Two days ago Adam and I flew back to London and headed to the crash pad we had set up. A girl named Tasha who we met through the school offered us her pad to crash at and has been showing us around London. Yesterday we rented bikes to rip around the city. Due to my age, I couldn't rent a proper sportbike such as an R6... but what I could rent was a 125 four stroke Honda. So, Adam and I both rented little POS bikes to rip around the city. Tasha has a Suzi 750, and has been navigating her way through London for years. This created quite a task for Adam and I, who had unfamiliar bikes in an unfamiliar place with 1/5 the horsepower. What that means for those of you who don't ride bikes is that Adam and I couldn't squirt through traffic the way Tasha could, so keeping up was a hell of a ride!!!

Yesterday we ripped around London with Tasha. We headed into central London, got coffee, and just people watched for a while. Later in the night we did a little tour of London. First we went to a place called the world renowned Ace Cafe. The Ace Cafe is a huge motorcycle hangout for all of London where people gather to hangout, bullshit, and watch idiots do wheelies and burnouts in the street. Then we headed back to the coffee shop we had been at earlier in the day. It was an awesome way to get a real feel for the city. London is a very diverse city, possibly the most diverse city I've ever been to (yes, more than SF or NY or any of the others...) and it was entertainment enough just watching people walk by. After a bit we headed to Leister Square to people watch some more. Because the bars don't close, people stay out until all hours. Therefore, even at 2:30am, there was plenty of drama to see. Cops, arguments, tramps, drunks, etc... It was a ton of fun, not to mention during the evening we were with a big time stunt rider named Sparky who was a super cool guy and could do some things that are completely out of my skill set... fucking impressive.

Today Tasha, Adam and I just hung out and watched some MotoGP qualifying. Afterwards we cruised through the city and went to Camden Town. Reminded me of the the Pier 39 area of SF... very cool. Now we are just hanging out at her apartment, listening to sweet music, drinking beer, sharing stories, and eating doritos.

Tomorrow we head back out to Wellingborough before heading to South Africa... more adventures to come...

City adventure and another long night

So yesterday Adam and I had nice wander through Munich. The city is one of the coolest I've been too in the world, and I was quite surprised at some of the nature that is throughout the city. There's a river that runs right through the city and and trails that go through trees and forest next to the river. It doesn't feel as if you are in a big city at all when walking on the trails. The architecture throughout the city is very cool as well. Very grand and historic, cool to see buildings that were around 400+ years ago.

After wandering around for a while Adam and I ended up back at the biergarten we were at on Monday. We hung out there and had a couple litres of beer before heading back to Krissi's apartment to meet up with her and go out to check out more of Munich.

Krissi took us on a tour of Munich that ultimately ended up at the Hofbräuhaus, a very cool brewery that is the icon of beer in Munich. Every beer mug used at Oktoberfest has their logo on it. It was a lot of fun cruising around with Krissi, she showed us things we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Unfortunately, Krissi couldn't hang out all night because she needed to go and study for school. After she split Adam and I hung out at the Hofbräuhaus for a bit longer and had a couple more litres of beer. SO, at this point we were now 5 LITRES deep, we had had 2 at the biergarten and then 3 at the Hofbräuhaus. This is when we decided it would be a good idea to go out and party some more considering this was really the last night we were responsibility free.

At Silvana's recommendation from a few days prior Adam and I headed to downtown Munich to a club called Milchbar. This is where things got out of hand... Let's just say that Adam and I weren't empty handed for the entire night. So as you can imagine we were feeling pretty good! Anyhow, after about 5 hours of dancing and partying and talking with tons of random people from all over the world we headed back to Krissi's apartment.

It was quite a journey just to get back due to the fact that neither of us were in the proper frame of mind to navigate a train system with multiple lines and multiple ways to get to the same destination. Also, Adam was absolutely hammered because some random German guy was buying Adam drinks when the guy found out Adam was from Australia. lol. We managed to make it back to the station nearby Krissi's apartment and then ate some food at a cafe that was open for people going to work! After it was all said and done we made it back and crashed in bed around 7am. What a crazy night!

Today we just chilled out, I had lunch with Krissi while Adam slept off his hangover until about 4pm! Then we went down to a cool local bar and met some of Krissi's friends before saying farewell to Krissi who we won't see tomorrow because we fly out to London. All in all its been a fantastic time in Munich, I wish we had more time, but we have to get back to London and prepare for South Africa which will be a trip all on its own...