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WORDS: COREY ALEXANDER IMAGES: COURTESY OF PTR HONDA I’ve been racing all over the country since I was 13 years old. It wasn’t until this season, 6 years later that I finally had the opportunity to take my first trip abroad. I had got the news from my Uncle Richie two weeks prior to the championship deciding race at NJMP that I’d be racing the last two rounds of the World Supersport Championship in both France and Spain. We had signed a deal with the PTR Honda team which is a reputable English based team that ex-Celtic Racing crew chief Mark Kelly works for. This connection is the majority of the reason that we were so confident in the deal other than knowing of the teams past successes. Fortunately I went on to win the AMA Supersport championship at the races in NJMP which made the trip to across the pond much less stressful than it could have potentially been. So, after getting all of my paperwork and my numerous doctors visits to confirm that my heart worked okay and I wasn’t a drug addict/alcoholic I headed to my first Daytona Sportbike race at Laguna Seca. That whole weekend didn’t really go so well so we can pretend it didn’t happen, right? Then I headed to France to see what I had against the best riders in the world. This was my first time ever leaving the country so I was incredibly excited to say the least. I had my Uncle Richie and personal sponsor/very close friend Jon Freeman along for the ride. We left New York at 7pm on a Wednesday and arrived in France at around 8am on Thursday. Don’t get yourself confused though, 42 | SPORTBIKESINCMAG.COM
it’s not that long of a flight but there is a 6 hour time change. Unfortunately it’s nothing like daylight savings and it all around sucks! After we cleared customs, (it’s amazing how much less strict France is compared to the U.S.) we grabbed our bags and headed to the rental car. As we ventured I realized 1. it was cold and 2. all the cars in Europe are diesel, it’s interesting that the U.S. hasn’t adopted that same idea. One of the first things I noticed when we hopped on the freeway in Paris was that there were bikes (scooters really) literally everywhere. It was crazy to see trains of 30 riders splitting lanes at 55 MPH while cars were stopped in traffic. People always wonder why motorcycling isn’t as big in America and that’s why. In Europe bikes own the road, they have the right away and they aren’t treated like the red headed stepchild for being daring enough to ride on two wheels. I think also the fact that it’s allowed for bikes to have a bit more leeway and utilize the perks (splitting traffic and speeding) makes it much more intriguing for a driver to become a rider. Back to the story; we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us into Narnia aka Nevers, France. The idea was to stay awake all day and pass out when the time came to sleep, it turned into a challenge actually. As we arrived at the track we were in semi-awe at the sight of some of the WSBK hospitalities, they’re pretty amazing structures just to be torn down at the end of the weekend. We made our way to the garages after slight confusion amongst the long row of flat-nosed tractor trailers. I was introduced to my team and the