2000 was supposed to be a year of having a bit of fun and trying to get a bit more business by showing what I can do with a bike and how fast I can make them. Unfortunately because of a couple of small minded people I spent most of the season arguing and slowing my bike down. At the beginning of the season a racer I know told me the rules for the Scottish Championships. They were unleaded fuel, production based bikes generally available, standard bore and stroke and standard carburettors.
After the first race meeting the same fellow competitor that had told me the rules and never once mentioned he felt my grey import might be illegal, put in a complaint about my bike as he said it was not generally available. This was done without even talking to me and obviously without proper thought. He then proceeded to try to get a petition signed to get me thrown out, turned out to be a real nice bloke! Sour grapes or what! At least 50% of the competitors were running illegal fuel which I was told was ignored because it saved them money. Although it is a National championship the level of competition is not as good as a good club meeting in England so after years of racing GP250 bikes in very competitive races found the class easy. The race meeting held at Croft showed the difference as it was a MRO meeting together with the British national boys. Qualifying was held in very wet conditions and as most people know wet conditions even out machine differences. I qualified third 4 1/2 seconds faster than the next Scottish championship person. Unfortunately the race was cancelled due to bad weather. It is a shame the people who caused all the hassle could not just sit back and think that someone who has competed at Supercup level on a 80+hp GP250 must be able to ride pretty well and as I run a tuning business I should know a bit about setting bikes up and making them fast
As the Scottish championships was a national championship being run under FIM rules there are actually no legal bikes as there are no homologated bikes for Supersport racing apart from 600s. At the end of the day because of one sore loser the class is being changed to an Aprilia challenge class for 2001 which rules out a lot of business for me as no tuning or special parts are allowed.
Below you will find copies of the team newsletters that were sent to to sponsors during the season, they are jpg format so do take a little time to open.
