Spa-Francorchamps is one of those iconic motor racing venues, and I?ve wanted to ride a motorcycle there all my life. And last week, not only did I get the chance to ride there, I got the chance to race there! I couldn?t believe my luck. The phone call came about a week before the event, so I cleared my diary, dragged my old ZX-10R out and headed to Belgium. This is how I got on during my Spa Weekend ?

First of all, let me tell you how this all came about. A couple of mates of mine, Platty and Dr. Watson of ADSS 97 Kawasaki, were down to race at the annual Six Hours of Spa Motorcycle Race. Now, ordinarily, the pair of them could have done it together, but Dr. Watson had a whopper of a crash (through no fault of his own, on this occasion) a few weeks before the event and rebroke his (already broken) foot. He also hurt his neck a little bit, too. And whilst he knew he?d be able to ride, he didn?t know for how long. So the decision was made to get a third rider to bolster the team up a little bit. That third rider was me.
Rather than proper endurance rules, where teams have to compete on a single bike, refuelling and changing tyres during pitstops, at Spa, each rider?s allowed to use their own bike. That?s why I took the old ?Ten. I Say old, it?s a 2018 model, and the one I used at the 2019 Isle of Man TT. In fact other than a slack handful of club races in the same year, that?s all I?ve ever it for. It?s spent all of 2020 and the majority of 2021 gathering dust. So ...