Well I understand that it has been a while since I wrote my last FPR column, and a lot has certainly happened since then. I imagine most of you would have kept up with the latest news on the FPR web site so I will try not to repeat myself too much.

As far as the final rounds of the 2005 SBK championship went there were mixed results with good performances at Lausitzring and Imola but and absolute shocker at Magny Cours, but that’s the simple way to look at things.

When I look at the second half of the season, at most tracks I was usually able to get down to some good competitive times as soon as we turned up. From my point of view the predictability of the handling of the bike and the ease to set it up has improved out of site over the course of the year. The only other time we have been competitive from day one was at Phillip Island after we had tested there the weekend before. At Imola I even managed to get down to a forty-nine flat which was about three seconds a lap faster than FPR managed last year. When you can turn a circuit from one of the worst performing circuits in 2004 into one the team’s better performing circuits of 2005 it just goes to show the amount of development that has gone into the bike.

Although I would rate Magny-Cours as one of the worst performances of the year, I can’t completely right it off, unlike Silverstone in the first half of the season which I would rate as my worst performance of the year and possibly my career – where I just couldn’t ride the bike from all the chatter and handling/set-up problems that I was having. The difference was that at Magny-Cours I was in sixth after the first day and had already managed to improve on the times from last year, lapping quicker on a race tyre than Troy’s pole time of last year. I know it is hard to see it, unless you follow the times - and results are what we want at the end of the day - but the difference at Magny-Cours was that we went there expecting at least a top ten finish and on Friday it was looking probable – the rest is racing.

As for the subsequent events following the crash at Magny Cours I feel that enough has probably been written about it and there isn’t a lot more to say. I know that me being unwell has been a blow to the team’s testing schedule but they have been great and given me as much time as it takes for me to get fit and back on the bike. After the disappointment of missing the Valencia test at the end of the season, I was determined to get back in time for the Qatar test and had started cycling the week before the test to try and get some fitness back.

My aim for the test in Qatar was to just test and give feedback on the new developmental parts and not to push for a time. With it only being nearly six weeks since the operation (five weeks and six days) I was still pretty weak compared to normal and couldn’t really afford to get the bike out of shape or moving around too much - so to lap two seconds faster than what we did in the race was a real surprise. There was only a second to the main group of riders in front so when we finally get all the parts that we have been testing together as a complete package and I am back to full fitness it should be looking good for next year.

With all the testing and medical dramas over for 2005 I am really looking forward spending some time with our families over Christmas to which there have been two new additions and am happy to report that I have become an uncle for the first time and then a second time all within twenty-four hours!

In the New Year we plan to hopefully have a few days holiday up the east coast with some friends and then towards the end of January testing starts again with a four day test at Phillip Island but until then I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and New Year.

Ciao Steve