This past weekend we raced in Brazil for the World GP circuit. We flew into Brazil Wednesday night with a 9 hour layover in San Poulo before flying into Campo Grande where the GP would be held. We met up with my trainer Jacky's friend Patrick for dinner before catching the next flight. My first impression of Brazil was pretty shocking since I had always heard of Brazil being super nice and to be honest, I was a little surprised with what I saw to be their way of life. It was a very poor country but hey, I am not here for vacation right? LOL. Food in Brazil is not so bad with some of the best meat I have ever had.
The first night at the hotel was pretty interesting, as it turns out Campo Grande is a big military town which I did not know at the time. I guess you can say that the automatic machine guns at 2 am were shocking at first. Pretty scary stuff for sure. With little sleep the following morning we were off to the track for a track walk along with my mechanic Jeremy who put my bike together from a 3 x 6 box. LOL. So we waited until Saturday and I was really excited to ride the weekend in Brazil.
Saturday we got out to the track and it was go time. My American buddy Scott Simon made the trip out to be with me since he races the Brazilian championship and is leading the points in both MX1 and MX2. So starting the day off I went into the first practice ready to go. The track was pretty muddy from all of the water from the days before but I was riding with a smile on my face. A few laps later we had a bike problem and had to cut it out early. In the timed practice for the qualifying race gate pick we also had another problem. So we went into that with a 19th gate pick. It was pretty questionable to why the bike was having issues but I remained focused on my job, to do the best I can with whatever the situation may be. During the sighting lap of the qualifying race the bike quit 3 turns from the finish. Luckily, I was close to the starting line and ran the bike there before we had to load into the gate. My bike was pouring fuel out of the carburetor and I was getting a little frustrated as to why there were so many things going wrong. I was unable to start that moto leaving me with last gate pick for both motos on Sunday. My mechanic Jeremy worked really hard to make sure the bike was good for the following race day so that we could do what we came to do.
Race day Sunday...Woke up in a positive mood and was ready to get the job done. During practice the bike ran just fine and we were back on track. First moto, I got out to a 25th place start and quickly worked my way into the top 10. I started to experience more bike problems around half way through so I started to ride conservatively to save the bike along with another top 10 finish. I came across the line in 9th but I was not so happy with what we had going on. We switched the complete motor around for the next race and it sounded fine afterward and once again I was ready to go to work. I lined about on the far outside with a good staring landing me into the top 10 just behind fellow American, Zach Osborne. I started to improve my lap times and make some ground between us ans was shaping up to move forward into the top 6 or maybe even top 5 as my bike began to quit once again. 5 laps in I pulled off and we packed up. I had a lot of potential last weekend to do well but I guess it just was not meant to be. All I can do is focus on the remaining races here in Europe for this year and hope for the best.
Right now I am in France and getting ready to head back to Belgium this Friday for some sand on the 4th and 5th of September. The race is held in Holland and I get a chance to redeem myself after my performance in the Belgian GP in the beginning of August. I am looking forward to that and I want to improve the most I can to show myself that I can adapt to all conditions. The sand here is much deeper than home and honestly it is something I would be wasting my time trying to explain, it is something that you would have to see to really understand. I have a new motor set up and ready for the next GP in Holland so it should be a fun weekend. Another good note I will get my girlfriend back who has been staying with family in Holland for the last several weeks. So it should be a fun weekend although for now I am off to Belgium...
Catch up with me next week to hear about my weekend off and training in Belgium! Ar'voir!
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