Season and Rd1 preview

The 2010 season starts this Saturday at Mallory Park. Part of the club racing idiom is not knowing who you will be racing until you sign in on raceday morning. The pecking order won't shake out until after qualifying, at the earliest. One (big) step up, in the British paddock, all the riders and teams are known to each other to some extent and, at the highest level, all the lap times from the official tests are public. There are few unknowns in MotoGP. In stark contrast, I'll roll into Mallory's paddock - crammed with vans and motorhomes like commuters under the only bus shelter in a downpour - with few ideas of who I'll be racing against and what they'll be riding. The practice day on Friday will be spent giving my GSX-R a shakedown, refining the set-up and then digging for speed. The time between sessions is for dozens of micro-reunions with friends from this other life. All the while, everyone is looking around, trying to spot new bikes in their class and work out how quick they are. One known fact is that last year's Streetfighter A champion, Andy Denyer, has moved to the B class. I guess I'll need a new nemesis. That means I'll be even more of a marked man as returning and new SF-A racers alike measure themselves against me. My goal is to make that the longest yardstick. Nerves and excitement have battled in my stomach all week, though each was defeated by the sheer stress of trying to get everything ready. Despite working flat-out since mid-December, there are still some details to be sorted tomorrow (Thurs) before I leave. I'll post about the heroes and villians involved next week. It's some consolation that even top teams find themselves in this situation and that it wasn't for the want of effort. A rough estimate puts the tally at around 140 hours spent on the bike and another 20 on my van. At least my wife has now learned to check in the garage before starting a 'Have you seen this man' Facebook group. That was embarrassing. Look out for daily updates and wish me luck. Wilko