Rider & Team History
I was 16 when I started developing an interest in motorbikes and I’ve my dad to thank for that. He was one of the founding members of the Dublin Motorcycle Touring Club, which was started over 34 years ago. In the early 70’s he had a Triumph 500 twin, then a Honda CB750, and then the 1st Goldwing in Southern Ireland in 1976. He sold the Goldwing in ‘78 to help fund the deposit for our family home. After a long break from motorbikes, he bought a Honda CBX–1000, which was when I started joining him on riedouts around Ireland and I became hooked on two wheels.
I started riding bikes on my 19th birthday, 7th October 2001. When I bought a Honda Varadero 125. This lasted just 5 months before I got sick of it and upgraded to a Kawasaki ZXR250, a high revving sports bike. After a year on this, and my first ever trackday, I upgraded to the big brother of the 250... the ZX7R.
In 2003, one of my best mates, John Carr, on a Yamaha R1 and myself on the ZX7R, did practically ever track day at Mondello Park, slowly learning the track and having bags of fun at the same time. As the summer drew to an end I wanted a change, so sold the ZX7R and, with what money I could come up with, bought my dream bike – a 1997 Ducati 916 – the week before my 21st birthday. After collecting it on the Thursday, I booked myself in for a track day on the Monday with my housemate at the time, Peter Brennan, on a Honda Firestorm. The bike handled great and was able to grind the pegs come the end of the day. Dropped into Ducati Dublin on the way home when Kim suggested that I started racing. Until then I had never thought about it, but it got me thinking. After a couple of weeks I decided to try it out, but it meant selling my pride and joy, as racing and keeping the 916 would not have been possible.
With the money I got for the 916, I went to Steve at NDM and bought a Honda CBR400RR for the Clubman SS400s, which he then prepped, and NDM eventually became one of my main sponsors for the end of 2004, and all of 2005. With the left over cash I bought myself a cheap Honda Bros 400 so I could still get to and from work. Ned in BikeBazaar also backed me, giving me leathers, boots, gloves, and various bits for the CBR. 2004 turned out to be a good developing year as my worst resukt was my first ever race in Mondello Park, finishing 12th in both races. Throughout the season I consistently got better to earn a 5th place in Kirkistown. The season ended abruptly as I highsided at a trackday on the CBR breaking my collarbone and being concussed.
In 2005, the SS400s were moved to National level and I got my CBR touched up, tuned and sprayed in a new NDM paint scheme along with my mates Graham Fahey and Jay Murray, as we all had some support from Steve. After a slow start to the season with a couple of bad results up north, my times came down and I was consistently back in the top 10. Mondello Park proved to be my best circuit as I finished 3rd behind two Suzuki SV650’s a few times and also managed a pole position in August. When the season ended in October, I stood 2nd place for the Southern Lightweight Supersports Championship.
At the presentation dinner, Iain Duff approached my dad and I with a view to setting up a new team for the 2006 season in the Clubmans SS600s.
2006 Review
Absol Racing was founded at the beginning of 2006 to compete in the Bridgestone Supersports 600s, with two brand new Triumph Daytona 675’s. After a day at Mondello Park running in the bike, I was quite impressed with the handling, power and overall package.
First time out on the Bridgestone 002 Pro tyres was at Kirkistown for a tyre test day, which proved to be critical as the 675 needed to be set for the characteristics of the Bridgestones.
By the time the first round came at Mondello Park we had a base setting that worked well. In the qualifying session on the new machine I managed to secure 12th place on the starting grid for the races. After a decent start to the first race I managed to pick off a couple of guys. I thought I was in about 7th but I was actually sitting in 4th and closing in on 3rd. I made a move on the penultimate lap but wasn’t able to make it stick so I had to settle for 4th. But I was delighted with this result for my first 600 race! Unfortunately, the second race of the day was canceled due to an oil spillage and excessive rain.
Since the opening round, I gradually improved on my times, which secured me another four 4th places, with 11th being my worst result but at a track I’m not fond of – Aghadowey.
The season finished at Bishopscourt in mid–September and I ended up 5th overall in the Bridgestone SS600 Championship, In the Southern SS600 Clubmans Championship I finished in 3rd position overall, and I also finished in 3rd position in the Southern SS600 National Championship – only 3 points behind second.
The highlight of the year has been nominated for the Clubmans Rider of the Year finals and being voted the ‘Bridgestone Rider of the Year’ by the racers themselves. The poll went on for 3 months and I finished on top with over 40% of the votes at times.
2007 Review
After AJ went to the Triumph Only Trackday at Brands Hatch with Absol Racing in 2006, he decided that he was going to enter the newly formed 'Triumph Cup' in 2007. Being 24 years old, he was eligible to enter the 'Michelin Young Guns'. We knew this was going to be a tough year, as AJ had only been to one of the tracks before, so everything was going to have a steep learning curver.
Early season testing in Calafat, Spain was great for AJ and Jackson to meet the fellow competitors and series sponsors. Testing had its ups and downs. Unfortunately, AJ came off in the wet after colliding with another rider on track. But bounced back and continued putting in decent lap times.
The season opener was at Snetterton on a lovely warm weekend. AJ being the only Irishman in the Series, his bike was used for the opening scenes of the Powerbike Tour, recorded by KVS Productions and aired on MotorsTV. Through out the season, AJH Racing got fantastic exposure as we were the only team in the Series to run with onboard camera's. And the footage was excellent quality, that KVSP were able to edit it into their program.
AJ had his good weekends and his bad ones, just like everyone else. A couple of big crashes through the year didn't help the confidence at a couple of tracks, but he fought hard to earn himself an 8th place in the 'Michelin Young Guns' Championship, and to finish 9th position overall.
AJ was then one of few selected for the new 'R1 Cup' for 2008, which will be run at British Superbikes and a MotoGP round, but unfortunately, AJH Racing weren't able to bring in the required amount of money in time and were forced to let the opportunity pass. Since then, we have acquired a Suzuki GSXR 1000 and we'll be entering the Irish Superbikes, Mondello Masters and a few selected rounds in the UK in 2008.