2008 Season

5 wins with Jorg Teuchert

2008 was a great year in many respects. Through the year I prepared the bikes for Yamaha Deutschland in the IDM Superbike Championship, European Womens Cup, and European Champions Race. As well as Phase One Yamaha in the World Endurance Championship and Isle of Man TT.  Working for two teams involved over 30 flights through the year, and over 20 crashed bikes to repair. However it all worked well and the results were fairly good. A quick overview of my year is given below.

Yamaha Deutschland:

  • 2nd place in the IDM Superbike Championship with Jorg Teuchert. We scored 305 points and 5 wins from 16 starts. Finishing either 1st or 2nd in all races except for a crash and an engine failure in the Nurburgring round which caused a double DNF.
  • 12th Place in the IDM Superbike Championship with Nina Prinz. Nina was able to develop into one of Germany’s top superbike riders over the season, proving this with her 5th and 7th place finishes at the season finale in Hockenheim.
  • 17th Place in the IDM Superbike Championship with Andrezej Pavelec. Andrezej developed as a rider and scored several top ten finishes through the season.
  • The European Womens Cup was dominated by Nina Prinz, who has won 2 out of 3 rounds by lapping almost 3 seconds faster than the nearest competitor.
  • The European Champions Race was a new event held on October 12th at Albacete in Spain. The Idea was to have the top 5 from each domestic European championship compete against each other in a single race, to be crowned European Champion. It’s a great idea and I was there to help Jorg to in the Superstock class. We managed a 4th place in the race which was dominated by the local riders from the Spanish formula extreme championship. More Info on this event here .

Phase One Endurance:

  • This year I’ve been working as chief mechanic for Phase One. It hasn’t been a perfect year but I can say the problems we’ve had have been caused by crashing and not preparation issues. The role gave me more experience in bike setup, strategy, rider communication, budget constraints, and how to get the best out of a team’s staff and resources.
  • 10th Place in the Isle of Man Senior TT with Micheal Dunlop. Was a great first time experience, and means that I prepared the bike that made Micheal the fastest of the Dunlop’s ever to lap the famous Isle of Man TT course.
  • The year was a story of problem free practice and qualifying followed by crashing out of podium positions. The final round saw us qualify in fifth, lead the race then crash out of 2nd. Rejoining in dead last after a 40 minute push in and a 17 minute repair. We then proceeded to be fastest on track for the majority of the race and finished 9th. We’re saving are luck for 2009, the teams 25th season in the World Endurance Championship.