Daniel Mettam European Junior Cup Thread

[Toast]

Speaking of mainstream media, here is a link that has a bit about Daniel from the first round at Assen (the bike stuff starts at 8min 40sec):

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motorsport...lery_id=118184

And results from Monza up on NZSBK (big ups to them!!)

http://www.nzsbk.com/2011/05/europea...vies-wins.html

Another top effort from Daniel. Looks like a ridiculously tight series!!!!

Glenn was hoping to get some video coverage from Monza (they show it live in Europe, apparently) and stick it up on http://www.danielmettam.co.nz/ so fingers crossed that happens soon!

[Toast]

Another report from Monza, this time from Daniel's Dad. Sounds like an epic battle!

Hello All
As per previous report from rnd 1, I attach photo's/report from just completed rnd 2 of this championship from Monza, Italy -

Daniel had qualified 6th on the Saturday in a tight qualifying session where 3rd to ninth was separated by 0.4 of a second - Most of the racers had stepped it up from Assen (where there are more corners) to the fast ciruit of Monza with long straights & a lap of 5.777km's it was going to prove to be a real battle on the same bikes -
The race was over 7 laps & the race took place just before WSB race 2 in front of a huge crowd in excess of 110,000 people - The track is inside a public park (but with controlled assess to the circuit) & has many grandstands - The only one that doesn't full up is the front straight prob due to how long & straight it is -

Daniel got a good start with the Aussie Matt Davies & Assen winner Tom Busch from Germany put a break on the next 7 riders in lap 2 & so it would stay that way to the end of the race - From position 3-9 over the 5 laps they probably put 70-80 passes on each other - For example the 17 yr old rider Daniel Teixeira from Sth Africa (who actually races an R1 back in Sth African Stock 1000cc class) over the last 4 laps went from 3rd to 8th to 4th to 9th - He is a race hardened individual with a lot of experience but said that was the best race he's ever had with that much passing going on - For Daniel it was quite a new experience & he kept his head when he needed to as things like going 5 wide into The Paraboloca & turn 1 are not what he has ever experienced before - With one lap to go he was 9th (0.4 sec off 3rd) & rode the last lap well to finish 6th 0.055 secs off 5th & 0.078 sec off 4th but could so easily also have been 0.245sec off 9th - Was a great 7 bike finish (3-9)

Some intersting points from the race were that Daniel topped the Speed trap reading at 179.5km's per hour (Speed trap is taken near end of front straight - next best was 176.9) although there is a faster point out back of the track due to a downhill straight of some 800m and his best lap time was only 0.095 slower than Matt Davies best who won the race by 0.046 of a sec from Tom Busch (you can see how tight this racing is & Monza is renowned for it in the past) - We are talking 100ths of a second in all these instances...

In terms of the Champinship it was important to finish the race & bag some valuable points as there is a long way to go yet - Daniel is now running 3rd in the Championship 3 points behind 2nd place (Matt Davies) & we now look forward to round 3 at Aragon in Spain in a month -

The kids are all getting on so well now & there is some excellent riders in amongst them and they really showed so this week-end - Even with the language differences in most of them they are all getting along amazingly & making some real good friendship - The series has got such a wide variety of countries competing Australia, America, Sth Africa, England, Pakistan (although baseed out of UK), Ireland, France, Germany Spain & NZ of course - Is a great concept series & one that will get more & more popular due to the age range (14-17), close racing & coverage/exposure it is now getting -
Tomorrow Daniel is getting a test ride at Mugello circuit (3 hours from here with an Italian 125GP team) - It will probably be for one 30 min session but is something he is looking forward to & getting to know his way around another European Circuit also - Good couple of days for him from Monza at WSB in fornt of 110,000 to Mugello & just to top it off he is just as much looking forward to bucket racing at Mt Wellington on Saturday & Sunday - (back in NZ later this week) - Great stuff -

PS - There is a quite good video coverage of the whole race from Monza (EJCup) about to appear initially on 'facebook page of the European Junior Cup' - It will come up as a link to click on - Well worth a look - Check it out on next day or two - Once it is up we'll also try host it on Daniels website at www.danielmettam.co.nz

As usual big thanks to Wil Sports Management, for making this all posible for Daniel, plus, MNZ, AMCC, Fred Merkel, Grant Collingwood at CTAS, Jamie & Wes Rajek, John Connor, Rick Brown at Spill Response NZ, Phil Richards, Preferred Mtg's, Sarah & Oscar Rumi, Motomail & Miles Purchase plus everyone that has shown an interest in what Daniel is doing over here - Till next time -

Glenn & Daniel

[k14]

Thanks for the update. I searched for ages on the wsbk and monza site to try find some results from the weekend but they were nowhere. He's going pretty well!!

[yod]

6th at Aragon, 3rd overall. Brilliant.

....the battling quartet of Daniel Mettam, Sylvano De Aguiar, Daniel Teixeira and Amelie Demoulin. Normally great friends off the track, the New Zealander, South Africans and French female racer Demoulin showed true competitive spirit and gave the spectators a great show as they swapped positions and paint in a tough race long battle.

Sounds interesting! Wish they'd televise it FFS!

Full article here: http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/5-ne...at-aragon.html

Points:
1. Busch 65
2. Davies 58
3. Mettam 40
4. Kyee 38
5. Fenoll 25
6. De Aguiar 24

[rachprice]

Oh bless!!

Go dan!

[Shaun]

Go Daniel and TEAM You guys are making the KIWI name PROUD!!!!!!

[Toast]

Sorry, way late on this, but two things:

Link to good quality coverage of Monza race (haven't had a chance to check it out myself yet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNJwd...layer_embedded

Race report from Assen from the team

Hello Everyone -
Aragon is a new track (completed around 2 yrs ago) & is situated about 1.5 hrs out of Zaragoza in North East Spain in middle of a desert - The temperature here gets close to 40 degrees everyday - No need to check the weather forecast (ever i'm picking) -
The track is 5.4km's long & has a 1.7km downhill back straight (unbelievable), a shorter front straight & the rest of the track is a series of corners that wind back up a mountain, also includes a downhill corkscrew corner set up - So it has everything - The owners have certainly not spared any expense in completing the track with concrete fenses, paths, walls, carparks, tunnels buildings everywhere - We stayed in the paddock this time & the WSB set up is very friendly - Seems weird to have the likes of Johnny Rea, Chris Vermulin etc parked across from you in their state of art Motorhomes -
In the race Daniel finished 6th - It was a 7 lap race of nearly 40km's & he put in a best lap of 2.42 - The leading riders here were putting in best laps of 2.39's - 2-3 sec's can be a lot in motor racing especially if it is a 1.10 lap on a smaller track - But over 5.4km lap it is a matter of finding just a litle bit here & a little bit there - It would have come but they only get 2 x 30 min sessions (practise Friday & Qual Saturday) to find their feet at a new track which is the task at hand - not an excuse, just the reality of it.........
Up front Matt Davies from Australia won (he has been racing full time in Europe for past 3 yrs since he was 12 - school for him is another story) - He has riden every track here in this series at some point before including Aragon - He has raced in Superteens in UK, British 125GP & Spanish GP (was current leader of 125British GP Championship this year but now only doing some events in this series as they have other plans to ride elsewhere) - He has a ride lined up in next fortnight for his debut on a 600 in European Superstock in Brno, Chec Republic (at WSB meeting) - Good event to ride ya first 600 bike in - He will go well -
In this race he led in Tom Bush (Gernman) by 0.1 of a sec, close finish (Tom has now had 3 finish's of 1, 2 & 2 to stil lead the Championship) & then the two local Spanish riders by a further 0.3 secs to both of them - Yes a tight finish 0.4secs to the first four - To get an idea of track knowledge & how it assists - The two Spanish who have raced at Aragon before have had finish's so far in this series of DNF 7th & 9th & 8th - One of them led this race heading into the last lap only to finish 4th - For Daniel learning these tracks is invaluable experience & hopefully can put that to his advantage next year & have a good go at winning the event in 2012 - The racing is so close & the closest racing for the crowd all day - These kids are often going 4 wide into the corners & touching each other up -
The American finished 5th in his own & then Daniel (who was also in a three way battle with the two South Africans) came 6th with 7th & 8th 0.06 secs behind & 0.2 secs & 9th place 0.3 secs behind - Daniel said that race was the most heated battle he has had and said the three of them touched at least 8 times over the last 3 laps going through corners & into the hairpin at end of the straight (the South Afrivcans can ride real good - one of them Daniel Texiera rides 600's back home extremely well & back in Sth Africa he has just got a ZX10 & BMW 1000 to go Superbike riding - he is 17 - The other one finished 3rd at Monza in this series last month) - The crowd at the bottom of the back straight was then treated to burnouts from all the kids - Is hard to explain how entertaining this event is & how close the racing is on unbelieveable tracks & weather - The kids are all pushing it real hard and the bikes go unbeliveable well -
Next stop is Silverstone - 50% chance of rain predicted already - Road legal tyres - could be just like Manfeild streetstock in July -
Oh yeh forgot to mention - Daniel is still 3rd in the Championship with his 2, 6 & 6 finish's - He holds 3rd by 2 points over the American - Goal now is to finish the Championship in 3rd (or better - who knows it is racing), to get back on the podium at least once at one the remaining three rounds & to learn as much as possible about these tracks -

Got to go now - It is Monday morning & we one of the last campers here so we about to get moved on I'm picking....

Go well & catch up soon

Glenn & Daniel

[Shaun]

Cheers Toast, it;s brilliant to be able to follow there progress/success

[Toast]

Race report from Daniel's Dad:

We arrived at Nurburg on Thursday afternoon & checked our bags into our hotel appx 25 mins from the track - It was our 5th different place to stay at in the last 6 nights since arriving in Amsterdam - I now believe that a motorhome is definitely the way to do this....all part of the learning....

The Nurburgring, wow - what a set-up....It was perfect & reminded us of Assen some, due to similar length of the track 5.1km's & the facilities & grandstands & it had a good feel to the place - The kids did the trackwalk at 7pm that night with Simon & I hovered a way behind with a few of the other adults - The layout was fantastic & had some massive undulations - The high point was prob 80 metres appx higher than the low point of the track - Most of the bends had massive positive camber on them which made it good for cornering....It was also similar to Aragon in terms of its rises & falls but it didn't have a corkscrew bend like Aragon which was good as Daniel had struggled with the corkscrew at Aragon....
We got a good nights sleep & were back at the track for 10.00am meeting with Practise at 5pm on the Friday ...
Daniel had said on the plane over to Amsterdam that he wanted to change the front suspension some by lowering the front forks 5 mm & putting two turns of pre-load on...We got that sorted & new tyres fitted also - The bike had also been fitted with a brand new (replacement) Race ECU as there was a ?? over the one in it...

Now he was coming off a hugely disappointing previous round one month ago at Silverstone where he finished 10th & the harder he tried at Silverstone the worse it seemed to go all week-end - There was no one more disappointed than him I can tell ya - He lives & breathes this sport & for the first time in his racing life he was way down on confidence & under pressure.....There was a lot of soul searching & emotions played out in the month at home but in the end we just said lets go back up there & have some fun, forget the pressure, no expectations, get back to a clear head, forget any bullshit & not be worried about what anyone else is doing....We know he has the ability & talent other wise we wouldn't be there & he had proven it at Assen in round 1 where there was no expectations of him or race knowledge on the other riders ability & he just rode the bike well & got 2nd place....Also though since Assen all the kids had upped there game considerably & even the last two riders in the series are now right on race pace times....He had also upped his fitness training back home which is another thing he has been working on -
There was also the Championship to fight for - He had dropped to 4th overall after Silverstone (behind the ever improving & impressive Brandon Kyee from USA) with the Spanish Rider Reuben Fennoll only 1 point behind in 5th - We didn't talk about this at all between us since Silverstone but we all are aware that the goal is to finish 3rd in this Championship in year 1.....

In practise he looked way better & had the 8th fastest time after 5 laps when it started to rain - The times were never going to drop from that point onwards in the wet bit was still good practise as the forecast was average for Sunday - 3 of the kids crashed in this session in the wet.....

Saturday was interesting as normally qualifying is at 6.30pm in the evening - At Nurbugring they were first up at 8.15am....Up at 5.30am & at the track for 7pm...First lap he went 2 sec's quicker than his best from the Friday & over the session he went 7 sec's quicker than Friday's best time - He qualified 6th & was only 1 sec off 4th being Brandon Kyee with Reuben Fennoll in 5th.....Now Reuben Fennoll is some rider - He is 14 from Spain & looks 18 - He rides a 600 at home & is unbeliveably fit & strong - A wonderful kid & was coming off a 3rd place at Aragin (0.2sec's off 1st place) & a 2nd place finish at Silverstone (0.1sec's off 1st place) & his confidence was sky high along with Brandon Kyee who had strong finish's at last two meeting to go 3rd in the Championship - Daniel had got not close to them in the past two race's so we knew & they knew that he was back......

Race day (Sunday) ....Rain has held off (held off to just after the EJCup race) but poured down for WSB race 2.....
Good crowd in of around 60,000 plus....

Daniel had good spot on row two but braked to early into turn 1 along with Brandon Kyee & they both came out of turn 1 in 12 & 13th spot - I was watching from pit-lane (where they have all the monitors showing the race footage live) but wasn't to worried as he had shown good pace all week-end & knew he would fight his way through - The race was over 7 laps & had everything in it....One of the kids Loris from UK hit a false neutrel going into o fast corner - crashed, fractured both arms but walked away - Was getting two casts put on Monday back in UK - He was smiling in the pits after the race...There was another huge crash in the race down the front straight at max speed of around 170km's plus - Two of the kids were elbow to elbow when one of them appeared to take the other one out big time - End result was the French boy & his bike heading down the edge of the track at pace - It was a nasty nasty incident as bad as I've seen - He peeled himself off the tarmac - leathers all ripped, picked his bike up with no gear changer & finished the race changing the gears by hand to the appaluse of the crowd down front straight & with a huge hole in his elbow....Motorbike riders eh....Anyhow through all this Daniel had battled back to 6th place with one lap to go - Who should be in front but Brandon Kyee & Reuben Fennoll (they were side by side with one lap to go) - Daniel had been closing in on them both over the past 3 laps & the gap was down to under a second....He told me (after the race) that he knew he could get them both on the last lap as long as he was in touching distance of them going into the last uphill chicane at end of the back straight (which after that leads into the last corner & onto the finish line) as they were braking at around 100 metres & he said he had a real good line through there & could brake at about 60 metre mark...(it was uphill part of track hence the late braking point) - So it was, he took Reuben in this spot (Brandon had broken down halfway around the last lap for a DNF) & he held Reuben off over the line for a 4th place finish & his best result since Assen -
He was so happy & I was so happy for him - He now has had finish's of 2, 6, 6, 10 & 4 to go back to 3rd in the Championship with 1 round to go at Magny Cours in France the 1st week-end of October - He is 3 points ahead of Reuben in 4th with Brandon droping to 5th 13 points behind Daniel due to his DNF...Daniel topped the Speed trap readings again which was halfway along back straight.....
All the kids did the now customary burnout to the crowds delight & then Daniel picked up Brandon from side of the track & doubled him back to pit-lane -
For Daniel to be running in 3rd place in this championship with 1 round to go (there are 13 full time regular riders but upto 19 competitors have entered at various times with one off Wild Card rides - This is similar to a lot of championship entry #'s around the world at present), in what is an open world junior championship based in Europe is a huge effort - He may not have won any races but he has proven that he deserves his spot....He has travelled further than anyone to get each of these events & is riding on a new track to him at every round...- A good example of how hard & tough it is to go to Europe & perform at new tracks is look up a kid called Arthur Sissis from Australia who has raced in Red Bull Rookies for past 3 years & see where he was finishing 3 years ago in that Championship & then this season he finished 2nd in that Championship after being way down in year one & two....
Daniel is so proud & dedicated to be there & although at a difficult age where the natural instinct for boys is to chase girls, ride around in cars & be tempted by what everelse, he has mostly stayed dedicated to his cause.....Now if only I can get him off that facebook......

I need to finish this off by thanking a few people & in no particular order.....

Firstly Phil Richards - You were magic Phil - When Daniel needed it most in the last month you rung me & said hey tell me what is going on - We chatted & you said give me an hour with him over a coffee at Lynnmall one day after school & i'll get him back on track......You helped him enormously & after that meeting I saw him smile again....You are NZ's best 60yr old plus racer we reckon.....Can't thank you enough...

Phil & Cherly London of WIL sport management - Thank you for eveything - Without you I'm not typing this & Daniel wouldn't have had this experience 100% - Thanks also for getting the fitness instructor involved in the past month - I know it helped period......

His mum & 2 sisters for their sacrifice's - His extended family (The Iti's) for their sacrifice's - fantastic

Grant Collingwood at CTAS & Rick Brown at Spill Response for their support of Daniel along with AMCC & MNZ

To all our friends & fellow racers that have rung me (you know who you are) & prob frigin facebooked him (I hate it in case you don't know) & wished him well & told him to keep his chin up as racing is full of ups & downs & offered us any cool advice.....It has been so much appreciated....Thank you for believing in him & for making the time to call.....

To Patrick Jones (brother of Dominic & Cameron Jones) for turning up at Nurburgring whilst on his backpacking travels after his dad said to come & check us out up there - It was great to see a kiwi face from a Sth Island legend bike family....He camped in the forest on his own by the track.....Top bloke.....

To my cousin Steve - You were there at race one in Taupo just over two years ago - We duck tapped his vest around him - Pointed him in the direction of the track & had a chuckle to ourselves as he puttered around in last place....Was a good moment us both standing like a couple of idiots on the start line at Nurburgring mopping his brow, taking photo's & asking him for anything else he wanted.....ha ha....

Finally - from me to Daniel....It was a tough few weeks mate but you did well & I was so proud of ya the way you responded.....

Bring on Magny Cours......


Glenn

[Mental Trousers]

Wicked

[SWERVE]

Good stuff guys...........will come and say hi at Magny Cours.

[puddytat]

[gatch]

Fuckin BAD ASS !

Good luck Master Mettam.

[quickbuck]

The sign of a true champion is how one picks himself up after being down.....

Well done Dan. You rock!

[Toast]

Magny Cours...

Hello
Well this was the last round of the EJCup held at Magny Cours (4 hrs south of Paris) - I'll keep it fairly brief as we at Dubai airport & about to board the plane & I've finally got internet access (after no cell ph & internet for past 6 days - was great !!) -
I flew over on the Wednesday & for this round we hired a motorhome & stayed at the track which worked out really good -
Daniel had stayed in Andorra for the past month with Simon Crafer & I was looking forward to seeing him again...
The weather for the practise, qualifying & race was fantastic - A brilliant track - The F1 race was held here for many years upto 2008 -
Come race day & Daniel had qualiied 8th - That was ok as the times were all so close - he was 0.8 of a sec of a front row spot -
We came up with a good start plan & it worked - He was in 4th place halfway round the first lap of a 9 lap race & most importantly in the lead group...-
Over the rest of the race a group of 7 broke away from the rest of the field & diced with each other for the whole time - never more than 1.5sec's between themselves - There would have been 80-100 passe's put on each other over the 9 laps as they all fluctuated between 1st & 7th....
The german rider crashed out at the fast right hander (turn 2) on lap 4 & that left 6 of them....
The racing was brilliant & with two turns to go on lap 9 Daniel was in 4th spot & with Reuben Fennoll (Spanish rider) in third, Daniel had a go and braked as late as he could after a fast downhill section that leads into a right hander - He had to go around Reuben as Reuben had taken the inside line & Daniel couldn't quite make it stick & had to run wide which meant the 4th & 5th riders went through also - Daniel wanted the podium position & also if the pass had come off he would have also secured 3rd in the championship - It wasn't meant to be but he had given it his all - he went over the line 2 sec's behind 1st place & 4th in the Championship - There was nearly two kiwis on the podium which would have been fantastic as Jake Lewis had finished 2nd in a top ride also.....
It was Daniel's best ride of the championship by miles & showed that he could run with the likes of Matt Davies (who finished 4th in this round) who won the championship - It has been a great season & he has learnt so much but really stepped it up at this round - Although not his best result (which was 2nd at Assen & 4th at Nurburgring) it was his best finish in terms of 2sec's behind the leading bike - At Assen he was 2nd but 12 sec's behind the 1st bike....
We know what worked at this round & the step up that was required to get the breakthrough to the top group & proved he can do it at the front at this level....At end of the day 20 riders (14 regulars) entered this championship & to finish 4th is still a good effort first time up - However with what we all learnt this year & the step up required, the last round was the most satisfying of them all.....Magny Cours is a wonderful place & the crowd was amazing - 2nd only in size to the crowd at Monza - There was around 80,000 people there on the raceday Sunday....
At end of the Sunday the EJCup organisers put on a good party & we all said good bye to the wonderful riders & parents we have met this year & went our separate ways....ours a little further than all of them........Most of them drove home around Europe....
We head back now to NZ & Daniel can put into practise what he has discovered this past 6 mths with 3 or 4 goals in mind.....

As always thanks to everyone for there support -
In particular

Phil & Cheryl London of Wil Sport Management for making this all possible -
Grant Collingwood at CTAS
AMCC
MNZ
Rick Brown at Spill Response....

See ya all soon

Glenn & Daniel....