Gary Johnson
Alright, my darlings? I sure am, because everything is starting to fall into place with the old racing job. I’m really pleased to be able to announce that I am going to be riding for Lee Hardy Racing on the RAF Regular and Reserves Briggs Equipment Kawasaki ZX-10R. I had a great run at Macau where I rode their bike and we all got on like a house on fire. They have moved everything up a level with the boys doing British Superbikes and that has been reflected with the package they are putting underneath me for the roads. I’ve ridden Kawasakis quite a bit on the Isle of Man, done some very respectable times and had some fantastic results on them, finishing second in the 2013 Superstock TT. I had also been fastest a year later in Superstock TT qualifying, again on a Kawasaki. Unfortunately though the race came to an abrupt end when man, machine and talent all had a massive argument with a damp patch at Waterworks and I ended up with some more damp patches in my pants, a smashed up bike, a smashed up back and to add insult to injury a big graze on my forehead ruining my perfect good looks. I’m really looking forward to making amends at the TT this year and I know we will have the bike for the job. We are also running my own Triumph 675, which I’m currently looking for a title sponsor for. The guys at Lee Hardy Racing are going to help me out with the everyday running of that so I’ll have Glen Richards as my crew chief, Tim Seed on the data and we’ve got Ben Stafford and my mate Pistol on the spanners. After last year I know the bike inside out; we were really on the pace ready for the second Supersport race that didn’t end up going ahead so I know we are in with a good chance this year. The most important thing at the TT is knowing your bike and being comfortable on it so we haven’t made any big changes to it, we have just tried to make it a bit more comfortable by refining it and tailoring it to me; the biggest change we have made is bolting a set of rearsets to it.
As well as getting the bikes and team organised I’ve got a deal sorted with RST. We’ve spent some time getting all the designs for my new leathers knocked up, so I can’t wait to see them in the flesh when they arrive. I’ve also been on with Suomy who are putting a helmet design together for me which will hopefully be ready for the races.
At the time of writing, I’ve got the TT press launch and the official team launch in Colchester to look forward to so I’ve already started practicing behaving myself. Once they are over we will be getting some laps in. We have got some testing planned for this month (April) so I’m looking forward to getting to grips with the new bike and spending some quality time with the Lee Hardy Racing boys; I wonder if they have learned how to behave themselves yet…