My mate Ray, who me and Alex often stay with in England, was keen to come along to one of the rounds this year so we invited him along to Belgium. After a bit of brain storming over a couple of beers we all decided that we’d go together in his van, ferry it across to France, chuck in for some diesel and drive to Belgium. Road trip!

We hooked up with ‘Demon’ Rowley in his new pimped out Mitsubishi Warrior at Dover, saw half my team on the boat across, and drove from France to Belgium convoy style.

Thankfully both Demon and Ray are pretty good drivers, so unlike road trips before (with Ben Wylie or Warwick Nowland at the wheel) I was able to catch a bit of shut eye without embedding my fingernails into the dashboard.

Arrived at Zolder safe and sound in the early afternoon, and decided to walk the circuit that we’d never seen before and would be riding on the very next day.

1^st problem of the trip came from the idiot at the gate put in charge of pit entry. This guy was of the same breed we find at a lot of racetrack entry points, a breed known as ‘wanker’.

Honestly when 10 or more people arrive at the gate, on the day before the event starts, wearing nothing but team clothing, complete with personal passes (with names on), but haven’t yet received the ‘car’ pass for the van due to slow delivery from the Zolder race track staff (ok, so maybe I made that up- we just didn‘t have a car pass), but who promise to simply walk the circuit and leave again, you’re probably best to let them in.

Oh no, Colonel Klink wasn’t having it, so we had to borrow a pass, drive through, walk back around to sneak it through the fence to the next car and so on and so on until we were all in. He wasn’t going to win. Apparently the guy almost got a head but from Al’s team boss Miles who wasn’t as patient as we were!

After getting into the circuit, we all took a walk around the track to check out what the place was like.

The layout was pretty cool, and overall I thought the place was good but it did look a bit dangerous in a couple of sections. One left hander, where you crest a blind hill, tapped in 4^th gear, had a concrete wall right along the outside of it. We all noted we didn’t want to hit that at 200kph+

By the time 1^st practice came around on Thursday and we’d all had a go on the circuit, we all felt more comfortable with the place. You don’t really think about it when you’re out there.

The 1^st day for me was pretty frustrating. I got 6 laps in the morning when the track was damp, then when it dried up Warwick crashed and banged the bike up pretty bad before I got to have another go on it. Russ (Phase One Yamaha boss) didn’t want to use our race bike, so decided to sit most of practice out while the crashed bike was fixed.

By the time it was repaired there was only one session left, and after Christer and Warwick had ridden I only got about 4 more laps in before the session finished. 10 or so laps on the 1^st day learning a new circuit didn’t impress me, but to be fair, the team knew I was a bit pissed about it and really made up for it over the rest of the weekend. I did appreciate that.

So after putting my head together, I got going again and by the end of practice and qualifying things started coming together slowly. I managed to do the fastest time for the team, but it was only good enough for 8^th on the grid. Our race set up was better than our qualifying showed, but I think the time we lost on the first day hurt us a bit. We were just a bit behind.

Alex’s team qualified 3^rd on the grid after Marko put in a storming qualifying time. Alex was on it as well and was riding the best I’ve seen from him. His best time was less than half a second slower than mine and the Diablo Team were posing a bit of a threat in the race. It didn’t take long before people started hanging shit on me about my little brother being ahead of me on the grid. Jeez, what if he beat me? It was pretty funny all the same.

So, race day. I was chosen to start the race, which I was happy about as I haven’t started one all year and I like doing them.

My start was good, and I was 4^th after the first lap, but the hard compound tyre we had chosen didn’t work real well in the beginning and the front guys got away a bit in the first 6 or 7 laps. Then things started getting better. The tyre started to feel good and my times were coming down as I got into a better rhythm.

I’d just caught and passed Vankeymeulen (Moto38 Yamaha) and could see Marko’s (Diablo Kawasaki) bike up ahead when we came to some lapped traffic. I wanted to get through them as quick as possible and try and put a break on Vankeymeulen who was on my tail, when I came up to this guy at the 2^nd chicane.

I went for the gap up the inside, but just misjudged it as he came across on me. I slammed into the side of his bike and got chucked down the road. Damn it.

It wasn’t a fast crash but I came down like a spear tackle. I got bent round that much that the chin of my helmet whacked me just above the old twig and berries. Yes lads, I too now know that it really is possible……

I picked the thing up as fast as I could and got it going again. I was so relieved to see that I’d really only bent the left handlebar and broke the clutch lever. I was lucky.

Although it felt like forever, by the time I completed the lap I’d only lost around 40 seconds, and after a couple of shakedown laps my times came back down too. I ended the hour stint about 12^th.

Russell came and saw me after I’d got my lid off and noticed that my Shark helmet was cactus. He went away for a bit, then came back and told me that I wouldn’t be riding for the rest of the race as he thought I was too crook to continue. I knew he was only looking after me, but I knew I was ok to go on. I quickly got out of my banged up leathers, into my new ones, and got Eileen (our team physio) to give me the all clear. She was on my side, and after some serious negotiating, Russ agreed to put me on for the final stint.

In the meantime, Warwick and Christer were riding great and had clawed back to 7^th spot. Then at one of the stops our gear change mechanism failed and we lost another very painful 3 minutes. We were 20^th again.

The race went on and Christer and Warwick continued on back to back while I watched them climb back through the field. Both of them were doing great, and as other teams started having problems of their own, the boys charged through the pack.

With about 2 hours to go, Alex and the Diablo squad were 3^rd and looking good for the podium. Then I saw them disappear from the monitors. Al had gone down. I went over to their garage to find out what was going on when he pulled up outside his pit. One look at his bike told me they were out, it was rat shit.

I asked Al if he was OK, but I could see he was. He replied that he was fine, he was just pissed off that the podium was gone. I could see in his eyes how he felt, I knew exactly. Apparently the bike jumped out gear through the fast right hander onto the back straight and sent him skyward.

By now I was getting ready to get back on, and the boys had climbed to 6^th.

Eileen begged me to perform well or she’d look stupid telling Russell I was good enough to go on, which I found pretty funny at the time.

I kitted up and remounted for the last stint. It went well, my times were good and consistent and I was making ground on the guys in front.

Although I was catching 4^th place by 2 seconds a lap, we ran out of time and had to settle for 5^th at the finish.

It was an average result, but pretty good considering all the drama’s. Could definitely have been worse.

So after packing up, we hit the road that arvo and headed in the direction of England and decided to crash in Antwerp. This place was pretty sweet, so after a Chinese feed we had a couple of beers at a pub near by then headed to a place called…. I think it was LaRoca or something, a big club in town.

Our token local LeRoy, who rides for the Shell Academy, told us about this place, so we decided to give it a go, but when we arrived another dickhead doorman wouldn’t let Rowley’s mate in with trainers. After getting a bit feisty he also told us his shirt was no good, and that he’d need to change both before getting into the club. Must have been related to the bloke at the gate at Zolder! I was sure we were doomed, and to be honest I was starting to walk like a penguin from after effects of my prang anyway. I had a bruise on my hip the size of a dinner plate!

But LeRoy wasn’t giving up. He called one of his mates (at 3.30am) and asked him to bring a shirt and shoes for our mate who couldn’t get in. 10mins later the guy was there with a fresh shirt and designer shoes!! How good are Belgian’s? My mate Rennie was over from Oz, travelling Europe at the time, and come out with us as well. The highlight of the night included him having a dance off on the podium with this other bloke who thought he ruled the club… Was very funny stuff….. Of course he won.

Back on the road in the morning, headed all the way back to Ray’s in Chelmsford in England in the one day.

A nice evening in Chelmsford followed, before heading to Heathrow in the morning to jet back here.

This pretty well brings us up to date.

Back in Oz now for a couple more weeks before flying to Japan for the Suzuka 8hour. Really looking forward to Suzuka this time, as last year it was my first visit to the place, so I’ll know what to expect this time around.

Will check in again soon.

All the best,

Damo.