Christian Iddon
It’s been some time since I had to sit down and actually engage my brain into something, so writing a column is quite a novelty. I guess a bit of an intro would be a good thing to start with but having said that, the last bio I did was for my Tinder profile and that only resulted in one nut job (read that how you want) and far too many of my ‘swipe rights’ swiping the other way. Ah well, you bought the mag and you have no ability to swipe left so you may as well carry on reading…
Bit of background for you then? Well, I’m a country boy chasing a dream. The end goal is to win the BSB title on my Tyco BMW. I’m in my third season with the same team now so it’s kind of a ‘put up or shut up’ season for me. I spent my youth, (like most in the paddock) learning my bike trade in motocross before the switch to Supermoto. SM started as a way to get my foot in the door to go racing Superbike. My dad was a pretty successful short circuit racer and despite his knowledge and contacts we never had the money or chance early on to go straight to the short circuits so Supermoto was a great way for me to get slicks on tarmac on a budget.
As it turned out, I was pretty good at it and fast forward a load of years and I ended up with a good few British titles and a good shot at the Worlds before finally making a turn to the dark side and going to full time circuits. Fast forward a few more years and after stints in BSS, WSBK and WSS I’m now back, happy and settled in BSB. With British titles in youth MX and in SM, I’d love to add a title in a third discipline and that’s the goal.
Apart from racing, I’m kinda simple in what I like doing and I guess a bit odd. I love to keep my fingers in pies (not just in Tinder!) so keep myself thoroughly entertained by working as a builder, tree surgeon, quay header and a shopkeeper and pretty much any other job I can find to fill my days. It’s not that I need to work, it’s kind of just an odd hobby I suppose but it makes me happy. Having said that, work has been a bit slack lately and I’ve spent my time trying to pass my HGV to attain a licence for the motorhome I had all last season. I don’t think using it for a year without any issues is going to be an acceptable short-cut for passing my test, and as it turns out just getting my provisional was a bit harder than it should have been when you have points on your licence – it even involved a bloody hearing process, which is a nightmare. If all goes well I’ll soon be giving it the old “10-4 rubber ducky” over that CB radio.
During the off season I made my annual pilgrimage out to America to watch the first round of the AMA Supercross in California and damn I love my Supercross. This is the third year straight that I’ve been out to watch the season opener and I love every minute! I’m not a big fan of holidays so I try to link the Supercross trip in with a bit of an American tour. I just give my friend my credit card and she books everything for us which is kind of cool as I don’t have to do anything and it forces me to head away for a few weeks which I would never normally do. It did mean however that I ended up spending my new year’s celebrations watching Britney Spears in Vegas but even that wasn’t all bad. Despite those few years when she went full blown crazy, I can now report that from row 28 she looks like she’s back in fine form!
Right, that’s it from me. I’m currently in testing mode with the team and this is the bread and butter part of the season. So far so good, but we all know there’s no points for going quickest on a trackday... it’s all about when those lights go out, which isn’t long now. Until next time people…