CHRISTIAN IDDON
As one of the Suzuka virgins, Christian Iddon was definitely a rider to experience the highs and lows of an endurance race. After a brief test where he completed only a handful of laps due to still recovering from a skin graft on his arm, his first proper taste of the BMW was at the event.
However the race was almost over before it started for the team after fellow rider Raffaele De Rosa crashed out twice within the first hour. The team had fixed the initial damage but the second time around most of us would have admitted defeat. However the mechanics worked flat out to turn the BMW back around and that gave Iddon the chance to head out on track, although they had lost too much time to make an impact. Despite this upset, the Tyco BMW rider was equalling the lap times of the riders inside the top eight during his stints, which highlighted his potential for future Suzuka races.
Christian’s column...
“The whole event had been testing and trying at first, but then I think that made it all the more sweet at the end. I have never done an endurance race before and I have never had to set up a bike for three people, and although I have worked with teams from different countries, I have never worked with a language barrier like here, so the whole experience has been really interesting. “Then the race came and I was going to take it as it came, that was the plan and I was the third rider out supposedly, but the start went really badly and we had two crashes within the first hour and that cost us the first two hours basically.
“That was pretty much race over, but at the same time it wasn’t, as I got to go out and my pace was mega. I had to take it steady for a few laps as they had pretty much completely rebuilt the bike, but there was still some stuff that was bent and that made right-handers pretty dangerous.
“Then the next time I went out the team had fixed the duff parts, so I was able to unleash my real pace. One highlight was when I passed the Moriwaki bike with Takahashi on it, because he is one of the top Suzuka riders. I was well happy with that! On my second stint I went one better again as I managed to better my qualifying time, and pulled around 10 seconds in on Randy De Puniet on the TSR bike. That really got me buzzing and was perhaps the ultimate highlight from my debut at Suzuka.”
Asked what he’d learned from the race, Iddon told us: “Suzuka taught me a lot about consistency and the importance of being able to work around problems, and as part of a team. At BSB I’m on my own, but Suzuka’s a really special environment. I loved it and I’m certain it will help my riding back home. More importantly, I’mIm gagging to get back to Suzuka next season.”