to my first professional contract. Through the eighties and nineties I managed a fair few 250cc, 350cc and Superbike victories before retiring there in the autumn of 2000. I had a bitter sweet victory beating my great mate Whitham to take my first BSB

.Wanting desperately to ride the new R7 and thinking a replacement backer would instantly get on board I turned down quite a few offers including a juicy contract from Crescent Suzuki (Paul Denning always enjoys reminding me). By March of the following year I still had

regular fitness monitoring by Martin Poole from a company called Pro Performance in Caterham, Surrey. Every top MotoGP team now has a professional on contract to look after the physical fitness of their riders and check it periodically to ensure

on the grid next to the Woolongong wonder. Before the race, Gardner told me to take my time on the opening laps as it would be a long day and very hot so I needed to pace myself. Naive Niall stupidly agreed only to see Gardner and the front runners take off

of the great team efforts ever. We show how the balance of MotoGP power was shifted, as Yamaha brought the mountain to their own new Mohammed.Our man Niall Mac swept into the Valencia MotoGP with a mission in mind - cornering the King of Cornering, Valentino