Two proper enduro tests, a motocross test, an extreme test and a challenging course made Portugal one of the best World rounds in recent years.
I flew into Porto with only a suitcase and kit bag expecting the CH-Racing team to have prepared a bike for me. They had, but essentially it was a standard bike and not quite the tool that Samuli Aro won the world championship on last year. As I had flown in I did not have any tyres, mooses, tools (only what was in my bumbag), jerry cans, oil or fuel. However I did have the very experienced Jimmy Murray on my side. We put the initial disapointment behind us and set about getting ready for the weekend.
The bike was a mixture of a motocross and enduro bike so took a while to get used to I tried to spend a while on it before the event. Time run out though and I had to put the bike into scrutineering. On saturday the day started with me getting stuck in the first test. The clay type mud was like nothing I'd seen before. It took four of us to remove the bike! Fortunately the test was not timed.
I didn't feel at home on the bike but my times were reasonable, that is until the extreme test. My throttle stuck open and I couldn't kill the engine as there wasn't a kill button. I had to turn the bike upside down to starve it of fuel. This added nearly a minute to my test time meaning I dropped down to tenth. For the following weekend Jimmy and I made sure that the team gave us a kill button!
On Sunday the day started with my seat coming loose in the first test. A team mechanic had replaced the seat after i had changed a filter and moved on to my tyre. He hadn't turned the dzutz fastener fully home so the seat came off as soon as I hit the first bumps which happened to be in the first test. Ultimately it was my responsibility so I will be checking my seat from now on! I lost 30 seconds and really struggled for the rest of the day. I eventually finished in 13th as I had several falls while trying a bit too hard to make up time.
I scored points on both days and this somehow put me in tenth in the championship with nine points. In 2002 I only had nine points after 4 events so this year is a huge improvement despite of me and the bike not performing as I know we can. Things will get better.