Racing bloggen

Guten Abend meine Freunde

It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice!!
Just something in my head that I needed to bring down to words through my fingers.

Pro Superbike is the main RR class in Sweden and that is my main goal this season besides to win at the Isle of Man! ( Just kidding about the IoM, but to be the best newcomer ever is my goal )

Things has changed with the EWC ( Endurance World Championship ) and therefore I must change strategy and mobilise my troops for new missions.
The new mission is to win Pro Prosuperbike series in Sweden and make life difficult for my competitors.
I will race on tracks like, Gelleråsen, Mantorp, Våler, Knutstorp, Anderstorp, Sturup, Falkenberg, instead of Le Mans, Albacete, Magny Cours, Suzuka etc.
But sometimes life aint what you want it to be. The only thing you can do is to deal with the new facts and solve the problems and create a even stronger package for future victories.
And what my father touhgt me, “Things that doesn´t kill you will make you stronger”

On friday I will get the new K7 GSXR from Din MC! This will be my birthday present!
I have also a sparebike prepared and ready to go if necessery. But that is a secret one and just for emergency.
The 22nd of April the first race of the year will held at Sturup, Malmoe.
I am really looking forward to it and can hardly sit still and wait for it.

There will be something common between my races in Sweden and at the IoM. Both teams will be in the colors black as the sin!
The MBR team at the IoM is black and yellow and the Din MC team is blackpainted!

My friends you have to look after #55 in the races in Sweden because it will be me riding the bike.

See you soon.

( My son, Ask for thyself another Kingdom, for that which I leave is too small for thee ) Words from Alexander the Great!

Ciao
Christer

Viva La France or Por Favor!

Actually it feels really good to be back home again sleeping in my own bed! It was couple of weeks since I last had the chance to do that.

Last week were spent in France and Val de Vienne for a 3 day test with the Endurance team. The test went really well and aprox 60-70 laps per day were added to this years riding account, with still no crash in the bag.
The weather was not what expected. It was chilly, rain, snow, windy and only 3-5 degrese in the afternoon. So far away from nice spring weather, but we live in a strange world so you can not expect to much even from the weather!

So the last three weeks has brought Isle of Man, Spain and France to the testing account and all three places has had their own project.
I o M and those 16 laps in rental car was really what I needed for my confidence for this years TT.
Spain was about testing tires for the BIKE magazine in Sweden.
France and EWC testing was the last one, and now I will be home back in Sweden for a couple of weeks before next trip will take part.
It will be BRNO in Tjeckoslovakei and the final preparation for the first round in the Swedish SBK Championship.

Yesterday when I came back to my house I could not keep my fingers off my endurobike and had to take a 1,5 h trip at the local endurotrack not far from home.
Yes! It was a great feeling to ride again!!!!

That is what life is all about, riding! At least that is my dedication.
Maybe one day there will be something else, like earning a hell lot of money which can buy me even greater toys like aeroplanes, choppers, fast motorboats and other not userfriendly things that wants to make life hard for me!!! We will have to wait and see what destiny brings!

Ride hard die free!!
Yours Sincerly / Christer

Terve!

Right at the moment I am quite confused! The last month has been pretty busy.
Two trips to the Isle of Man, two trips to Trysil for skiing, a trip to Spain and tomorrow the next one will be for Viva la France. Oh, just forgot the trip to Geneva also a couple of weeks ago!
Besides all the travelling with flights around the Europe, I have spent some hours per day in car travelling around to get all things working with teams and sponsors.
There has not been a single day off from the racing agenda since…. I can´t even remember. But I can not blame anybody else for the situation. I love riding racebikes and for being able to do that I must suffer in life and this is it. I have accepted my destiny!
If I am not doing what I am doing every day, then I can not go racing, and must find something else to do in life and at the moment it is not a option.

Tomorrow the Endurance team will go for a three day test in France. It will be the first shake down test for both men and machine. We will find out if the bikes work properly and get the mechanics up to speed and also the riders. This is a really important test and I am very keen to find out things and those changes that are done to the bikes under wintertime in cold Sweden.
Of course you will have a more detailed report later on.

Oh, just forgot to tell you that my luggage where lost in space on my way back home from the tyretesting session I had last week in Spain. It didn´t show up at Arlanda airport when I did and ofcourse all my riding leathers, helmets and personal stuff was in there.
One hour ago I rang to the Airport and the luggage had arrived, but couldn´t be sent out before 17.00 from Sthlm to Karlskoga. So hopefully I will get it late this evening so I can bring it with me for the next trip tomorrow morning.

Over and out for this time!

Ciao

Ciao!

I am just back home again for some hours before next take off.
The last weekend was spent on the Isle of Man again and this time together with my friend and Manx 2nd place finisher 2006 Mats Nilsson.
We were both invited there by the Mike Hailwood Foundation for learning the course, and guess what! I HAVE LEARNT THE COURSE!!!
Those 286 corners and over 61 km of riding at speeds over 200 mph between houses and fences are now programmed into my head. Sunday morning after we had finished our 2 regular morning laps I went back to bed at the hotel and memorised the whole course through my mind wihtout any doubts anywhere! That is what it is all about! Doing the job and have it well done. Everything is about preparation and as a professional rider you can not trust in luck or shit like that, because there is no luck or bad luck. It is all about doing the hard work for achieving the goals that is in your mind.
I will dedicate this weekend to Mats Nilsson who seemed to be one hell of a teacher! Thank you Mats. And also a thank you to Milky Quale for his effort in telling the secrets round the course.

On Friday we also met my teamboss Martin Bullock and had some really nice dinner and a lot of drinks in the evening ( Soft drinks for us riders )
Sorry for missing the dinner on Saturday with my boss, ( hope the appologise will be accepted ) but we had some important work to do and that was to do more laps round the course! At that point I was still not 100% sure about where to be positioned into ALPINE, and what the lefthander after JOEYS looked like. So Saturday became a long day sitting in our rentalcar Ford Fiesta. We did 13 laps that day!!

The final day Sunday, we also where able to manage to see the first race of the year at Jurby Airfield, and see the bike I am going to ride in the TT this year. It was interesting to watch the race, but more important to see my bike.
Mmm, what a beauty she is! Black and yellow and as sweet as sugar and I will promise you that we will like each other and give all the spectators a lot of good memories in the TT. Specially plenty of nice wheelies wherever it is possible!
It was also nice to meet my mechanic and the other riders in the MBR. Such a great bunch of guys. I am really longing for them all! 🙁

Tomorrow evening I will go for the next trip and this time it will be to Spain and Albacete for some tiretesting.
And the oncoming week I will go to France with the Endurance team for testing the new bikes and get up to speed my self.

So as soon as there will be a computer near me, I will give you some words again!

Cheers
Christer Miinin

Ciao.

British Dunlop vs Italian Pirelli, is the qustion to be asked. What tyres will I be using this season in my racing? 
  Pirelli has made hard work over the winter and big improvements, shown in the WSB racing. The laptimes has been going down with about 1 second from last year and a lot of it is in the new line of rubber from the factory.
  Dunlop we do not know so much about at this moment. But maybe next week I can tell you further more after beeing at a tyretest in Spain for the Swedish motorcyclemagazine BIKE. We all know that Dunlop are outstanding in making raintyres, but it will be interesting to find out if they also has done their homework over the winter.
  The other manufactures the Japanese Bridgestone and French Michelin are also on the market worldwide, but not as common in Sweden. The importers in Sweden doesn´t bother so much about motorcycle racing anyway, so that is a reason for not choose any of these two brands.
  On friday I will make another trip to the Isle of Man together with the silvermedalist from 2006 years Manx GP, Mats Nilsson. We are both invited by the “Mike Hailwood Foundation”.
  It will be a weekend spent in a rental car doing as many laps as possible for the oncoming TT this summer and hopefully the weather will be much better there than it is in Sweden at the moment.

Speak to you all next week………..
Cheers

Yesterday Sunday was the start of the new year 2007!
The World Superbike Championship went off at Qatar…
I hope you all were watching all of the races, two SBK races and the SuperSport race. It was like christmas day. Just sitting infront of the telly, enjoying the most wonderful sport in the world!
Just to see all the athlets fight against each other inch by inch on the track, for seeing the cheqered flag first of them all.

The megastar Massimiliano Biaggi made a successful debut! One win and a second place in the second heat. Wow, I am impressed. Everybody has been talking about him and that he has been one year off from racing when he was kicked out from Moto GP, but he really showed them all that he is a rider of caliber! He has attitude that is for sure, and he is not the easiest person to deal with, but he knows how to ride a motorcycle, fast!

In just two weeks time the MotoGP season also will make this years entrance and it will be great to follow those new 800cc machines around.
It will go even faster this season than last year with the 1000cc machines, that was shown yesterday at the IRTA test held in Spain Jerez.
Vale Rossi, won a BMW Z4 M Coupe when he laped the ever fastest lap round the circuit. The new record is 1.38,39 seconds and the old one was 1.39,5!! That is not so bad improvment!

What happens here in Sweden?? Not so much in racing. But I am working about 70-80 hours per week with things that has with racing to do.
And now I have got a flu and really hate snow and winter and are just longing for spring and summer.
Last Saturday I saw my first glimse of my brand new Suzuki GSXR1000-K7 that I will be racing with in the Swedish Championship. Mmm, what a beauty lady she was. She looked at me with her black hair and dress and did everything she could to make me climb her! I will promise you that she will make life hard for my competitors in Sweden this year.
Watch out for the lady in black #55!

Thanks for now and speak to you soon!

Regards
Christer Miinin

What if……. I have never tried it!!
That is the title of Valentino Rossis Selfbiografi that I just have read. And what can I say about the book and the person himself as discribed?
   At many parts of the book and some associations in it I can see myself instead of Rossi and I think most of all racers will also feel the same as I did when reading the book.
   For sure we are some strange guys who choose to find our own ways in everything we do and most of the time it is not the easiest path we will follow!
   I can not talk for everybody, but only for my self and I am a seeker who gets nervous about doing the same thing in life more than two days in a row without learning something new!
   I want some challenge and stimualtion as often as possible to feel alive and that must be why I became a racer and motorcyclist! It gives you all the adrenalin pumping in your veins and stimulates your testosteren production which gives you the “kicks” you are lookin for!

Today was another worhtless day here in Sweden. It was about -14 degrees and windy and the snow was falling. You could not go out riding the endurobike!
   So it had to be some working inside house and sponsor hunting instead.
   Some hours by phone and a lot of emails to people around. The only good thing then is that you can listen to the German Quality Heavy Metalband “RAMMSTEIN” while working. DU HAST MICH!

Now I will spend some hours with my bookeeping before I will fall asleep!
    It is quite important to do so sometimes, otherwise you have to ride even faster to get rid of the Taxpolice that will hunt you down and collect your money! 🙁  ( And they will never let you go again )

Cheers for now and goodnight to you all!

/ Christer Miinin

Hi friends!

Yesterday it was valentines day, and what happend!? Nothing special! No ladies dancing on the tables nor even a single flower on my pillow 🙁

So I will forget all about Valentines day and talk more about what is going on in the “real” world, of racing of course!
Ever since the 26th of January there has been plenty of business going on in the weekends.
First there was a trip to Norway for skiing for about 3 days, the week after I flew to the Isle of Man for a fantastic weekend of pleasure and on coming racing. Directly after that I went back home again for more work and business!

But I will also tell you that I am doing my learning and exercise every day.
Two laps on the mountain course of TT every day while training on my cycle infront of the telly! ( I will surprise you all at the 100th TT!!! )
And I am also doing the training with my endurobike twice or three times per week.

In march I will go to Spain for some important tyretesting, and for preseason testing for the oncoming Endurance WorldChampionship.

Thanks for your time and Regards to you all!

/ Christer Miinin