Jan 2009 News Update
Having spent the last two seasons onboard a 125 GP bike, I will make the move in 2009 to the larger capacity class, in the form
of the 600 Junior Superstock series. Towards the end of the 08 season the general concession within the team was that Jordan was ready to make the move.
The team's traditional trip down to Spain to compete in the final two races of the Spanish Champioship in November would provide an apportunity for Jordan to ride the 600 in the Supersports class.
In Valencia the first practice session on the Friday was first time Jordan had ridden a 600. He went on to qualify on the Saturday in 35th position, claiming a 23rd place in the race on the Sunday. Quite an achievement in the Spanish Supersport class, let alone it having been the first time on a 600.
The following weekend the team travelled down to Jerez. This time Jordan qualified in 23rd place, finishing the race in 20th position. A fantastic result when you consider the top finish time.
The decision was now clear and final - from 2009 Jordan will compete in the showcase 600 Junior Superstocks class on board a Yamaha R6, which is being prepared at the team facility in Garstang. The Superstocks class runs alongside the British Superbike Series. For details of the race schedule see the events page.
March 2009 News Update
Hi everyone,
Just a quick blog update before I go to Spain on Wednesday 4th March - we're flying out from Manchester with all the team.
The other night I was up at Squires Cafe in Yorkshire for the new R1 launch by Colin Appleyard - the bike looks superb and sounds awesome. Yamaha have really put a lot of time and effort into this beast. That night was the 1st time I got to see my new R6 race bike that I will be racing this year and I was absolutely buzzing when I saw it and jumped right on it.
The day after I went up to the team's workshop in Garstang, wich is near Preston, to help load the truck and put my race kit on the truck. All winter I have been training so hard doing 5 nights a week in the gym, 6-hour mountain bike rides every Sunday and also boxing twice a week. So I'm really up for this season and can't wait to get to Cartagena for the 1st test and then to Brands Hatch on easter weekend for the 1st round of the BSB Championship.
So just signing off now as I am packing my suitcase at the moment and when I get back from Cartagena I will be doing another blog to tell you al how I got on - so thanks very much for reading.
March 2009 Pro Testing - Cartegna
I got back from the Cartagena test last week, which was really good and we made some great progress. It was the 1st time on the new R6 and the 1st time in 4months that I had ridden a bike. The 1st day it was bad weather but I had to finish running the bike in so I just did some running-in sessions. The 2nd day was much better, a bit windy but it was dry and sunny and I got some good laps in and managed to do a 1min:41 lap time, which is pretty fast on a stock 600.
The 3rd day was really hot - I couldn’t beat my lap time from the previous day but I was consistently doing 1min 42’s on old tyres. On the last session of the day I had a crash at the back of the circuit, I was fine, I just lost the front end going into a corner. The bike wasn’t too badly damaged but I broke a little sensor in the throttle which controls the fly-by-wire, but the team didn’t have a spare so I couldn’t do the final day testing. Looking on the bright side, I got loads of laps in and was consistently fast.
Hopefully we might squeeze another test in England before Brands Hatch during Easter weekend, but we will see what the team says.
Brands Hatch Indy,
10-13 April
Right now we're back in England and at the 1st BSB event of the season.
Friday practice didn’t go so well as we couldn’t get a good feel for the bike. It just kept trying to lose the front end in every corner so on the Friday night the mechanics had the forks out and changed a few little things to see if that would work.
Saturday we had another practice session and a qualifying practice session. We got a bit more feel on the front end but the rear was trying to spin up, so we adjusted it for qualifying and finished 16th in QP1.
Sunday and we've got 1 more qualifying session and we needed to do well. We went out and the weather was a bit in between wet and dry and so I stayed out on track for the whole session, in case it rained. I qualified 14th overall which I wasn’t really happy with, but considering I was only 0.50 of a second off pole it just shows how fast everyone was.
The race - I got a terrible start and just couldn’t get the bike off the line and dropped 10 places on the 1st lap, but pulled 9 back before the red flag came out - some riders had collided and a bike was on fire, so we had to restart the race. I got another bad start but it was much better than before. I had a good battle with 2 other riders but finished 19th which I was unhappy with. I've just got to learn to know how to get this new bike off the line faster so Oulton Park will be here soon and I will be giving it my all.
Cheers to all the team and Buckle and Colin , Robin and Doug.
Oulton Park , 2-4th May
Oulton Park - we've never had any luck here, but this is my home track and I wanted to get a good result, more so because Brands Hatch didn’t go to plan.
In the 1st practice the bike was not handling at all well and I came into the pitlane saying "its not turning". After the session we found a problem with the steering damper so we changed it and in the 1st qualifying session I wanted a good position and manged to get 3rd - and beat the lap record, which only 3 of us manged to do so this was fantastic.
In the 2nd qualifying I wanted to stay on the front row so we made some changes and they worked great and I qualified 4th and went faster.
The race - I got a good start but dropped 2 positions on the 1st lap. I then manged to get into 5th before a rider hit the deck in infornt of me which made me swerve and I lost a position. But on the last lap I was in 3rd after passing 2 riders. With only a few corners to go and pressing from 3rd I got pushed wide by another rider and had to take to the grass at 120mph and crashed. I was annoyed but I had to look at the positives - being up there fighting for the podium and nearly making it.
So thanks very much to all the team especially Colin Davies and Buckle, the next one is Donnington.
Donnington, 23-25th May
The 1st qualifying session was pretty awesome - I managed 5th which I was happy with. But I knew we could do better, so me and the mechanics and Colin sat down and decided that we needed to change the gearing because I thought it would make it come off some corners better. In the 2nd qualifying session it went awful - I made a mistake about the gearing I chose and couldn’t go any faster and I was really unhappy with myself.
So for the race we went back to the previous gearing and I had a really good race I was 13th on the grid and managed to get up to 9th to finish and I was happy with this considering everything. I had some good battles going on in the race and made some impressive lap times, so cheers to the guys especially Buckle and Colin.
Thruxton, 29-31st May
After a terrible qualifying session at Thruxton, due to not getting the bike set up properly - the back tyre just kept sliding at every corner and losing grip, I was defiantately up for the race. I was 14th on the grid as we set off but there was a start line incident happened, where another rider fell off in front of me and I had to slam the brakes on so I didn’t hit himm while other riders were passing me. Then the safety car came out twice while I was in 18th position. I managed to get back up to 12th by the end the race - a frustrating weekend for me and the team, but we move on to Snetterton next, which hasn’t been the best circuit for me in the past but I am going to give it my all for sure.
Snetterton, 19-21st June
In qualifying we had some gearing issues and we couldn’t get the right gearing sorted for the 1st qualifying session and I finished 12th. I knew we needed to sit down with the team and get it sorted out and we eventually decided on what to run, but before we could do the 2nd qualifying session it rained. We decided not to go out again because we would not go any quicker in the slippy conditions.
In the race I got off the line well got to the 1st corner Ok but got pushed very wide onto the dusty tarmac and had to slow down and get back into the race. I just couldn’t run the speed because the bike wasn't working properly and I finshed 16th. I knew this was terrible, so the next round is Knockhill in Scotland, which is one of my favourite tracks and I hope I will be back on form there.
Knockhill, 3-5 July
Over the Knockhill weekend we had 2 races because we are not racing at the Mallory because the paddock is to small, so this was a great weekend to pick up loads of points for the Championship.
Qualifying went really well, getting 3rd which I and the team were really happy with. In the race we didn't get a great start and finished 5th, which is still my best position this season, despite having had a hard and tough battle with several riders.
In the 2nd race I got away better and was with the leading pack going into the last corner but the gear box failed and this meant the end to the 2nd race. So although it was a tough weekend I was on the pace all the time, which was good. Brands Hatch is next now, so looking forward to that.
No Mallory Blog - weekend away instead !
No racing this weekend but just a quick update I've been up to Ben Padgetts house this weekend, the nephew of British Champion Clive Padgett. We went up to Dalby Forest near Scarbourough for some mountain biking - a proper up and down 25mile ride of hardcore mountain biking. We drove up, Ben, Joel (Ben's younger brother) and I and we had a really great day - having some offs and laughs along the way as we all hit some tree stumps and ended up in the trees once or twice. We had a really good weekend for some fitness. Recently I've started doing some motox training to help with bike control and getting comfortable with sliding a bike, which I have been really enjoying. Next weekend I'm going to London to watch the Red Bull x fighters with my friend Clarky, who works for MSS Discovery Kawasaki, so I will gove you an update after that - I'm sure it will be awesome.
Brands Hatch GP, 7-9 August
Brands Hatch GP track - this track is such a fast, flowing circuit, ask any top racer and they love it. In qualifying we were trying some new things to try to improve the bike set up, and I've honestly got to say it was almost perfect. We qualified 12th, which was competitive and we had really good race pace in qualifying.
In the race on the 1st lap it got red flagged as a rider came off and collided with another rider - so there was a complete restart. I didn’t get the best start and got a little boxed in loosing 5 places in the 1st two corners, but by the 3rd and 4th corner I got them all back and was back in 12th and right on the back of 11th and 10th riders. I managed to pass them both and with 5 laps to go I could see a big group of riders in front of me which were battling for 3rd position - so I got my head down and managed to pull a little bit back lap by lap, but the laps just ran out and I finished 10th. This was a good result but I lost too much time on that 1st lap and this meant that I couldn’t get back to that group. We have decided we're going to practice my starts for Cadwell Park on Bank Holiday weekend.
Cadwell Park , 29-31 August
Cadwell Park circuit is very demanding the only circuit that you actually get airborn on the bike - coming over the Mountain Corner. Anyway the first practice was wet so I took it steady knowing I had a qualifying session afterwards. in the qualifying session I was in between 1st and 4th all the time until I had a crash early on, destroying the bike - snapping the front suspension off and bending the chassis. So I had to persuade the team to rebuild the bike. I borrowed some suspension off Phil Seton (from Seton Tuning) which I was very greatful for and he lined up the bike on his laser liner. I also borrowed some yokes off the Nutt Travel team. So after the bike had been rebuilt I knew it wasn’t going to be right and I knew I had to work with what I had.
In the 2nd qualifying session I ended up 19th on the grid, but the chassis was really bent and I struggled to turn left. In the race on lap 2 I went for an overtake at the end of the back straight and ran onto the grass. I rejoined in 35th place (which was last place) but I didn’t give up and I battled to finish 23rd - the bike was terrible to ride but I knew it would.
But the weekend wasn’t all bad as in the charity cycle race I manged to finsh 2nd behind Josh Brookes on the podium so I did manage to spray some champagne!. So Croft is next and I will have a new bike for then so cheers to all at Setun Tuning for their help and support and the Nutt Travel team and of course Buckle.
Croft , 11-13 September
This weekend we were racing at the Croft circuit in Yorkshire. All was going well in the 1st practice, running in 2nd place for most of it, until Tom Young sat up and slowed right down in front of me on the fastest part of the track; which was stupid and dangerous and I had nowhere to go and clipped his rear. I went down at 120mph plus ! Luckily I was ok - a bit battered and bruised with a badly swollen arm. Much of Friday night was spent in Darlington hospital where the doctors were tying to drain the fluid from my arm but to no avail.
On Saturday morning I went to see Toby [ BSB Medic Officer] for a check up before Q1 and he tried to drain my arm but it wasnt having it. so onto Q1 with a bigger set of leathers [to try to accomadate my swollen arm]. Q1 went really well considering I was quite stiff, for most of the session I was running in the top 5 and I finished the session 8th, which I was pleased with.
Onto Q2 -I only managed a few laps as the clutch went, I was beginning to think this wasn't going to be my weekend. Anyway I must have done ok as I only dropped 4 places overall and would be on the grid in 12th place, which was still ok considering what happened on the Friday.
Sunday warm up session and race - the mechanics fitted a new clutch and all looked good forgot to mention thanks to the mechanics for putting the bike back after Friday]. Onto warm up now - when I said this might not be my weekend I wasn't prepared for the next thing [I think they call it character building !]. 2 laps into warm up, the same place where I got taken out on Friday; the bike appeared to lock up and I was off again. I arrived back at the team awning and sat down with Robin [Appleyard] and we made a decision not to race. I was fairly battered and the bike was looking a bit sad and rightly so, the team wanted to carry out a full inspection on the bike to ensure it's safety. So that was my Croft meeting over onto Silverstone in a couple of weeks. The team will have the bike sorted - given my mechanic plenty to do. Thanks to all the team and Colin and Doug.
Silverstone , 25-27 September
Silverstone - after the 2 big offs at Croft I haven't been able to get any real training in, having spent a lot of time at the physios.
FP1 - I didn't manage to get much time in because of a couple of tech problems with the bike and this would mean we would have to use Q1 to get a set up.
Q1 went ok and we managed to get a setting for the bike so we would be ready for Q2. The weekend was looking really good - there is always a buzz about silverstone. I went out for a meal with the team and I was enjoying the weekend although with a bit of apprehension maybe becasue of what had happenrd at Croft. Colin [Appleyard] gave me some good advice and was generous with his comments and advice.
Q2 was going really well, although I did leave it a bit late before I got on the pace - so much so that my fastest lap was my last. I got held up in the complex, losing almost a second. Robin told me that would have moved me up 6 or 7 places, thats the nature of what we do and I can only blame myself for leaving it late.
Race day - sunday morning warm up and I was up for it and feeling much better. I went well and the bike felt good, Colin Davies had done some minor adjustments on the suspension and everything felt great.
We had a early race at 11.30 and I had qualified 20th. Now if there is one thing I have struggled with all season it is my starts, so much so that before Croft I bought a old CR125 mx bike [which I am currently restoring back to its former glory], Dad and I and the bike went to a field at the back of my main sponsors home and equipped with a torch [to replicate the start lights] Sad was at one end of the field with the torch and I was doing practice starts. For obvious reasons I didn't get a lot of starts at Croft to exercise my new technique. So at silverstone on the grid in 20th and with my new start technique in mind and nothing to lose - lets go for it watching....watching...lights go bo...ok...nearly stalled it [even Lorenzos had that one]. Anyway I got stuck having lost 6 places and pulled 8 back on the 1st lap. It was a good race but no really big moments. I finished 15th so I managed to nick a point. The team seemed quite happy and I got a slap on the back off Colin and Doug. Robin said it wasn't a bad performance; maybe I was expecting a lot better. Now onto Oulton next and another of my favouite circuits - last time there I qualified on the front row thanks again to the team and Colin and Doug.
News Update - 6th October
Jordan has now split from Appleyard/Macadam. News of the split came via a phone call from the team manager on Tues 6th October, 2 days before the final round of the season at Oulton Park. Bob Grant Racing, from Scotland have stepped in to offer a place in their team. Jordan is excited to be working with an accomplished team and thanks Bob for his help. He wishes Appleyard/Macadam all the best for Oulton Park ....more to follow
Oulton Park, 9-11 October
Oulton Park - 2 days before the final round of the season and we have parted company with the team; not a good situation but probably for the best I will do a end of season blog regarding this.
So with no ride lined up in steps Bob Grant Yamaha Racing with a offer of help.
Friday we meet the team; Bob, a 600 racer with lots of experience; Vicky, pleasant welcoming and made me feel comfortable; Baz, my mechanic is big so I must watch my p & qs otherwise I may get a slap, he's quiet so that tells me he knows what he is doing. Niall said he would give me as much advice as I wanted and he took me round the track with Bob and went through my starts with me.
Friday FP1 - early practice and it is cold and damp. Obviously we are trying to get a set up but you can only do so much in 25 mins, although the bike is a Yamaha R6 the same as I have been riding all season - that bike had been dialled into me since March. We had a good session and Bob told me to get plenty of laps in, which I did.
Q1 Friday afternoon and weather conditions were better and we where getting a better set up - all going good plenty of laps. I got good feed back from my pit board and finished the session 19th which was ok. A new team, a new bike and all good. Bob, baz and the team were happy and looking forward to Q2 on the Saturday.
Q2 Saturday - well guess what: its raining so the times are not going to improve. Nontheless we had a good practice with plenty of laps, more time on the bike and all was going well with Bob and the team and went and did a bit of commentary in the tower with Fred Clarke. Back to the race truck to go through setup and data with Bob and Baz
Sunday race day - no warm up because of the tight shedule, instead 2 extra warm up laps. It had just stopped raining and track conditions were very greasy. Best start of the season [Niall ??], I passed 3 riders before turn 1. I will say this was not my best performance, the bike was spinning up due to the grease on the track - I know its the same for everyone and I am not making excuses. I just wanted to bring it all home safely and I couldn't get focused, probably more to do with what happened over the past few days, so I finished a very poor 25th. Bob and the team were great and probably the best way to look at the weekend is as a prelude to testing for next season.
Many thanks to everyone who helped to get me to Oulton Park, Bob and the team, Mum, Dad, Cara, John and Mark, Gary Dawson.
Coming next my end of season blog
End of season
Well what a year! From pre season testing at Caragena with Appleyard/Macadam to the final round at Oulton with Bob Grant Yamaha Racing. The season, although not going as well as I had hoped, has been ok for my rookie 600 year. I had been hovering around 14th in the championship for the most part, although only managing 1 point from the last 4 rounds means I finished 18th; still the best placed rookie. I was hoping for a top 10 position, which was not out of the question, apart from a bit of recent bad luck - but you take the good luck when it comes so you have to accept the bad when that comes also. The positive points being I have never qualified out of the main qualifier; Oulton Park 2nd round I was running in 3rd place on the last lap; 3 front row starts; 4 top 10 finishes and a 5th at Knockhill .
The negative points being - well there aren't any.
I have spent 2 years riding for Appleyard/Macadam - 2008 GP 125s, 2009 stock 600. I now feel the time is right to move on. I have had some great times and very proud moments with the team and I would like to express my thanks to (in no particular order) Colin & Peggy, Doug & Margaret, Barbara, Robin & Diane, Carl & Ju, Donna, Ade & Dawn, Ben, Will, Colin, Alex, Buckle, John & Isobell, Deane and Ash.
During the final round at oulton, Bob expressed an interest in me riding for Grant racing in 2010, certainly a mouth- watering prospect it will be joining a friendly team with vast experiance. So for 2010 I again will be competing in the national Superstock 600 class. I beleive that I have the ability to do well and am looking foward to working with Bob, Vicky, Baz and Niall .
For the winter I will be training - mainly mountain biking and gym work and also motorcross. Keep looking at my site as I will be updating it with the latest news.
I would like to give my sincere thanks and gratitude to all of you for helping and your unconditional support
Mum, Dad, Cara
Mathew & Taryn
de Poel Consulting
Neil Clayton
Doodson Insurance
without your kindness none of this would be possible.
see you all soon jordan#5
Enduro
Since the season came to a close in October I've been keeping fit at the gym and also doing some motox practice and this weekend I did an endure event - which is my first ever enduro. 150 riders all going for a 3ft gap in the trees which took us into the wooded section of the course, I was riding my Honda CR 250 (which is a real brute), loads of people were getting stuck in the mud (including me) and it was really hard work. My first lap took 35mins and a few little mishaps along the way as the mud was really wet and was making huge ruts to ride through. On my 2nd lap I came downhill through the trees and my bike just kept sliding down on the rear wheel and I went straight into a tree and came off. This knocked me around a little and some spectators helped pick the bike up. On the 2nd lap my bike kept boiling over so I had to stop every few mins to let it cool down, I finished my 2nd lap and had to call it a day as my bike kept boiling over. It definately was very hard and exhausting, but full respect to everyone who rides enduro. I'm going trials riding next weekend with my friend Ben Padgett
Thanks for reading the blog - come back and read more updates
