Hi Guys, just like last year the first
round in Qatar has come and gone but winter seems to still
have its claws firmly in. I've just arrived back in Zurich
yesterday, its 5 am, the snow is falling and I'm trying to
scratch down on sheet of paper what's been going on over the
last few weeks. I've obviously got a good case of jet lag
..!
Better strike while the iron's hot,
otherwise Larry will be right on to me!
I guess it all began to unfold 2 days
after arriving in Qatar at about 8 am Wednesday morning when
I turned on my phone and received a very interesting test
message from Isabelle. It read "Ryan couldn't wait, he was
born last night. Very cute and healthy etc. etc." Ryan! Ryan
who? No! Not possible! Yes, very possible! So the little
fella decided he wanted out some 5 weeks early. I know I've
not mentioned it to anyone about Isabelle even being
pregnant let alone due soon, but we just wanted to keep it
quiet and have a surprise. It turns out the surprise was
entirely on us! After all the birthing classes I went to,
preparations for the lead up and I was nowhere to be seen.
Isabelle even drove herself to the hospital at 3 am! What a
champ!
So you can imagine the look on my face
or look less expression the morning before I throw my leg
over the bike for the first time in Qatar.
By the second day of free practise and
Qualifying at Qatar everything was rolling along perfectly,
until my superpole lap that is. Well, the first half of the
lap was spot on and the second half would have been too, if
I'd made it that far.
Race day rolled the same way, I did
manage to stay on how ever but we did end up with a problem
machine in both races.
That night it was off to the airport to
catch my plane to Oz for the next event. Roughly some 15 or
16 hours later of flying I'd arrived in Melbourne. Not
feeling too great and the nice police officer didn't make me
feel any better when he wrote me a ticket for 140.- bucks
for using my phone in the car. Nice welcome home eh! Turd..!
I then went straight to my hotel check-in and try and catch
up on some zeds!
The next day was pretty quiet just a
quick do with the newspaper in couple of photos then the
rest of the day was mine. That night I went out for Japanese
with the Corser's and a friend of ours from Victoria Matt
Martin. 25 courses later we all climbed to our feet and
stumbled of to bed after some 4 hours of eating later.! Its
no wonder the Japs invented sumo`s.!
The next days I had some more press
stuff to do, called into Oakley Head Quarters caught up with
the guys and girls there and then finally it was off down to
the Island which is approx. 2 hours drive.
I had to be there by 5 pm to meet a
helicopter with some competition winners and then I was to
show them a couple of laps of the race track in a HSV Holden
car! It's the best or should I say the fastest road car that
they make, it's pretty rapid, it looked even faster with the
trick paint job it had. The strange part about the little
tour around the track was that the only rules were, don't
cut the corners and don't cross the white lines and drag
shit on the track. Nice! So with no regard to any of the
passengers I proceeded to go as fast as I possibly could,
much to the enjoyment of my victims. It wasn't until we spun
off into the field on the last lap that it brought it all
home. That was the most fun I've had in ages outside of
racing, it literally scared the crap out of me! I even had
the old Elvis leg going! There weren't too many
repercussions, but I did have to apologize and plead
ignorance..
It was then down to the serious stuff!
We'd had a whole lot of trouble all
week-end trying to get it dialled in.
Qualifying went ok, 6th
position which is not too bad; I did stay on in superpole
this time round. The first race I had to retire with some
drama's with the bike, the second race I got retired. I
guess Lanzi was trying to square up the score between Ducati
and me from last years little collision between James and
me!
I know the Island has never been that
kind to me but I never imagined that I would be walking away
with 3 strikes.
So at this point of my journey, it's
time to pack my bags and head back to Zurich and spend some
with Isabelle and get to know my new son! Till next time
guys! Later! Karl
