Neave twins
This month we catch up with Tim and he’s been a busy lad.
I’ve been keeping myself busy over the last few months working with a gang of tarmackers and it’s been great. I’ve had a real good time learning about it, but the best bit has been working with the lads – we have a right laugh all the time. But it’s only going to be for another month or so, as my dad has asked me to come back to the farm. I think he is obviously missing my farming expertise – I’m the best fert’ spreader around, and soon there will more work than him and Tom can cope with. I just hope Tom hasn’t crashed all the tractors while I’ve been away. He manages to crash everything else!
Since my last column we have had Christmas, which was a fairly chilled out affair. It was nice to have a steady week to be honest, because we’ve been non-stop all year. After Christmas, I had a weekend away, too. Me and the girlfriend, Lydia, went over to Amsterdam and had a great time there. It was really good to get away and see the sights – and we did see ALL the sights. I’m all for culture but I think we saw few too many sights at one point. It really is surprising what two euros gets you in Amsterdam.
Aside from Christmas-ing, working hard and taking Lydia on ‘romantic’ weekends away, I have been training as hard as ever. I want to be as fit as I’ve ever been at the start of this season so I’m running at least one night a week, cycling twice a week, and I try and get out on the mini bike as much as I can on an evening and then out on a motocross bike on the weekend too. In fact I have just taken delivery of a brand new Kawasaki KX450F motocross bike, so I’ll be getting out on that as much as I can – I might even see if Tom wants some lessons. I’m half way through building a supermoto mini bike at the moment too, so if that goes well I might enter a few of the British Minibike Championship rounds on it. It’s surprising how many ‘proper’ motorbike racers use mini bikes to help keep them sharp.
And speaking of the ‘proper’ motorbike, the Kawasaki ZX-10R is almost built, the team are waiting for the kit wiring loom and ECU to arrive. Once that’s done we will be starting to organise some testing, which I think is likely to be towards the end of February. Steve, Morello Racing Kawasaki Team Boss, said that if the weather is good over here, we are going to do loads of testing in the UK, but if it’s too wet and cold then we will get over to Spain to get some riding in and get the bikes sorted. We are also going to try and do a few rounds in the No Limits championship; testing is great, but there is nothing like actually racing to get you up to speed.
I cannot wait to get stuck into the 2019 British Superstock 1000 Championship. I haven’t felt as ready mentally as I am right now and I know that, come the first round, I’ll be fully fit and ready to go. I’m counting down the days!