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 Thank God the silence has been broken. I’ve been forced to keep the news of signing with YART secret since Christmas last year, and now that the first photo’s have been released, and the press are all informed, I’m free again to divulge all the happenings of my whirlwind lifestyle. And oh what a few months it’s been….
To get things started, I’m probably best to clear a few things up in the beginning. I flew to England in November of 06, hoping to sign with Phase One for the 2007 season, as although I was in contact with various teams including YART, it was really only Phase One or YART who I could see myself actually signing for. For most of the off season it seemed likely that YART’s rider line up would remain the same as 2006, so I was pretty keen just to secure my spot in Phase One for another season, but I couldn’t tie Russell (Phase One Yamaha Boss) down to a deal. That was until Kawasaki France joined the party and signed up former YART rider Giabbani. After that things changed suddenly. I got a call from Mandy Kainz (YART Boss) asking if I’d signed with Phase One, to which I replied “No. Not yet, I still can’t confirm anything.” So it was on a plane to Austria the next day to test with the squad. To cut a long one short, the test went well, I rode good, got on great with the team, and I was offered a deal better than I’d had before. After talking with Russell and filling him in with the situation, I signed shortly after. The deal was done before Xmas. So with a contract in my paws, I looked at the best way to approach the season ahead and changed tack from living in England, to living closer to the team in Austria. So I jetted back to Australia on New Years day, sorted a few things out at home, and flew back to Austria middle of February. Oh yeah, and I proposed to my long term Girl Friend Amy. Thankfully she said yes.  Moments after Amy stopped crying and Damo realised what he'd just done!
So we’ve been here in Austria for a couple of weeks now, and things are starting to settle down and we are slowly getting into a routine. After lodging with Nanna and Puppa Kainz (Mandy’s Mum and Dad) for a couple of weeks, we are now in our own flat. Still haven’t got anything in it yet (am typing this on my laptop; our only current form of entertainment whilst inside the flat) and have just finished a succulent meal of Baked Beans on toast, as the tuna cans we anticipated using with salad weren’t ‘ring pull tabs’ and we don’t have a can opener….. We should have a car tomorrow, until now we’ve been walking or riding old school pushbikes around, and our stuff we had stored in Germany when we lived there in 2003 should arrive this week. I’m hoping so anyway, there are only so many card games you can take…. We miss MTV. Oh yeah, and the hot water isn’t on yet either. We did buy a 10Euro Jug the other day which we’ve been using to fill the bath up with, but honestly baths suck. For the effort I’ve got to go to for a wash, I’d almost rather stink. The bloke had better turn up to fix it tomorrow or Amy’s going to Chuck Norris his ass. But it ain’t all bad, we are actually having quite a laugh in this place. In between times we’ve been working at a bikers bar down the road. This place is a laugh. Picture drunk, yodeling, bikie germans, flinging orders at us like “Zwei Puntigamen” (2 beers) whilst doing Janet Jackson dance moves, and you’ve got “Route 69.” In all seriousness though, we’ve had a blast there. It’s a real cool place. My first night behind the bar was mainly spent drinkin with Cooky (The Cook fondly enough) and Weiter (the boss there). I came home pissed as a parrot humming deutsch folk tunes. It was a laugh and a half, although I’ve declined on the free piss since. Our German is slowly getting better, although it’s a bit early to tell yet, but we are still getting confused listening to two 8year olds playing together. I’ve also been to one bike launch with YART’s main sponsor Sexmagazin.at which was an eye opener….. shwing a ding ding….. and I’ve ridden the new YART R1 at our press launch for about 20minutes. It felt good even in that time. Can’t wait to thrash it properly at Le Mans.  Damo with his new kit, looking like a rat with a gold tooth. I’ve really never been so excited for the season to begin, and I really think I’m going to have a big year with YART in 2007. Igor and Sebastian are also really motivated, and I don’t see why we can’t give this championship a good shake up. It’s going to be tough, no doubt about that, but I’m up for it. By the time you read this we should almost be on our way to Le Mans for the first official WEC test, so I’ll be sure to report after that and let you know how it went. Till then, take it easy. Damo. |
