This is the section were You can read about almost all we do..... sometimes before it´s happening, mostly during and sometimes after....

2011.10.06

Very long time ago, but now we have been out on some racing again. This weekend we spent at Mantorp Park near our hometown Linkoping, where the final races in the Swedish Championship should take part, and also one round in the Nordic Endurance Challenge 2011. Thursday started with training sessions all day, and as you know Freddie has not been riding so much motorcycle during this season, as he crashed in the beginning of the year. So 40 minutes testing for him on the green Kwasaki that we ride with in the Endurance races, he thought it worked quite ok with his foot, that has been most problem with that one all year as he has not healed correct and he has not been able to use it for a very long time. The thing he thought might cause him most trouble during this race was his arm wrist instead, he broke that one also in the crash, and it has looked ok but he has not been using it so much either, so the muscles has not been in good condition, so he thought that could be a problem for the race, as you drive a lot of laps in a Endurance race. We decided that Fredrik should not be riding so much as he normally do on these races, just to save his body a bit, so Per and Krille had to take the big part of riding. Pontus skipped this race as Fredrik was gonna ride, but he should be taking part in the Swedish Championshio during the weekend so much time on the bike for him anyway.

Friday and time for 6 hours race out on the track. As Pontus skipped this race, he is the one that normally takes the start as he is very fast in the start, and Fredrik don´t run so well at the moment, we decided that Krille should take the start and the first hour in the race. A endurance race start with a so called Le Mans start, that means that the rider is on one side of the track and the bike on the other, and when the flag goes the rider should run over the track as fast as possible, get on the bike, start it and anyway. Krille made an ok start, and then the 6 hours was running.

Krille made stabile lap times during his one hour out there, came in and made a perfect pit stop and left the bike in Freddie´s hands. At this moment we were on 2nd place, Fredrik went out and took us up to the lead and improved for every lap. When it was time for rider change, Fredrik came in and switched to Per and then we had a lead for 990 seconds in the race. Fredrik´s wrist was quite tired at this moment so he needed some rest for a time. Per was making stabile lap times for all his hours out on the track, when he came in we was still leading the race so we switched rider to Krille again, he just came 1 1/2 lap before he crashed, we have no idea why he crashed, but he managed to take the bike back to the pit again. Fredrik is ready and after some check up on the bike he went back out for the race again. Krille was sent to the hospital in Linkoping for some x-rays and check, and lucky for him he just got some crackers in some ribs and just a smashed body, so that was ok and we was glad for him.

After just 40 minutes Freddie came back into the pit, his wrist was not working at all, he loose the grip of the handlebar several times and was about to crash a lot of times and he had no feeling in his hand. Per got his helmet on and took over the bike and went out again, he improved very much and it was good that he could stay out for quite a long time as Freddie needed som time to cool his hand and wrist down, and after that he taped it very hard so it would not had a chance to move. So when he felt he was ready again we called Per into the pit again and Freddie went out for the last 30 minutes of the race. And it was in time, as Per had started to feel a bit dizzy out there the last 10 minutes as he had not been drinking as much water as needed. The outcome of the race did not became what we had planned for before the race, but a 3rd place is quite ok during the circumstances of these 6 hours with a half handicaped Freddie, a Krille that hadto go to hospital and a Per that missed watercontrol =) But anyway very well done of all the team, now we are on 2nd place in the total standings with 7 points up to Carlbarks in the lead, so everything can happen now on Saturday october 8 when we are going to Anderstorp Raceway for the last race in the Nordic Endurance Challenge 2011. We are going all in and hope that will be enough :)

An update after the race at Anderstorp is coming the week after.

Have a great time until then, Ciao Fredrik & Linda

2011.06.20

Now the weekend of the Swedish Championship is over for this time and it´s back to normal monday again. Our rider Pontus Bergsman arrived here at wednesday afternoon, and the evening we spent at Freddie´s home eating dinner and looked at World Superbike races half the night. It did not do anything that it was late before we got home, because on thursday we just had some small things to fix on the bike, collect some tyres and some other stuff in the workshop, so we started thursday with a sleeping morning =) On the afternoon we took the long ride of 2 minutes from our workshop to the circuit to meet up with Micke Rolandsson that we would be sharing place with this weekend. After everything was ready, all stuff out of the bus and the tent was up Fredrik came out to the paddock =) Before wwe went home that evening we took 2 laps on the circuit with Freddie as driver in the car. Pontus has only been at this track once before and that was in 2008  think, so he needed some help to find the way around again, and Fredrik is the best choice then, he has done some laps around this place during all years =)

Friday and practice day with 3 sessions on the circuit. We woke up to rain, summer in Sweden so it´s quite normal with rain =) but it was just to look happy anyway and going back to the circuit. Anyway it was quite good with rain this day for Pontus as he now could take it easy and learn the track, so the first session he spent just doing that. The bad weather did not stop, so session number 2 was wet also, but it went ok for Pontus and he now started to find his way around and improved his lap times for every lap. To the last session of the day the rain finally stopped, and the last 10 minutes the riders was out on dry surface. A quite ok day despite the weather, but Pontus got a lot of laps so that was good.

Saturday and first raceday. We woke up to perfect weather, no rain in sight so it looked liked it would be a great day. Qualification started 09.25 so no sleeping time this morning. This was the first whole session for Pontus on a dry track so he took it quite slow the complete session just to feel how the bike worked and behaved and how the track was in dry condition. He ended the qualification on 13th place in the list, 1.2 second behind Micke Rolandsson who took pole position. Back in the paddock for some refueling, rest and change of tyres and then back out on track for the 2nd qualification. And that one went better now as he had started to find his way around Sviestad circuit.

2011.06.15

SWEDISH CHAMPIONSHIP AT OUR HOME TRACK SVIESTAD

This weekend to come it is time for race number 2 and 3 in the Swedish Championship.  And this time on our home track here in Linkoping. Freddie will not be able to take part this weekend, and this is a little sad as we always like to race here if we are home. But he was to the hospital yesterday and got rid of the plaster on the leg and foot, and knock on wood, but the healing looked really good so the doctor said to him that he could start to use his foot small times every day to start get the muscles back - but maybe it would be a little to much to get on the bike to this weekend =)

But we will have things to do this weekend anyway as our rider Pontus Bergsman, who we rides with in the Endurance team, will come up here and take part in the 600cc race, so he should have service of course, and maybe also our rider Per Nilsson will take part in the Superbike races - anyway we will at least have one rider this weekend to serve so it would be as normal =)

Update from this weekend will of course come up here at the beginning of next week.

Have a great weekend / Watz Racing

2011.05.30

The first round in the Nordic Endurance Challenge at Anderstorp Raceway was a very good weekend for the team. Pontus Bergsman and Krille Andersson, who is our fourth rider for this year and he replaced Freddie for this race, arrived to the circuit on Friday so they could take part in the practice on Saturday. Krille has never been riding a Kawasaki before, and also he has not been riding anything for quite a long time as he stopped racing for some year ago, so he wanted as many laps as possible on the bike of course. Pontus thought he only needed some laps on the bike to get the feeling for it so he took his ex-Watz Yamaha 600cc bike with him and practiced on that on Saturday instead. We woke up to a cold and windy Anderstorp as usual on Saturday morning, strange that it is almost always this kind of weather on this track as soon it´s time for race, but warm clothes on and you can manage all kind of weather =) The practice session for both guy´s went really well, Pontus made good lap times almost from the start, Krille needed some more laps before the lap times started to look ok =) So a perfect day with a lot of laps on the circuit.

Sunday and raceday - We woke up at seven o´clock when our rider Per Nilsson and our mechanic Fredrik Andersson arrived to the circuit finally, they have had som trouble with the bus and the sparebike so that is why the came so late. But after we had unloaded the bus, made everything ready and breakfast for the team it was time for the qualification session at 09.30. Per went out first on the bike as he has not been riding anything since we were in Spain in April, and then Pontus and Krille went out for some laps in the end of the session. They managed to get 2nd place on the grid for the race, so that was good. At 11.10 it was then time for 6 hour race at Anderstorp Raceway - it was decided that Pontus should take the start and the first hour. As always an Endurance race starts with Le Mans start, that means that the bike is on one side at the track and the rider on the other, and when you get green flag you should run over the circuit as fast as possible and then the race is on - and this Pontus did perfect, what a start he did and he was the first one of the grid with a gap to the other  teams directly. And then it went on and we was all the time in the top of the list, between 1st and 3rd place depending on the fuelstops and all that. But all our fuelstops, change of rider and tyre stops went absolutely perfect all day, very fast and no mistakes at all so it went on as schedule. Sorry Pontus had to leave before the race was over so he could not join us when Krille who had the last hour crossed the finish line first of all teams after 6 hour - So we won!!! Perfect start of the Endurance season and now we keep it up for the rest of the year =)

Perfect work of all team - our riders Per Nilsson, Pontus Bergsman and Krille Andersson and our mechanics Fredrik, Johan and Mange - You are the best and it has been a very fun weekend as always together with you all. We are a little sorry of course that Freddie did not come down to Anderstorp, but he was not feeling so good so it was better for him to be home and recover, but we all missed him of course, but next time hopefully =)

A huge Thank you for this weekend / Linda

2011.05.27

Small update how things are going here in our small part of the world =) Fredrik is still jumping around with his crutches, he was at the hospital some days ago for a new check up and got a new plaster on his foot and leg. But both the hand and the foot / ancle was not in so good condition, the foot is the part that´s worse and there the muscles and all that are not laying in the right position so they have to fix that. But they could not do that when he was there as the swelling has to go done before they could open the foot again and get everything right. So now he has three more weeks like this before he will be back for the second check at the hospital - so it seems like this is taking a long time, but the only thing important is that Fredrik will be ok. Now he spend some time in our workshop anyway - I think he is a bit tired of being home all the time =)

To this weekend it is also time for the first race in the Nordic Endurance Championship. This we usually take part in together with Pontus Bergsman and Per Nilsson in BRH Racing, but of course Fredrik can not ride this time, so for this 6-hours race they have called in Krille Andersson to replace Freddie on the bike. This race will take part at Anderstorp Raceway, training on Saturday and race on Sunday. We are sure that it will go great for the team, and we say welcome to Krille for joining this crazy group of people =) Update from the race will come up here in the beginning of next week, so please check in then.

Have a nice weekend / Fredrik and Linda

2011.05.03

FIRST RACE IN THE SWEDISH CHAMPIONSHIP - First it goes up and then down...

Anderstorp Raceway was the place for the first round in the Swedish Championship 2011. Freddie was preparing our 1000cc bike and made a lot of changes all Wednesday night to make it ready for race, so therefore we came to Anderstorp on Thursday. But we was in time for the last two practice sessions of the day, the 600cc bike was all clear and worked perfect so we spent most of the afternoon finding a good set up on the 1000cc bike instead.

Friday and 4 testing sessions on each bike for us. But the 600cc bike Fredrik was satisfied with so he just tested for one session on that bike, and the lap times was ok so no more riding on that bike that day. The rest of the day we spent on the 1000cc bike as he was not 100% happy with that one yet, but it became better and better on every session.

Saturday and this day it was time for this weekends first race. This day we only had one Superstock 600 race on the schedule and some testing sessions and qualifications, so a pretty cool day anyway. The first test in the Superbike class went quite ok and he had 3rd fastest lap time, so the bike seemed to work. After this Superbike test it was time for the first qualification on the 600cc bike - and that one went ok. Freddie´s best lap time was 1.35.89 so he took pole position without problem as the next rider in the llist was driving on the time 1.38.10 - so a big gap =) Around two o´clock it was time for the first race this weekend, Fredrik made a good start and made a gap direct, after 4 laps he had a gap of 15 seconds, and whe he crossed the finish line he was 26 seconds before the rider on 2nd place, so quite a lonely race for him. Of course it is always nice to win a race, but it´s more fun if there is tight racing, but victory it was and of course we are happy for that =)

After the race it was time for the first Superbike qualification, and this weekend the Superbike Challenge (that´s the name for the class in the Swedish Championship) was driving together with Pro Superbike (they normally rides together with the Swedish Touring Car Championship) so a lot of riders in this class, I think it was aorund 40 riders in the list. The qualification went quite ok, Fredrik and Filip Backlund was the only riders who had lap times of 1.32-times, Filip was a little, little bit faster so he ended up in pole position and Freddie on 2nd place. But after this session the first 10 riders lap times went down to 0 again, and something called Super qualification took place. So nothing to do for the riders then to reload and back out on the track again. Freddie did not improve his lap time from the first session as the gearbox on the bike was destroyed on this session, so he ended up at 6th place on the grid for the race instead.

So, a broken gearbox was what we spent the rest of the day with. We said like this - if this had happened on our 250cc bike we should have laughed, changed the gearbox in an hour maximum and then spent the rest of the evening with something more fun - but on a four stroke bike this is not possible. It is not a small operation to change a gearbox on these kinds of bikes as you have to take the complete bike in parts, so we are talking a lot of hours here!

As we did not have any pit box to this race, we moved in to Filip Backlund and his crew´s box - so nice to have all these good friends who help us out anytime, our dad Kjell had to load a gearbox that we had back home in the workshop in Linkoping in his car and drive down to Anderstorp with that one in a hurry. We started to take the bike apart in the afternoon and we were ready some hours after midnight on Saturday night - so many hours for the guy´s to be on the floor in the box with the engine. A huge Thank you to our good friends Jorgen Andersson and Krille Andersson who helped us out all these hours - without these two guy´s it would have taken so much longer time. After the bike was put together again, we started it up and everything seemed to work, so we all went to bed for some hours before the Sunday should start.

Sunday, and this was quite a stressful day for us if you looked at the schedule. First we had the first Superbike race, then the last 600cc race and after that the last Superbike race, and between that we should also have a short warm up session on the Superbike and one 600cc qualification - so many things on the agenda this day, but we have done it before as we have raced in two classes for a while now, and sometimes even three classes on one race weekend so we are used to it =)

Well, first out was the Superbike warm up session at 09.00 in the morning on a very cold racetrack as it had been minus degrees the night before. But Fredrik went out of course as we had to see so everything worked on the bike after the gearbox change, and all worked as it should so that was positive.

At 11 o´clock it was time for the first Superbike race of the day. Fredrik started from 6th place on the grid as said before, made not such a good start and was around 10-12th place after the first lap. Overtook some rider during the race but ended up at 8th place over the finish line and this was our own mistake who caused this position as we took a harder rear tire to this race as it was so cold, but this was the wrong solution as it became very slippery with this tire, so Fredrik could not do much more, but he took the flag anyway and that is always good =)

After this race it was some hours resting before the last 600cc race of the weekend. But - Fredrik did not make it to start as he crashed hard during the sighting lap, wwe don´t know why yet but it had started to rain a little so maybe this caused the crash, or maybe something was wrong with the bike but that we do not think because it worked perfectly. Anyway, Freddie do not remember so much of the crash as he hit his head quite hard when he landed. Sunday night he was in surgery for 3-4 hours and the doctors put a lot of screws and nails and iron bits in his left wrist and left foot as they was quite badly broken. Unfortenaly it seems like this is going to take a long time to recover from, not the broken bones maybe but in his foot all the soft parts, likes muscles and so are really damaged and that could take some time to heal, but we have not got any deadline yet so we´ll see what happens. But anyway Freddie is in quite good mood, not happy of course and he has quite a lot of pain but there is nothing to do, just heal a fastest possible. It´s not the first time as you all know, and we hope to be back on track as soon as we can of course.

So, not a good ending of the weekend, but Fredrik is hanging in there and that is the most important thing, the other stuff we can replace and fix but we only have one Fredrik - but soon we´ll backa again =)

A huge Thank you to everybody who has helped us during these days and Thank you also for all phone calls, sms, mails and so on with get well wishes to Fredrik, we are very glad for all your concern =)

I will update this site with some information when we know a little more how long the healing process is and so on, so please check in a little now and then if you are interested.

Have a great time and enjoy summer and Thank you all / Fredrik & Linda

2011.04.26

Now this weekend to come the Swedish Championship starts at Anderstorp Raceway. Fredrik will take part in both the 600cc and the 1000cc class, so same procedure as last year :) To this afternoon and evening we hopefully get the Superbike ready for some testing at our home track Sviestad, Freddie has made some changes and looked over the bike these last days so some testing before the race would be good. The 600cc bike we tested last Sunday and that bike is ready for race now.

Report from the races come as usual after the weekend, so please check in this page in the beginning of next week.

Have a great time in the sun / Watz Racing

2011.04.13

Yesterday, tuesday, it was time for the first practice of the year at our hometrack Sviestad. Very, very cold but anyway quite a lot of riders had found their way to the circuit, and some cold weather do not stop the fact that it is soon kick off for the 2011 season so of course they all would like to do some testing before. We only took the 600cc bike with us this evening, Freddie wanted to test it and see so everything worked and was ok as it has not been out for over one year as we did not go to USA last year at all. But it worked perfect and Fredrik thought it was so much fun to be back on the bike again, so it was a good evening =) And also it was of course so nice to see everybody again, during the winter time you do not see everybody so much, so a lot of updates it was all evening.

Now we are going to try and get the 1000cc bike ready for the season this next week and then we probably go to Anderstorp Raceway last weekend in April to take part in the first Swedish Championship. Not 100% clear yet that Fredrik is going to race, but we talked about it yesterday and it looks like we are going if we gets everything ready. But I will update with some more information before the race.

Take care / Linda, Watz Racing

2011.04.10

New year and new happenings around the corner =) We still do not have any plans of what we are going to do this year, but racing is not easy to quit and we have lived like this all our lives, so racing it will be in some way or another, but what we will update later when the bikes are ready and we are on our way to some track =) During the winter time our bike from USA came home here to Sweden, and we can not manage finacially to have two 600cc bikes and one 1000cc bike up and running this season, so we sold the 600cc bike that Freddie was riding on last year. Pontus Bergsman (one of the riders we race together with in the Endurance Team) bought it and last week we went down to Spain so he could do some testing. We started at Circuito Alcarrás and then went on to Motorland Aragon for three days of testing. A lot of laps for Pontus on the bike and he liked it so perfect start of the season for him. 6 days we spent in Spain and it was nice and warm so not so funny to go back home.

The plans for the nearest days is to try and get the 600cc bike ready, and hopefully we can do the first testing on that bike on Tuesday when the first practice session takes place at our hometrack Sviestad.

Have a nice week / Watz Racing

2010.10.21

Now the autumn is here, and soon wintertime - two seasons that we do not like at all! But we have had the bikes out for one more session this year, as we last Sunday spent all day at our hometrack Sviestad. Totally crazy to ride bikes when it was so cold, well the sun was shining but no warm weather of course asa this is Sweden. But we had a very nice and fun day and Freddie made some laps with our 1000cc bike and also the sidecar, but just that bike did not like the cold weather as it did not behaved so well, but some laps anyway. Now the racebikes has been put away for probably rest of the year, if we do not win the lottery of course, then we move to Spain as soon as possible =))

But even if the bikes are resting at the moment, there will be racing during the wintertime anyway, but with 4 wheels instead of 2. Soon the Gocart Championship starts again, and that will not end until sometimes in March. Then I think Freddie also is going to take part in a 24-hours car race at Mantorp Park last weekend in October if I am informed correctly, and then one more car race, or mud arce is a better word =) is also planned for November. That race probably will be at the same day as the Pricegiving Ceremony (Party) in Karlskoga, but there will be no problem to take part in both events I hope. The party in Karlskoga we do not like to miss as it´s always so much fun to meet all our crazy friends again, so that we are looking forward to of course.

We update this site when something fun happens or when we know what to do in the future.

Have a nice autumn and take care for now / Watz Racing

2010.09.26

Saturday September 25th it was time for the last race in the Endurance Championship 2010. The preparations before the race could probably have been quite a bit bette then it was. Fredrik is still not well after the flu he has had for a long time now, and also his body is not in the best condition after the crashes at Mantorp Park last weekend. And on top of this, Pontus who is one of the riders in the team, crashed quite hard during the testing session on Friday and hit his head in the crash so now he got a concussion and spent friday night at the hospital.

But, giving up is not an option as You all know =) so early, early Saturday morning Fredrik and I left Linkoping and headed to Anderstorp. We arrived to the circuit around 07.00, the other guy´s was still sleeping so we woke them up of course =) When they got out of bed we had some talking about what happened yesterday and then we tried to organize for todays race. As Pontus had crashed it was Per Gsson who had to fill up for him for some hours so Freddie and Per Nilsson could rest, as you are just allowed to be out 2 hours in the race maximum and then you have to rest for 50 minutes minimum.

09.30 and so it was time for the last race in the Endurance-series this year. We decided that Fredrik should take the start and the first 2 hours to adjust to the race and hopefully make some gap to the team Allt i Dack. These guy´s were the only team we had to keep a eye on during these 8 hours as they were just 3 points behind in the total standings to win the Championship 2010.

Photo 1 - Start procedure / Photo 2 - Fuel station / Photo 3 - 8 hours behind this wall / Photo 4 - Quick pit stop

Freddie made a good start and then it was just 8 hours to go =) But we made a mistake and had to make a not planned pit stop as we forgot to put the transponder on the bike, so the first 14 laps we did not get any lap times and was of course dead last in the list, but in fact we was leading. Freddie came in and the pit stop just took some seconds so he was soon back on track again. It took like half an hour before the time keeping staff had every lap in order, but when that was done we were on 2nd place after Allt i Dack. But Fredrik is the fastest rider in our team so he got closer and closer for every lap.

In the end of Fredrik´s first session it was time for fuel stop and driver change, and here we made one more mistake as we counted wrong on the fuel consumption. On the 1st bike that we normally use on race, the one that Pontus crashed yesterday, the fuel normally last around 10 laps when the fuel light goes on. But as they now was riding on the 2nd bike we missed that is maximum 2 laps after the fuel light comes on. And as Freddie drives so fast lap times lap after lap the fuel tank empty much quicker. So when he pointed at the tank we showed him 5 laps before he had to go into the pit, but that did not worked we found out quite brutal when Freddie run out of fuel on the track, and it died as far away as you can come, after the long straight - where else of course =) So now we lost some time as he had to wait for the car to come and pick him up and take him into the fuel station, and as that car dont drive the lap times as Fredrik normally do we lost quite a lot of seconds.

But after this mistake we did everything fast, and change of rider to Per Gsson and back out in to the race again. Per had to have some laps just do adjust to the bike as he has not been riding this bike at all this year, but after some time the lap times were going down and he approched Allt i Dack again lap after lap. During the time when Gsson was out on the track Pontus came back from the hospital, nice to see him on his feet´s again, a little dizzy in hi head but not much more then normal =) He thought it was sad he could not take part in the race, but when you have a concussion you are not allowed out on the track of course, so he had to be in the pit area together with us this time. It then went perfect all day thru, every fuel stop, pit stop and driver change was perfect, no more mistakes and the guy´s riding perfect out on the track. We had our eyes on Allt i Dack all the time, and when it was time for the last hours in the race they sent out Jan Hansson who is the fastest rider in their team, so we sent out Fredrik again (he drove 4 1/2 hour of the total 8, so he got many laps on the track this day) and as he is the fastest rider he improved the gap to Allt i Dack lap after lap. When the flag came out after these 8 hours in dry condition (thank you for that, as we are so sick of rain) he crossed the finish line 50,6 seconds before Allt i Dack - Perfect!!!

Photo 1 - Pit stop / Photo 2 - Pontus celebrate the win / Photo 3 - Smokey / Photo 4 - The best guy´s

The happiest team in the paddock I think we were, and this also meant that BHR Racing Team with riders Per Nilsson, Pontus Bergsman, Per Gsson Gustavsson and Fredrik Watz was now the ERF Champions 2010 - and a better way of ending the season do not exists =) After the price giving ceremony in Fivers tent with champagne and everything we thanked everybody for this day and headed back home to Linkoping, tired but very happy...

A huge Thank you to all for this last race, it has been so much fun. A special Thank´s to the boy´s Per, Pontus and Gsson and all other members of the team - YOU ARE THE BEST and we have had so much fun together with you this season!

Photo 1 - Oil level checks AFTER and not during the race in this team =) / Photo 2 - Pontus, Fredde & Per / Photo 3 - ERF-Champions 2010

You never know whats happening, but as it looks right now this was the last race for us this year. Fredrik has to come in form again and we have work to do back home, but you should never say never of course, if we win on the lottery or something like that we spend the winter in Spain =)

If there will be more racing for us this year we update this place with that information, but until then, if there be something more, we say Thank you so much that you have followed us this year when we are doing the best thing we know....

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS SEASON / Watz Racing, Fredrik & Linda

2010.09.21

SWEDISH CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL AT MANTORP PARK

The final races in the Swedish Championship 2010 is now over, and also the 250cc class has now crossed the finish line for the last time in this Championship. But we take the report from the beginning, otherwise it could be a bit confused =)

We went out to the circuit on Wednesday as it was a testing session in the evening. For us the weekend was fully booked from the beginning as Fredrik first should take part in the 6-hours Endurance race on Friday together with BRH Racing, and then we had 3 classes after each other all rest of the weekend - so we had a lot to do! The evening practice on Wednesday was perfect as there was some time to check everything so all the bikes worked.

Thursday and this was also a practice day for all classes. We did not go out on the morning sessions as it was raining, and Freddie would anyway get a lot of time on the circuit during the weekend =) To the afternoon sessions the rain was gone and Fredrik went out to do some testing. When it was time for the 1000cc class Fredrik, Pontus and Per went out on the endurance bikes to see which one they should use in the race and make some adjustments and sessting, so our own 1000cc bike was just out or some laps.

Friday and time for the 6-hours Endurance race. To this race it was Fredrik, Pontus Bergsman and Per Nilsson who was the rider in BRH Racing. In the morning it was qualifying and Freddie was the fastest rider out there, so 1st place on the grid. Endurance starts are a bit different from normal, as in this race you place the bike on one side of the track and the rider on the other side, and when the green flag comes up all riders run to their bikes and take of - called Le Mans start!

Just after 11.00 it was time for start. After some discussions in the team it was decided that Fredrik should take the start and the first hour (stint) on the track. He made a very good start and was leading the pack out on to the straight. He was out there for around one hour and was making steady and fast lap times lap after lap. Then it started to rain and Fredrik came into the pit for change of tyres and rider, this time it was time for Pontus to make an hour on the track. And he got the worst time regarding the weather conditions as it was heavy rain almost all the time he was out there. Per was next rider to take over after Pontus, and it went ok but not more in the beginning of his session as he dont like to ride in the rain. But it went better and better and he improved his lap times so when he came in for change of rider we were on 3rd place.

As Fredrik is the fastest rider of these three in the team we decided that he sghould go out the last hours and try to make as many laps as possible. He went out and did exactly what he was supposed to, fastest rider on the track every lap and he started to improve in the list. After some time we were on 2nd place, but then on the lap where he should overtake 1st place the brakes on the bike just disappered. And when you are riding down the straight in 280 km/h brakes is a wonderful invention. And has he didnt had any brakes at this point Fredrik crashed after the straight. He was ok but the bike had seen better days =) Butm the team made a huge effort and built the bike together again really fast, it did not look so nice and fresh but it worked. So after 35 minutes Freddie jumped on the bike again and out on the track to try and save some points in the Championship. We lost quite a lot on this crash but Fredrik went out and drove like crazy the last 20 minutes of the race and collected lap after lap. Over the finish line we was 11th team, so a very good pick up from Fredrik and the best performance by the team building the bike together again with only 1 hour to go in the race! The team is still leading in the total standings, but now only with 3 points, so this weekend to come when the final raace is taking part at Anderstorp it could be quite exciting =)

Friday evening we spent by taking it a bit soft, everybody was a little tired after the day and Fredrik needed to take some time and relax and concentrate on Saturday as he would ride 3 qualifications and 3 races in a row.

Saturday morning and we woke up to a dark sky. The weather forecasts had promised rain, heavy wind and cold to this day, and they seemed to have right. It was very, very cold and windy all day, it could not be right to ride a motorcycle in Sweden this time of year =) Anyway, the morning started with the 250cc qualification session. Freddie went out on old rain tyres, and that was not a clever thing to do we learned 5 minutes later when he crashed. Fredrik and the bike came into the pitbos quite fast so fast work from eveybody again and 10 minutes later he was back on track again. But he could not improve his lap time so he ended up at 5th place on the grid.

Quick change of bike in the pit box again, this time to the 600cc bike and out on the circuit again for the first qualification in this class this weekend. He did not get many laps before the front just disappered for him and he crashed on this bike also. It was very slippery on the track this morning and a lot of riders went down. Wet and cold are not a good combination for a circuit. Of course the lap time was not so good on this session, he was 8th in the list.

Back into the pit box with the broken bike, no time to fix that then as it was just 10 minutes between every session so that had to wait. Out again but this time on the 1000cc bike, and on this session he was on his wheels all the time so that was better - enough with two broken bikes in one morning =) Freddie was just out for like 10 minutes on this session, he had to save his body for the races and also we had a lot to do in the pit box before the races should start in some hours. Some stressful hours but we managed to get everything together just before the races started.

Then it was time for the first 250cc race of the weekend. Started as 5th rider on the grid, made a good start and was in the lead after the first corner. Crossed the finish line 4 seconds before Robin who came in 2nd. Very good result and the bike behaved well so we were happy! Some water and energy then back on the track again for the first race of the weekend in the 600cc class. Started as 8th on the grid, made another good start and was soon 2nd after Christoffer Bergman (before this race Christoffer was leading the total standings with 5 points over Freddie as we not have taken part in every race, so Fredrik had to be before Christoffer this weekend, in one race anyway and Christoffer outside top 3.) This didnt happen in this race as Christoffer passed the finish line just before Fredrik. And this due to the fact that Freddie could not ride with the front tyre that we had on this bike, he almost crashed in every corner on every lap so something was really wrong. Now it was then 10 points instead of 5 as before the race, not so good. We could not understand why the front behaved so strange, but this we found out later that evening - Dunlop had marked the tyre wrong from the factory, so that meant that Freddie was riding with a tyre that was totally wrong for him and for the weather conditions here in Sweden. Very bad mistake by Dunlop, and we are not happy about it - we pay a lot of money for this service and then something like this happens - really bad!

Well, no time to care about that now as it was just for Freddie to go out on the track again for the last race of the day, this time on the 1000cc bike. Started from 2nd place on the grid, made an ok start which is quite difficult with our R1 bike and crossed the finish line on the same position. Winner of the race was Daniel Kubberod from Norway. Fredrik took it quite easy during the race as he was a bit tired so he was just out there having fun. With this 2nd place Fredrik is now the Champion in the 1000cc class 2010 - that we are very satisfied with =)

The evening we spent in the box fixing the bikes and Fredrik went to our workshop to weld som parts to the 250cc bike, and then he went home for a warm bath as his body was not in the best condition after three crashes in two days.

Sunday and the last day of the Swedish Championship Final. They had promised better weather to this day so that was what we hoped for. Some rain in the morning but then it got better and better so that was good. First qualifying was the 250cc class, and it went much better then yesterday now and Freddie took pole position with a lot. Back into the box for change to the 600cc bike, and there he was 2nd fastest again after Christoffer. Back in for some water and then out on the last qualifying with the 1000cc bike and there he took it very easy and ended up at 5th place on the grid. Not so much stress this day as we now had three bikes that were ok, so now we had some time just to realx before the races.

At 14.30 it was time for the last 250cc race ever in the Swedish Championship. Have to say it was a bit sad as two-strokes always has been our passion as they are real road racing machines, not like the other bikes we have which you can ride on the street if you want to. That you can not do with our 250cc bike and that is why they are so awesome =) Also this class has been in the Championship since 1961 I think it is, so many years that now goes to the grave =(

Fredrik in pole position, made a perfect start and was in the lead from the beginning of the race. He crossed the finish line as the last ever 250cc winner with over 24 seconds to the rider on 2nd place - so a very nice way of ending this 250cc race, now we put our bike back into our workshop and give it a hug for all years it has been with us. Sometimes it has been really, really mean, but most of the times it has behaved well. So now we are going to take care of it like an old friend, it has been with us so many years, we have seen so many countries, so many circuits and meet so many good friends from all over the world together with this bike, so of course we should take good care of it now =)

Well, move on to the 600cc race. They had to delay the start as Fredrik had to be at the price giving ceremony, but as soon that was over the race could start. 10 ponts difference between Fredrik and Christoffer could be hard, Freddie had to win and Christoffer had to be outside top 4. Fredrik did what he had to do, he won the race but Christoffer rides really nice and came on 2nd place in the race. So a huge Congratulations to Christoffer as he now became Swedish Champion 2010 in the 600cc class - we are of course so happy for him as he are a very nice friend, but of course Fredrik was also a bit disappointed as this is racing and 2nd place is not what you want!

After the price giving ceremony, as the promotor of the event again had to delay the start (Thank you for that) it was time for the last race for the weekend for us, race number 7 in three days!! Started on 5th place in the grid in this 1000cc race, a bit crowded the first laps as people was in the way and crashes. But as soon as Fredrik came out of this mess he was on 3rd place, and Filip Backlund and Daniel Kubberod in the leading group had a much to big gap to catch in so the last race of the weekend we ended on 3rd place - ok result and as Freddie became the Champion already on Saturday it was ok for us with 3rd place.

Phuu - now these days are over then. It has been a lot of stress, and crashes are never nice but we have had so much anyway these days. Congratulations to all the Swedish Champions in all classes and all the other winners this weekend. And of course a huge Thank you from us to everybody for this Final - without you all it would not be possible for us to do the thing we like the most =)

Now the season soon is over, but we have maybe one more race left and that will probably be the final race in the Endurance Championship this weekend to come at Andersorp. Then it is an 8-hour race and the weather forecast for Saturday is very cold and a lot of rain, surprise!! So we´ll see how we do. Freddie is not feeling so well in his body at the moment so we wait some more days before we decide what to do. When we know if we are going we make a note here at the website.

Have a great rest of the week / Fredrik & Linda

2010.09.02

September 7th it is time for the last Club race for the year at our home track. Fredrik is riding in the 1000cc class and we have also put our 250cc together so that one will also out on race for the first time in a very, very long time =) The 600cc bike we do not know yet if he is going to race on because there are still some things missing on that one since the crash at Anderstorp, but maybe we can get it together, and if that happens he will race on that one to.

Also, for the first time ever he will perhaps also take part in the Sidecar class. We have Billy Gallros old sidecar here in our workshop for some service, and last Tuesday we were out on the track for a testing session. Very, very strange and difficult, but a lot of fun Freddie said after the testing. So hopefully this sidecar will be on the grid for the race, with Freddie as the driver. He could need some more practice before this event, 30 minutes is maybe not enough =) but we´ll try! Who the passenger will be in this race is also not clear yet, but there are many days left, we just have to find someone crazy enough to ride together with Fredrik =)

This will, as always, be a nice and fun evening. An update comes as usual after the races. After this evening we will prepare for the Final races in the Swedish Championship that takes part September 17-19th at Mantorp Park, more info about that event updates a little later on this site.

Watz Racing

Here are some photos from the first ever test for Fredrik in a Sidecar...

2010.08.09

Sunday and last race day at Anderstorp. Woke up to a very dark sky and heavy rain so no problems decide which tires to use this day. The 600cc qualification went good and Freddie took pole position to afternoon´s race. But this session was more about testing the bike after the crash, and it seemed to work ok even that it didn´t looked so nice - but as you know, looks are not everything =) Back into the pit box and change to the Superbike and out on the qualification session for this class. Fredrik only made some few laps on this session before he thought it was enough, he make many laps during one day when we are racing so some rest is ok. He ended up at 3rd place on the grid so this was ok.

The price giving ceremony had to wait for Fredrik as the Superbike race should start 5 minutes after the 600cc race was finished. So a quick change of bike and then back on track again. Started as 3rd on the grid, was up in the lead after the first corner and made a 1 sec gap to the others after just half a lap. Out on the third lap he had a gap of 8 seconds and he crossed the finish line 16.5 seconds before Andreas Martensson on 2nd place. This race was also very lonely for Fredrik as he was so much faster than the other riders, but 1st place so a very good day for Watz Racing.

Have a nice week / Watz Racing

2010.08.07

Mixed results at Anderstorp Raceway today. Freddie took pole position in both classes on this mornings qualification sessions. Right before 16.00 the first 600cc race for the weekend started, Freddie made an not so good start and was 4th rider out on Anderstorp´s long straight. The leading rider at this time was Andreas Bergman who is the startking =) He is outstanding of taking the starts from the grid. On the 2nd lap Fredrik was up just behind Andreas and after some laps he overtook him and directly started to make a gap between them. But on lap 5 or 6 the front tire just disappered and he crashed, not so fun but sometimes it happends.. We tried out a new front tire for this race, and well, you could say it did not work so well as it just disappered without warning. The bike was quite ok, so that should be ready for tomorrow, Freddie got some scratches but nothing that should disturb him so  now it´s just to forget about this and look forward to tomorrow instead.

Due to the crash he got some x-tra minutes before the Superbike race should start as it was the next race just after the 600cc race. Started from pole position on the grid, made and ok start and was on 2nd place after Andreas Martensson out on the straight. After half the race he passed Andreas and made a gap directly so the rest of the race became quite a lonely race for Freddie. This day it was all about Fredrik wanted to try and take over the lap records in both classes, this was the plan. Now it didn´t worked out so well, but if the rain keeps away tomorrow there will be two new attempts for sure.

Have a great evening and we get back tomorrow evening or Monday with a report from Sunday´s races / Watz Racing

2010.08.06

Today the testing sessions starts before the Swedish Championship at Anderstorp Raceway. First this race should have taken part at Ring Knutstorp in Skane, but they cancelled this event and then Anderstorp took over instead. Fredrik is at place right now with both our bikes, and the first test start 10.40 today. Tomorrow there will be one qualification session and one race and then the same procedure on Sunday. Hopefully we can give you some small updates here during the weekend, but otherwise we of course update with a full report when we are back home again.

Have a great day / Watz Racing

2010.08.03

Now the weekend in Karlskoga is over for this time and we are back home again. We arrived to the circuit Wednesday evening and Thursday morning the qualification session for the Endurance race started. Fredrik was riding for Br. Horberg Racing Team together with the other two riders Pontus and Per on their Kawasaki. This session was the first time Freddie sat on the bike, so he had to go out and test it and just do his best. The team ended up at 3rd place in the list when the session was over so that was a quite ok result. Our other team, called EBK, named after the riders Eje Watz, Billy Gallros and Kjell Bornemo, made a fantastic session and qualified at 10th place.

11.30 it was time for start for a 6-hour long session on the track. The weather was really bad, but during the first hour it did not rained so heavy yet. When you are riding an Endurance race it is not so important that you have the fastest lap time all the time, the thing is that you are going to make as many laps as possible on the track and make very fast pit stops - that is the key to win! Anyway, Freddie was the fastest rider on the track on every lap he was out as he likes to ride in the rain, and it rained so much... The race was stopped after 4 hours and 20 minutes due to the fact that it was too much water on the circuit, and this was a good decision as during these hours it had rained 50mm - that is a lot of water!!! This was not the perfect way to end the race for Fredrik and the team as they finished the race on 2nd place, and this was because they all had to ride behind the Safety car the last 6 or 7 laps before the flag, and Fredrik was last rider behind the car and Allt i Dack who was the winning team was the first one behind the car, so nothing to do about that in this case. Team EBK made a phenomenal performance and ended the race at 9th place which was a really good result for them.

A fun day it was anyway, and everybody was happy and had big smiles even that we all was very wet and cold due to the weather, but it was worth it, we all had a great day!

Friday and this was practice day before the Nordic Championship races. The weather was still not very nice, just rain and rain, so Freddie did not ride so many laps. He was just out to test the bikes so everything was ok, and it was, so the evening we spent in the tent by fixing some small things before Saturday´s races.

Saturday and first raceday of the weekend. Finally the weather forecasts did look a bit better, they promised the rain should stop during the day. But during the qualification session for teh 600cc class it was still wet on the track, Fredrik ended the session on 3rd place after some tyre problems as we got out on rain tyres and it started to dry up. When it was time for the Superbike qualification it was dry and Freddie was the fastest rider out there so pole position to the race.

First race for us was the 600cc class and now it was dry on the track. Started from 3rd place on the grid, made an ok start but got hanged up behind some other riders so Alex T Schacht from Denmark could made a gap quite easily, and when Fredrik could pass the other riders the gap was to big for him to catch up on his own. So he ended the race at 2nd place but that we have to see as quite a good performance as our 600cc bike finally seems to work quite ok. We have had so much trouble with this bike for a long time and have not been able to find out why, but now it seems like we have found some of the missing horses and it works much better than before. So Alex on 1st place, Freddie on 2nd and Christoffer Bergman on 3rd - that was the 600cc podium!

Back into the paddock again for half an hour rest and then it was time for the first Superbike race of the weekend. Still dry and nice circuit and Freddie started from pole position on the grid. Made a really good start and this is not normal standard with the R1 bike as it is so difficult to start with, but this time it went really good. He crossed the finish line as 2nd rider in this race also, the winner was Filip Backlund. Not completely satisfied with this result but just to take new steps for the next race instead of looking back. The evening we spent in the tent with good friends, and the rain did not come back so a nice ending of the day anyway =)

Sunday and the first qualification session was in the 600cc class. As it had started to rain again during the night the track was not completely dry, but it did not start to rain again until ´half of the session was over. So Fredrik went out quite quickly in the beginning and made a good lap time that no one could overtake when the rain started. So pole position to the 600cc race. Back into the paddock to prepare for the Superbike session, and now it rained a lot again so rain tyres on. This session did not go well at all and he ended up at 7th place on the grid, not so happy but this is life sometimes.

Some lunch before it was time for the last 600cc race of the weekend. When the race should start it did not rain but it was wet so we went out on rain tyres and hoped it would start to rain during the race. That did not happened so the tyres went really bad after some laps in the race, but Fredrik is used to that it slides and goes sideways sometimes because of bad tyres so it did not do so much for him. Experience was the result of this race, how well you could ride on bad tyres, and we have had a lot of experience of this during all years, so Freddie crossed the finish line as the winner before Alex on 2nd place and Christoffer on 3rd. A very good and fun race Freddie said after =)

Some rest before the next race, or rest, we spent most of the time looking up at the sky to see how the clouds moved before it was time to decide what tyres to use on the Superbike. This is the worst weather condition you can imagine, is it dry enough for slicks or wet enough for rain tyres.... Anyway, we waited until last minute to decide, and we took the rain tyres. The race was also delayed as the judges could not decide if they should declare dry or wet race, but after some time the race could start anyway. And most of the riders went out on rain tyres which turned out to be a good choice as it started to rain a little later. Fredrik made another really good start and was in the leading group down to the first corner. He thought everybody was driving so slowly so after just some corners he was up in the lead and could start making a good gap to the other riders directly, and when he crossed the finish lline he was almost 20 seconds before Daniel Kubberod from Norway who came 2nd and on 3rd place we had Filip Backlund. A very good race for us and Fredrik was very happy, maybe a bit boring race for everybody who was watching as it was such a huge gap between the riders, but anyway a nice race for us.

So this weekend we got 3 second places and 2 first places with us home - quite ok and we have had a really nice and fun weekend even that the weather has been so bad.

A huge Thank you to everybody for this weekend, it has been great! Watz Racing

2010.07.27

This weekend to come it´s finally time for some racing again. This season it has not been so many races for us yet due to some trouble that we did not expect. But now it´s time to make some laps on the bikes again, and this time we leave Linkoping to go to Gellerasen in Karlskoga for the Nordic Championship, Scandinavian Open as it´s also called. Freddie will take part in both the 600cc and the Superbike classes as usual, so hopefully he will have lot of laps on the circuit.

On Thursday he is also going to take part in the 6-hour Endurance race together with another team, this time on a Kawasaki, so good practice before the weekend. The only bad thing with this weekend is the weather forecast, it does not look so nice, mostly rain and cold but maybe that will change. And if not, it´s not the first time we spent a race weekend in this weather conditions =)

As usual we update this website after the weekend.

Have a great week / Watz Racing

2010.05.08

Last Sunday the day was spent at Mantorp Park here in Ostergotland, where it should be a sidecar race for the first time in many years as the sidecars not race here in Sweden anymore. Billy Gallros took out his old sidecar, went down to Mantorp from Stockholm, called Freddie in as a mechanic and called an englishman to be passenger and then it was just to race. Or race maybe is not the correct word as the sidecar has not been out for some time, so a lot of work on it, but some laps out on the track they got during the day. But a very fun day they all had, our dad laughed constantly all Sunday so that must be a good sign. And Fredrik did got the chance to get a two-stroke engine to work, some time ago for him on two-strokes but it´s like riding a bicycle, you´ll never forget how it works =) Also two-strokes are in our hearts so a fun day at the track it was.

Below some pictures from the day, mostly from the paddock as it was there most of the time was spent =) Watz Racing

2010.05.31

Now we can put one more race weekend to the files. As our engine on the 1000cc bike was completey damaged after the last weekend in Karlskoga we was not sure at all if we could be able to race with that bike anymore this season. But Tuesday night our father Kjell took a trip down to Bremen in Germany to pick up another engine. He was back in the workshop here in Linkoping Wednesday morning after been in the car for over 2000 km, we checked the engine and Thursday morning it was a Superbike again.

So Thursday afternoon we packed the bus with both bikes and took the long :-) trip of 700 metres to the circuit were the 2nd round in the Swedish Championship should take part. This home race is a bit of a tradition for us to take part in, and it´s always a nice event as there are so many people come and visit us. This time we also had a very nice visit from our good friends from The Netherlands, Jaap Kingma and Henk-Jan Laning. They took the direct flight from Amsterdam to linkoping on Friday afternoon and it was so nice to meet them both again as it was two years since last time. It´s also very nice to meet all the other riders and teams again, as we only have taken part in the Pro Superbike so far this year, and many of the other riders we do not see during these races - so a very nice weekend this turned out to be with all good friends.

Friday was testing day, 3 sessions in both classes, first 20 min then 40 min and then 20 min again - so lot of time to make many laps around the circuit. Freddie has of course made many laps on this circuit thru all years, but every time on the bikes is good training, and during Friday we had a lot of time working on the suspension and test everything. The last session of the day we skipped as it started to rain - but a very good day in the end with all testing.

Saturday, and all the weather forecasts was talking about rain. But the weather turned out pretty good, not so much rain but a bit cold. The first qualification session of the day went really well and Fredrik was the fastest rider in both the Superstock 600 and Superbike and that meant of course start from ole position for the races later that day. First out was the Superstock 600 race, Fredrik made an ok start but Andreas Bergman at 2nd place on the grid is so fast in the start and he was many metres in front of everybody in the first corner. Freddie was soon up behind him, but he had some trouble to get pass as Andreas bike is so much faster then our bike. But after some laps Fredrik could overtake him in the corners just after the start and finish straight, and he did it on the outside of Andreas, and that maybe surprized him a bit as you normally do not take that line on the outside if you should pass anyone. But a very nice move from Freddie and when he had passed him he could set his own pace and crossed the finish line 10,4 seconds before Andreas. He also sat a new lap record for this class, but the old one Freddie did last year so he just fixed it a little more.

Back into the paddock for some rest and then it was time to get out on the circuit again, this time for the Superbike arce. He did as normal a not so good start as the R1 bike still is very difficult to start with, but he was up in the lead after just some lap and he crossed the finish line almost 8 seconds before Petter Jansson on 2nd place. Not a new lap record in this class this day, but that only meant we had smething to concentrate on for Sunday´´s race.

The evening we spent with good friends, some work on the bikes and Fredrik also went to our workshop to help some other riders. Our father took Jaap and Henk-Jan out for dinner and they had a good time together we hope.

Sunday, and we woke up to summer weather, warm and bright sunshine, it could not get any better. Both qualifications went as we had planned, pole position in both classes and good qualification sessions as we had changed some things on the bikes and we had time to test all that. Before it was time for the races to start a lot of people came by to say Hi, always nice to have you all here!

Race time - and as on Saturday it started with the 600cc race. Fredrik made a better start this time and was just behind Andreas Bergman in the first corner. But exactly like Saturdays race he had some trouble getting pass him, and this time it took even more laps as Andreas rides his bike relly good. But when he could overtake him he could start to make a gap between and he crossed the finish line 11,5 seconds before Andreas. Back into the paddock for some water and rest, and then back on the superbike for the last race of the day. The starting procedure was quite the same as every start, you might think we are crazy talking about this every time that Freddie can not make a good start, but as we said before the R1 bike is so very difficult to start with. Anyway, after some laps he passed Petter Jansson who was leading at the moment and then he could start pushing for the lap record, and he did take it from Filip Backlund who has had it since last year. The new record is now 55.46. Over the finish line he was around 10 seconds before Petter as he had to slow down in the end of the race as his arms just feel asleep, probably he had not been drinking quite enough during the weekend, so it felt like riding with two stones instead of arms he said =) But it went ok anyway and the result for the weekend was 4 victories of 4 races so thats good and two new lap records. So now Fredrik is the lap record holder on Sviestad in the 250cc, 600cc and 1000cc classes =)

Sunday evening we ended the weekend at a restaurant together with our Dutch friends and now this morning they went back home to Holland. We talked during this weekend that we are hoping we could manage to get down to Assen sometimes during this season for a race, we hope it can be a reality as we enjoy going there and  now its two years since we were there.

We have had a really nice and fun weekend. Thank you to our home club LMS for this event. A special Thank you to Jaap and Henk-Jan who visited Sweden for the first time, we are so glad you came and we are looking forward to the next time we see eachother. Now we´ll see what the next race for us will be. There are not any races here in Sweden in June, quite strange as we don´t have so much months of summer here in Sweden. So now we are going to take it a bit easy for some days as last week was a bit stressed, and then we´ll see what we are going to do.

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR THIS WEEKEND / Watz Racing

2010.05.22

The report from the Pro Superbike weekend at Karlskoga we are not publishing yet, due to the fact that Saturdays race was a disaster with a very bad ending, and this we have to discuss with the federation, the organizer and Pro Superbike managment before an update is possible. So hopefully we can put it out later this week / Watz Racing

2010.05.20

It´s going to be Pro Superbike race for us this weekend. It was not sure we could manage this weekend, but after some meetings and phone calls this race is going to take part, a huge Thank you to our sponsor Plustjanster who stepped up quickly when needed. This race will be in our own team, Watz Racing, but as we do not have any tents or stuff like that we have borrowed some space with another team for this race, so Thank you to them of course. Now we have a lot of things to do and hopefully we can be on our way to Karlskoga late afternoon today as the practice starts tomorrow morning.

Now we keep our fingers crossed for a good weekend and an update is coming here on Sunday or maybe Monday.

Have a great weekend / Watz Racing

2010.05.19

Tuesday May 18 it was time for the first Club Championship race at our home track Sviestad here in Linkoping. The second one will be sometime this autumn.

This is maybe not the most important race in the year, but it usually is a very nice way to spend the afternoon and evening and so it was this time also. At first the weather did not look so nice, it rained all morning here, but when it was time to start the qualifications it was perfect weather conditions, warm and sunny. We loaded our Chevrolet with the 1000cc bike, and Freddie was driving the 600cc bike to the circuit as we can not fit two bikes on the car - no problem to do like this when we have so short way to the circuit, around 1000 meter or so =)

First out for us was the 600cc qualification, and Fredrik had by far the fastest lap time. Back into the paddock and jump on to the 1000cc bike directly for the qualification in that class, and here he was also the fastest rider out there. Some rest in the paddock and time to talk to all the people around before it was time for the first race. The first one for us was the 600cc race, and after 12 laps Fredrik crossed the finish line 43 seconds before the rider on 2nd place. Back in to change bike and out on the track again for the last race of the day. Freddie made a not so good start as the 1000cc bike is very difficult to start with. But after the first turn he was leading the race, and when he crossed the finish line he was 13 seconds before the rider on 2nd place. So this Club Championship went really well, no crashes for anyone, nice weather, a lot of people and two first prices back home - A huge Thank you to our club LMS and all the people that made this evening so nice!

Now we´ll see what the next race for us will be. The plan was to take part in the second Pro Superbike race at Gellerasen in Karlskoga this weekend to come. But unfortunately the main sponsor, UBD Direct, has chosen to withdraw their sponsorship. The reason for this we do not know, but the team has put all work down and that is all we know at the moment. So if we are going to take part in the race this weekend we have to do it with our own team and we are not sure if we can manage that financial. Decision about how we are going to do we take during today.

So information about this weekend to come you can find here on the website during tomorrow, Thursday so check back then.

Have a great rest of the day / Watz Racing

2010.05.12

Yesterday afternoon and evening we spent at our hometrack Sviestad as it was the usual weekly practice day. Four nice hours with quite ok weather and a lot of riders and teams. We only had the 1000cc bike with us this time as Freddie had rebuilt the frontfork again after the race at Knutstorp, so quite a lot of laps on the circuit to make it work, and it seems ok now. Still there is of course a lot of developing and testing on both the frontfork and the rear shock to do, but it´s going to be really good this. We also found a bike in our small paddock area that had our good friends from Holland fairings, Jaap Kingma Racing as you can see on the picture.

Now we soon take some time off for the weekend as we have holiday here in Sweden tomorrow, so have a nice weekend everybody! / Watz Racing

2010.05.09

Saturday and the weather is quite the same as last day - rain, cold and windy. This mornings warm up session at 09.55 was in wet condition so no fast laps for none of the riders and Fredrik ended the session as 4th in the list. He is not very happy with the rain tyres from Continental, they need a lot of more developing from the manufacture, but hopefully it will come some new tyres later this season. This year every rider has to use Continental in this Championship, so it´s the same for everybody anyway.

14.15 it was time for the last race of this weekend, this time it was 19 laps around the short Ring Knutstorp. Fredrik started as 12th rider on the grid, as the lap times from yesterdays race decided the grid for today. He made an ok start and started to chase the other riders in front, and on lap 5 he was on 5th place and this was also the place he was on when he crossed the finish line. It started to dry up in the middle of the race, and the rain tyres went really bad so none of the riders could make any improvment in the end.

Well, now the first races for this season is done and hopefully it will just go better and better from here. Now we have one weekend off and then it´s time for the next Pro Superbike race the weekend after, and the place for that is Gellerasen in Karlskoga, and the weekend after that it´s time for the Swedish Championship here at our hometrack. And also we will try to fir in the Club Chamhipnship on May 18 - so lot´s of time on the bike these next weeks =)

Get back with an updatebefore next race. Stay cool until then / Watz Racing

2010.05.09

Half storm and around 4 degrees Celsius - the first race of the Pro Superbike Championship at Ring Knutstorp in Skane has not been a plesent experience in terms of the weather. You think that now the summer should be coming to Sweden also, but it seems like we have to wait for that some more time. Well, it´s not the weather forecast we should be update here so move on to something that we can instead - racing =)

This is the first time in 5 years that Fredrik will be racing at Ring Knutstorp, so it was i while since we was here. As Pro Superbike goes together with Stcc there is very little time on the track for the motorcycles, but at 09.00 this morning it was time for the first and only practice session. And as we said before the weather was not so very nice, very cold in both air and tarmac so Freddie used thi session to learn the circuit again and try to find a good setup for the bike. Both the practice session and the qualifying has been on wet, so after the qualifying session Fredrik had 2nd place on the grid to the race in the afternoon.

The race was in dry conditions. Freddie started from 2nd place, slipped down to 3rd after the first lap and across the finish line he was not better then 9. But this was first time on a dry track and as we are still not really ready with the development on our own front fork and rear suspension this was a good session for testing all that. But as he gets more laps on the bike and we learn more about all new stuff on the bike this will only get better and better. Now it´s new focus on the race tomorrow, and the weather forcast looks a bit like today, so we´ll see how it turns out.

Have a nice day / Watz Racing

2010.05.05

This weekend to come it is time for the first race in the Swedish Championship Pro Superbike (these races takes part together with the Swedish Touring Car Championship) at the circuit Ring Knutstorp which is located in the south of Sweden. UBD Direct Racing Team is the name of the team that Fredrik will ride for in this serie and that together with young rider Nikola Milovanovic. The company UBD Direct is a new sponsor for this year and we are looking forward working together with them. Also just some days ago a new sponsor for Fredrik came around and that is the company Plustjanster, we say of course Thank you and hope this will be good for both sides.

It is so very little time on track in this championship, but the first race starts on Friday at 16.15 and the second race on Saturday at 14.15. I think you will be able to follow the results on Mylaps.com otherwise we of course update this place after the weekend.

Have a great weekend / Watz Racing

2010.04.19

Yesterday we spent the day at a cold and windy Mantorp Park. As our 1000cc bike is not ready yet as we still are missing some parts we went out with the 600cc bike instead. But Freddie wanted to test our new frontfork that he and our dad has developed during the winter for the 1000cc bike, so we spent the morning by changing the fork to the R6 bike. But as it is not build for that bike we had to made some changes to make it fit, so after some time we had everything ready and headed to Mantorp. But as it was quite cold this day Fredrik only was out for maybe 20 laps before the rear tyre was completely damaged (the Dunlop tyres is not working so good in these cold conditions) but as we was not there to make any fast laptimes it didn´t do so much. Our day was mostly about testing the front fork, and it seems to work really well so far. We´ll see how it works when it´s on the right bike, but the future looks really bright =)

No we are just waiting for the parts that is missing and then we see what the next step be for us. Have a great week / Watz Racing

2010.04.11

No testeing for us at Brno this time as our 1000cc bike is not ready yet. The last parts to get the bike ready didn´t arrived here until Thursday afternoon, and the trip to Brno should start Thursday evening - so a little short of time =) But there will be more times for sure. Now we are trying to get everything ready until Tuesday, and if all is ok we are planning to go to Gellerasen in Karlskoga where it is a testing day for Superbike riders. But late last night Freddie and Nicke started to rebuild the bike to fit in an oil cooler, and that was not the plan to change so much as they did, so we went a bit back in planning again =) But hopefully it will turn out great with all these changes so it does not do so much if it takes some days extra. Hopefully we have it all ready until Tuesday otherwise our first test will be on Sunday at Mantorp Park just outside of our hometown.

We´ll get back after the first testing with some updates. Have a great week / Watz Racing

Here are some photos from the workshop on Saturday evening, and as you can see the bike is not ready for race yet =)

2010.03.19

Finally, after long time it´s time for an update. As you know there is not so much happening during the winter months, that is why the updates are not so many from october to march. But now the snow has started to disappered, and the temperature is rising, so the spring is hopefully coming this year also. And that means that is soon time to get out on the race tracks again and start the season 2010. These last, cold, dark months we have mostly been working and working, and quite a lot of work has been done on our 1000cc bike, a lot of changes and updates has been done. So now we are just waiting for the season to start so Freddie can get out and test all new things on the bike. And if everything goes as planned the first test will be at Brno in April , but you never know, that might get changed, but we´ll wait and see. On the 600cc bike we have done nothing during the winter so that bike is ready to go as it is, if we have the time we will try and get some new paint on the fairings but that is not the most important thing right now, we´ll see how much time we have left when everything else is ready!

Otherwise Freddie has been practice with gocart driving this winter as the Gocart Championship that starts in october just was finished some weeks ago. This year Fredrik was driving in a new team, called Korminators, and when the final race was finished they where the Gocart Champions 2009 / 2010 - so Congratulations to that, but now we concentrate on 2 wheels instead of 4 for some months. As it looks now we will take part in some races here at home and probably some races in the IDM, and if everything goes well we hope to get over to USA also for some races in the AMA, but we´ll see what happens during the season.

We also will try to make a whole new website, but that work has just started so it will take some time before it´s out on the Internet, so until then we have this old one. Of course we will update and report on this page as usual now when the season starts, so please come back now and then to check it out.

Have a great day and welcome to the season 2010 / Watz Racing

2009.11.16

Last Saturday we went up to Karlskoga for the usual Pricegiving ceremony and After the season party. This use to be a very nice evening, and so it was this time also. It´s always so much fun to meet everybody again, many of these guy´s we dont see during the winter so it was very nice. A lot of riders who was there to collect their prices, and the price we was most surprized and happy for was that Freddie won the Sportsman of the year award. This means a lot to us and we are so happy for it - Thank you so much!

We get back with some small updates if something fun happens during the winter, so until then take it easy and Thank´s to everybody for this weekend - we had a great time / Fredrik & Linda

2009.10.02

Now the season is over for this year, and 2009 did not turn out the way we planned as we could not go over to The States this year to take part in some races. But it´s just to work for 2010 now and see what that season will bring us. But the race season is not completely over yet, well it is on 2 wheels bt on 4 we have some races all winter. First out is the mudrace (with cars) October 10th and after that the gocart championship start so some racing this year anyway.

We wish you all a nice autumn and we update this site when something fun happend during this off season.

Take care and Thank you for 2009 / Watz Racing

2009.08.17

Now we are back home again after the Pro Superbike-weekend in Karlskoga where Fredrik replaced the injured rider Nikola Milovanovic in Team Veidec Racing. It started with Freddie leaving our workshop on Thursday evening without the tollboxes and a lot of other stuff that would be needed during the weekend. So on Friday morning I had to pack everything in the car and go up to the circuit before the first practice started :)

After everything was at place we started to prepare for the first practice session of the day that would start around lunchtime. Fredrik started the session on our own bike mostly to see if the rear shock was working as it should, and it did so that was good. After half the session he came in and changed to Nikola´s bike to feel that one for some laps. After the 20 minutes practice session Freddie decided to use our own bike for the rest of the weekend as it should take a lot of changes on Niko´s bike to make it as Fredrik would like, and there was no time for that as there are not so much time on the track during these races.

Around 17.40 on Friday afternoon it was time for the only qualification session (30 minutes long) and Freddie was as we said riding on our bike. After some adjustments during the session and some tire problems (mostly with the front) he ended up at 4th place in the list, and that meant start in the first row for the race.

Saturday and race day! We tried a new kind of front tire to the warm up session, but he could not feel how that worked as the rear tire was in very bad condition after just some laps, but around the track he came anyway but not very good lap times as it was sliding in every corner :)

Racetime - Started from first row, made a not so good start and was on 8th place after the first lap. Almost directly he felt that the front tire was all wrong, it did not work at all. Just to make it thru the race he had to change his driving style and that made the rear tire go really bad, so he was sliding all lap around - not so good and he could of course not do any good lap times or catch up with the guy´s in front so he crossed the finish line on 7th place, which was not our plan for this race of course :) But sometimes you make some bad choices and we made a bad one with the front tire to this race. But nothing to be sad about, just to move on and learn from the mistake...

Even that the race didn´t turned out the way we planned we have had a fun weekend and hope that Team Veidec Racing is satisfied with Fredrik´s performance anyway. A huge Thank you for this weekend to everybody in the team with Milan, Nikola and Jan Hansson in front - you are great guys and we have had very much fun together with you!

Now we´ll see what next race for us will be, first we have to put our 600cc bike together again as it at this moment is in small pieces in our workshop, so that is what we have planned at the moment and then we´ll see where that brings us next.

Get back to you all when we have decided what to do next. Thanks for this time! Have a great week / Watz Racing

2009.07.27

The weekend in Karlskoga had both up´s and down´s.... We arrived to the circuit early Friday morning and 09.00 it was time for the first practice of the day in the Superbike class. As we not have been to this track during this year that meant it was the first time for Freddie with our new bikes on this circuit, so some practice before race was necessary. We was driving without transponder all Friday as it had to be recharged. But we got our lap times anyway as we have that on the bike. On the first session he ended up at 2nd place in the list after Filip Backlund of those who had transponders on.

Back into the paddock for half an hour rest before it was time to go out for the first session on the 600cc bike. That session went quite ok and he was the fastest rider out there. On all sessions during this Friday we had our focus on the suspension to try and get it as good as possible for this track - but anyway Freddie got quite a lot of laps during these day so that was good.

After the lunchbreak it was again time to go back out on the Superbike for the last session of the day in that class. Fredrik was making better laptimes, but not as good as he should be with this bike, but he don´t trust the bike he say and he could not get it to go the way he wants in the corners - but we just has to work more on that and hopefully we get it the way Freddie wants it. The Karlskoga circuit is also a very tricky track to get the suspension right on because it is so bumby and also there is new asphalt combined with old, and maybe not the best asphalt work... So a bit tricky

Well, back into the paddock again and take the 600cc bike and back out on the track. After this session he had 2nd best time again and he managed to make many laps out there. lyThe evening we spent in the paddock with all our good friends and making some adjustments and check up´s on the bikes. We got in bed quite early as we had been up half the night, so we were a bit tired.

Saturday and first raceday. Started with the qualification session for Superbike at 09.00 (very, very early =) and it went not so fast as Freddie always is a bit slow on the first session of the day. He ended at 5th place in the list, and that meant second row on the starting grid. Pretty ok anyway as we not get the bike as perfect as Fredrik wants it and he has no trust in it. The bike is really mean he said and do things without warning so with this in mind the session was quite ok. Pole position was Filip witht he lap time 1.05.9.

Back to the tent and switch to the 600cc bike and back out again for the qualification on that one. This session went much better and you can see he has more trust in this bike and are more comfortable on it then on the 1000cc bike. And this is of course how it should be as we bought this bike just so he could practice here at home on a equal bike as the one we have in USA. Fredrik was just out for half the session as he was going quite fast in the beginning. The fastest lap time for him was 1.06.53 and that was pole position with over half a second to the next rider in the list, so the rest of the session we sat on the grand stand and looked at the other riders. Fredrik is making quite a lot of laps during one day as he is one of very few riders who are taking part in two classes so he deserved the rest =)

After the lunch break it was time for the first race of the day - and we started on the Superbike. After the sighting lap and warm up lap when the riders was ready for race and just waited for the lights, the sky open and it started to rain really bad. So delayed start and back into the pit to change to rain tyres. After 15 minutes they all was ready on the grid again and the wet race could start. Freddie made a ok start from 5th place on the grid and was on 1st place quite soon. Started to make an gap to the others and had good control on the race, but in the middle of the race he was starting to overtake slow riders and some of these overtakings didn´t went so well. So the gap of 3,5 seconds he had to Filip on second place just went down to 0. And it was of course Filip who had luck as Freddie was having trouble with the slow riders in front of him, so Filip could pass him and cross the finish line as the winner. Freddie was of course not so happy with this and he was a bit irritated over these slow riders, but this is racing sometimes. We are quite happy anyway, and of course we are glad for Filip, he is a very nice guy and a good friend so this was ok.

Ok, back into the paddock after the price ceremony and prepare for the Superstock 600 race. No more rain and the surface had dried up so no rain tyres on this bike. He made not such a good start in this race and was on 3rd place after the first lap with Alex T Schacht and Helge Spjeldnes in front of him. He overtook Alex after some laps and thought he should take Helge on the same lap, but up in Eje´s Corner (a very slow corner) he was taking a tight line just so he could pass Helge, and there it is a hole where the new asphalt meets the old one, and when Freddie hit that hole the front just disappered and he crashed. Both Fredrik and the bike was ok but not so funny end for this race. But anyway it went ok beffore he crashed and we are not so disappointed. The eveing we spent by fixing the front fork on the 600cc bike and also we had the tent full of nice friends for dinner. It was quite late in bed for us who should not ride a bike the next day =) But we had  avery nice and funny time so it was worth it of course....

Sunday and race day number 2 - all the weather forecast promised no rain, so it was just to hope for that. But the sky looked very dark, and the Swedish summer means a lot of rain so everybody spent a lot of time just looking at the sky. But this time the weather people had right - no rain for all day so that was good.

The weekends second qualification in the Superbike class on Sunday morning went not so good, Fredrik ended up on 6th place in the list and could not improve his qualification time from yesterday. He was not satisfied with the bike after this session - it did not behaved as he wanted it to so we just made some small adjustments on the suspension before the race and hoped it would work a little better.

Out on the last qualification session on the 600cc bike and that also went not so good as on Saturday, so when the session was over he had 2nd best time 0,019 after Markus Neuvonen so it was quite tight anyway.

After the lunch break it was time to take on the leathersuite again for the last time this weekend and up on the 1000cc bike and back out on track for the Superbike race. Made a guite bad start this time and was still on 6th place after the first lap. Filip made a good start and was up in the lead after the first corner and started to make some gap really fast so Fredrik had to started to work his way up in the field quite fast so he not should loose Filip out of sight. Filip was driving really fast and the gap to the others just got bigger and bigger and the win looked really easy out for him, but after some laps he crashed - he was ok but his bike was not so pretty, it was in very bad condition. So sad for him to crash like that and we all felt sorry for him, but this is racing - sometimes you win and sometimes you loose!

Fredrik was still in the race and he climbed position for position and out on the last lap he was overtaking Nicklas Cajback who had the lead after Filip´s crash. And what an overtaking - it was so nice done and Nicklas looked very surprised as he did not had a clue that Fredrik was just behind him. He crossed the finish line with over 1 second to Nicklas och second place and Petter Jansson took care of third place so quite a fast last lap for Freddie as he made a 1 second gap from half of the circuit. Really fun race to watch with Fredrik´s overtakings and the guy´s was happy. Too bad for Filip but he will be back again, but it is more fun is everybody stay on their wheels of course =)

Quick back to the tent after the price ceremony to prepare for the last race of the weekend - Superstock 600. He made an ok start but he was not first, so he had to chase the others for some laps before he could overtake Markus and Helge and lead the race. He crossed the finish line with around 1 second to Markus on 2nd place and some more seconds to Helge on 3rd. So overall a really good day for us with top of the podium in both races. Now we have to go over the bikes before the next race - and as the season has not been turning out as we planned from the beginnig of this year we still dont know what next race for us will be - we have to take it day by day at the moment. But as soon as we know we of course let you all know.

A huge Thank you to everybody for this weekend - we have had a really fun weekend so that we do again sometime =)

Have a nice summer and we´ll be back soon / Fredrik & Linda

2009.07.20

As we did not go over to The States again and the AMA series at Laguna Seca which was our plan from the beginning, we are now going to a race a little bit closer, Gellerasen in Karlskoga here in Sweden where the combined Nordic and Swedish Championship will take place this weekend to come. Fredrik are going to take part in both the Superstock 600 and Superbike classes as usual. Hopefully we leave our workshop during Thursday so we are ready for the first practice session on Friday morning.

We are looking forward to this weekend and keep our fingers crossed for níce weather, good races and a lot of nice people! As usual we update the site with a report after the weekend, but we will also try to make some small updates during the days up there, so keep an eye on this place.

Have a nice week / Watz Racing

2009.06.16

Now the Swedish Championship weekend is over for this time here at our hometrack Sviestad. It has been a fun and very nice weekend even if the weather was quite bad sometimes. We woke up at Friday morning and it was heavy rain, and it didn´t stop during the entire day, so Freddie was not out with any of the bikes. Instead we spent the day just taking it easy and spent some time with all our good friends - so it was ok anyway!

Saturday was a little bit better if you look at the weather, some wet surface in the morning but during the day it got better and better. First qaulification session this day was on the 600cc bike, it was still a wet track and Freddie didn´t use any rain tires so a bit slippery. When the session was over he was on 2nd place in the list, 0,009 seconds after Per Gustavsson. Back into the paddock and rest for 20 minutes before it was time for the first qualification for the Superbike class. No wet surface on that session so the lap times was quite ok and Freddie took pole position with the lap time 56,46, Krille Andersson was second. The lap record for Superbike on this track is 56,5, but as it only can renew on race it was still the lap record for some hours. Back into the tent for some pause and then back on track again with the 600cc bike for the last qualification session. This time it did go much faster then the 1st qualification and Fredrik took pole position. After some lunch it was again time to go out on the track, this time on the Superbike and the last session for that class. Freddie improved his lap time from the session before to 56,23 - so pole position in both classes this day!

Race time - First out was the Superstock 600cc race and Freddie made a not so good start, he was around 4th or 5th rider from the grid, but he overtook all the riders in front of him in the first corner and started to make a gap directly. Not so exiting race to watch as he crossed the finish line with 25 seconds to Helge Spjeldnes and Andreas Bergman who was 2nd and 3rd.

Around one hour later it was time for the Superbike race - and just like in the 600cc race he was not the first from the grid, but after one corner he was up in the lead and left the others behind. He won by 6,5 second to Krille Andersson and Petter Jansson on 2nd and 3rd place. This was also a race that was not so fun to watch - but very nice with 2 wins out of 2 races, but he thought it was a little bit boring to ride all by himself in both races, so until next race the other guy´s has to speed up a bit :-) In the Superbike race he also made a new lap record with the lap time 56,09, 1/2 second better then the old one so that was nice!

Saturday afternoon and evening we spent in the tent as we had invited a lot of guests to this day. So it was a lot of people, barbeque, food, drinks and all that - very nice and we had a good time. Quite late to bed but Freddie did go home to get some sleep and that was a clever decision as it was a bit loud :-) but very nice and we hope everybody had a good time!

Woke up around 5 o´clock inte the morning and again it was heavy rain, but when we got up it had stopped. All the weather forecasts had promised nice weather on Sunday, but that was a bit wrong if they don´t mean that rain, wind and cold is good weather in the middle of June :-) No more rain during the day, but very, very windy.

Sunday meant race day number 2 with the same procedure as on Saturday. First out on qualification was the 600cc class and it went like planned, Fredrik was the fastest rider with almost 1 second to the rider on second place. After that back into the paddock and change bike and then back out on track again. This day also our good friend Filip Backlund had arrived (he normally race in Pro Superbike together with the Swedish Touring Car Championship) and both Freddie and Filip had looked forward to compete together on the track as it could be some good lap times between these two. Well, before race it was first the qualifications and after the first session Filip had pole position and Fredrik was 0,1 second behind - so lap times was almost the same :-)

Back into the tent and switch to the 600cc bike for the last session on that one. He improved his lap time with 1,5 seconds from the first session so start from pole position in that race this day also. After lunch time it was again time for Superbike and the last qualification there, and at the starting grid Filip was first and Freddie second - quite ok!

After that Freddie got some time to rest before the Superstock 600cc race started. No difference against the race on Saturday, Freddie left all the others behind and won again with 25 seconds to Helge Spjeldnes on 2nd place and some more gap to Per Gustavsson on 3rd place. And once again a new lap record for 600cc bikes on the track, the new record made by Freddie is now 56,93. And this is good as it is the 600cc bike he should drive more as this is the same bike as the one we have in USA.

Suoerbike race number 2 then - well, that one did not go as we had planned. Freddie and Filip had looked forward to this race a lot, we all had as this was the highlight of the weekend. But in the start Freddie didn´t do so well, he still have some trouble to start with the 1000cc bike as this is a new bike for him, so he got away from the grid with maybe 10 riders in front of him. In the first corner he had to brake really hard to avoid hitting another rider who just turned right in front of him. After that hehad to go out on the grass, and no problem with that he thought, he could just cross over there and back on track so he could catch up with Filip in front. But as he came out a bit on the grass it suddenly was a lake in front of him (a huge hole that was filled with water from all the rain) and he hit the hole just perfect. Maybe we have to take a lifeboat or something with us next time to avoid this :-) Well, it was nothing to do about, but very sad that he missed the race together with Filip as we all had hoped for a good race between these two. But there will be more races in the future. Three of four races he won and that is quite good and we are happy and satisfied with this weekend.

A huge Thank you to everybody who´s help and support us, and to all of you who came to visit us this weekend - we have had a great time!

A special Thank you to our big boss Kjell, without him this would not work, and also to our mechanic Magnus and his wonderful family - without them this would not be so fun! Now we look forward to the next race, information about that comes when we are sure of what it will be.

Have a great week / Watz Racing

2009.06.14

Very short update today, there will be a longer one sometimes during tomorrow when we are a little bit more awake :-) Freddie had pole position in the Supersport 600cc race and won that one also with around 25 seconds to the rider in second place. In the Superbike race he started as second on the grid and Filip Backlund had pole position. But in that race it was a crash for Freddie in the first corner on the first lap as he run out of asphalt as it was a bit crowdy in the first corner. But these things happends and Freddie is ok and the bike is ok so no worries there.

Check in tomorrow for a complete report of the weekend, now it´s time for bed / Watz Racing

2009.06.12

No practice at all for Freddie today as it has been raining all day, and very cold. But he has made some laps here before :-) so probably he will find his way around tomorrow. Qualification sessions in the morning, and the first race for us start 15.20 tomorrow, get back during the day with a update. Now we hope for some better weather and some good races.

Sleep well / Watz Racing

2009.06.12

Friday morning - Rain and cold weather so we skip the practice sessions this morning. If the weather gets better later maybe Freddie will go out for some laps. We´ll get back in the evening with a update.

2009.06.03

The weekend June 13-14 it is time for the Swedish Championship again, and this time the travel time is not so long as the event is at our hometrack Sviestad. As we still are home here in Sweden it´s perfect to spend the weekend at the circuit and Freddie will race in both the Supersport 600cc and the Superbike class.

As usual it´s race on both Saturday and Sunday and that means double points during the weekend. We have also talked about maybe put the 250cc bike together for this race, but as it looks right now there is not enough time for that - even that it would have been so fun - but riding two classes every day is maybe enough :-)

On Saturday we will have a lot of guests during the afternoon and evening, so I´m sure that will be very nice! As always there is coming a report after the weekend here, co check in on Monday or Tuesday for an update. If you are in Sweden at this time you are of course very welcome to visit us at the track. After this race it looks like we are going over to USA for the first time this season, and the AMA race at Laguna Seca in the beginning of July, but that we´ll get back to when it´s time for that - you never know what happends before this...

So, now we concentrate on this race first and hope for a lot of people, good races and nice weather!

Have a great week / Watz Racing

2009.05.27

Yesterday it was time for the first Clubrace this year at our hometrack Sviestad. All day it was really nice, sunny and warm weather. We arrived to the circuit just before 16.00 and one hour later it was time for Freddie´s first qualification session. Up on the 600cc bike and out on the track, he made some quite ok lap times but he was not satisfied with the bike, most that depended on that the tires was not in so good condition so it was quite slippery out there. But anyway he was the fastest rider in that class, so start from pole position. Back into the pit and five minutes of rest then up on the 1000cc bike and back out on the track again. This bike has better tires so the laptimes was much better and he was the fastest rider out there again.

After the qualification sessions it was some time before the races should start - and then the sky open and it started to rain (a lot) - so typicall, all day it had been almost summer weather but over the circuit a big, dark cloud stopped just in time for the races to start. Someone checked the weather station on the web as we all was standing under the roof, and according to them it did not rain at all :)

Well, the weather you can not do anything about so just to like it... When it was time for the 600cc race to start the rain had stopped but the circuit was still very wet. And as we don´t have any extra set of wheels for the bikes yet we of course didn´t have any rain tires, so Freddie had to go out on the tires we had on the bike - but it was very slippery out there and he had to take it very, very easy so he ended that race on 6th place. After crossing the finish line it was five minutes until the 1000cc race should start, and now the surface had been a litte more dry, so he could start putting some more gas on with this bike, so it did go much better and he crossed the line as the winner.

A huge Thank you to everybody for this event, and congratulations to all riders on the podium in all classes - we had a fun afternoon / evening despite the rain... / Watz Racing

2009.05.10

Perfect day for Watz Racing at Anderstorp Raceway today - Freddie won both the Superbike and the Supersport race, with 3.5 second gap to the second rider in the Supersport race. Now it´s time to go back home and then we´ll see what the next race for us will be, get back when we know a little bit more about that.

Take care / Watz Racing

2009.05.09

Now the qualifications and races are over for this day, and it went quite ok for Watz Racing. The qualification sessions in the morning was ok, in the Superbike Challenge class where Freddie is riding the R1 bike the session ended with 7th place on the grid. Not so happy about that, he thinks the bike is a bit to slow but as he has not been riding so much on this bike the session was good. In the Superstock 600 qualification it did go much better as he took pole position for the race. This is the bike we have been working on most and also this is the bike Freddie should be riding most of the time as it is the same as the one we have in USA, so we are very happy that it did go so well today. The weather is quite cold, no rain yet but very windy.

Racetime - first out was the Suprbike Challenge race, Freddie started from row 2 on 7th place, after the first lap he was on 6th place and after some overtakings during the race he ended at 4th place. Good result we thought but Freddie was not so happy with it, he still think the bike are a little to slow so now during the evening they are working on getting the chassi a little better for the race tomorrow. A fun race he thought it was anyway, a lot of overtaking and very much who brakes the latest :)

The Superstock 600 race then (10 minutes after he had crossed the finish line in the other race) - Started from pole position, made an ok start (not so good that means :) and was on 2nd place after the first lap. A very fun race he thought as he, Andreas Bergman and Per Gustavsson changed positions all the time on every lap but at the end Fredrik could made a gap to the other two riders and he crossed the line as the winner of the race. Some more speed the bike needs he think so they should be working on that also tonight so everything is ready for a new battle tomorrow.

But as we said - quite a good day for Watz Racing here at Anderstorp and now we recharge for tomorron - get back with an report after the races.

Have a nice evening / Watz Racing

2009.05.08

This weekend it is time for the first race of the season in the Swedish Championship, and this takes place at Anderstorp Raceway. This was not a race we had thought of taking part in, but as we are home and race is the best practice - well, why not! So last night everything was packed and this morning off to Anderstorp. Fredrik will ride in two classes, both on the R6 bike and the R1 bike, so hopefully a lot of laps for him these weekend. And there is also race on both Saturday and Sunday so long time on the bikes.

Today, Friday Freddie was only out for 2, 3 laps and then it started to be really bad weather with a lot of rain, so no more practice for him this day. But for the rest of the weekend they have promised better weather so we´ll get back tomorrow with an update so please check back then.

Have a good time / Watz Racing

2009.04.27

Last Friday we spent all day at a track called Mantorp Park, 20 minutes highway from Linkoping. It was a testday for the riders in Pro Superbike, but our friend Jan Hanson thought Freddie could take part in that test even that we do not compete in that championship. So said and done, after some phonecalls we had ok for that day. This day was all about to try the new Yamaha R1 bike that we have, the night before Freddie spent by building a new rear shock for that bike, and it was perfect to have this day to try it out. As we build our own rear shocks now together with a company in England it takes many, many laps to develop them and make all necessary changes. This day became a perfect day with nice, warm weather, and Fredrik made around 80 laps on the circuit so now he got some feeling for this bike. Very nice to ride at Mantorp Park again he thought as it is many years since last time, and he likes this circuit very much. Best lap time for the day was 1.18.11 (lap record 1.16.5 I think) so not so bad with a new bike, new shock and also the bike is completely standard - so that was ok result for the day! Very nice to meet the other guy´s also as we dont see everyone of them so often as we dont compete in this championship.

Now we build some more on the rear shock and then we make a new test on Tuesday at our hometrack Sviestad, but then also Fredrik will ride the R6 bike for some sessions as it is that bike he will be riding most on this year to practice before going to The States again.

Have a nice week / Watz Racing

2009.04.22

Now we have three training sessions behind us with the new Yamaha R6 bike, and it goes better and better. Fredrik has built a new rear shock and on the test yesterday it was mostly about getting the setup on that one right. It was very cold in the afternoon / evening yesterday so the best lap time for Freddie was 57.90, and that is a bit far from what he should be riding on our hometrack, but it will go faster when the weather gets warmer and we get the setup as Fredrik would like it. He also tested our new Yamaha R1 bike for the first time yesterday, and that seems to work quite ok, just some settings on the suspension we have to figure out but then it should be a good bike.

We still dont know what our first race will be, but we get back to you all as soon as we know of course. In the mean time we do some more testing do get the bikes as good as we can, and also we have to make and paint some fairings :)

Have a nice week everybody / Watz Racing

2009.04.09

Last Tuesday it was time for the first test on our new Yamaha R6 bike, and this took place on our hometrack at the first training session of the season. The weather was really nice, but as soon as the sun disappered in the evening it became quite cold, so no super laptimes this time, but that was not the focus. This time we was only out there so Freddie could try the bike and see especially how the setup of the suspension was working. A good 30 laps or something like that and then back to the workshop to work some more on the suspension. Now we´ll see what next test for us will be. We would have liked to go down to The Neteherlands and taken part in their first race at Assen this Easter, but as we was not sure of how long it would take to get the bike ready for race, the Supersport class had time to be full. And to go down there and be on the waitinglist was not really what we would like. But as it is so near to go to Assen, we sure are going down there for some race this season. Now we take some time off during the Easter holiday and we´ll be back after the weekend.

Happy Easter! / Watz Racing

2009.03.07

Now finally an update, it was a long time ago. But during the wintertime there is not so much to write about, but the season 2009 soon starts so now the updates will come more often. Well, what has happend during the long winter here at us then, not so much besides working and working. In February Fredrik finally had a surgery on his collarbone that has been broken so many times during the years, so now he has a metalplate and screws to hold it together and that will probably keep it in quite good condition. He is still in the healing process so he has not been testing anything yet out on a racetrack. The Gocart Championship 2008/2009 has also had the last race - so now that doesn´t start until autumn again.

What happens this season and which races we will take part in is not completely clear yet as we are waiting for Fredrik to be ok again. But the focus for this year is to race in USA again of course, but we don´t know yet which will be our first race there. Probably we also will find some time for Freddie to do some testing before the first AMA-race for him this season, and this year they had changed a lot of the rules in AMA, so the class for us is called Daytona Sportbike now and not Supersport as it was called before. But more about the new rules and all that when we are getting closer to the first race there.

Now the season 2009 soon starts and we hope you´ll join us during this year / Watz Racing

2008.12.19

Christmas is knocking on the door and 2008 is soon over. Right now we are working very hard before we will have some days off eating christmas food and maybe even open some christmas presents. During the winter time is not so much to tell you about, we are just working most of the time. Fredrik has also been out driving some motocross just for fun, and then we have the Gocart Championship to focus on. The last race on December 17th didn´t go so well for Watz Racing compared to the last race that we won - this time we came 4th in the first race and 2nd in the second race, so now we slipped down a bit in the list. But until next race in the middle of January they have to practice some more and hopefully it will go better then.

During new year we maybe go up to our mechanic Magnus and his family and then it´s just to start from scratch 2009 again. We are working on preparations for USA, but we get back to you about that when the new year has started and we know a little bit more.

A huge Thank you for 2008 to everybody who is there for us in every kind of way when we are doing the best we know, and we see you all in 2009 hopefully.

A very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all of you / Watz Racing

2008.11.06

Now this years Gocart Championship has started.... And the first race for us was yesterday evening. This season we have changed our team a bit, from 3 riders to 4, and the new team member Mikael Geewe improved very much yesterday, so he is still a member of the team :-) During the evening Watz Racing took care of everything - fastest laptime, fastest change of rider in the pit area and first over the finish line in both races - so maximum points and it looks good for the rest of the season. Next race is in the middle of December.

Now we have some practice to do before that :-) / Watz Racing

 2008.10.23

A very long time since we wrote something here now - but as always durings this autumn weeks it is quite slow and not so much happening. But last weekend it was full speed all weekend so here is an update about what we was doing. Saturday was all about our Thank you for the season - Party, and we started at 16.00 with a Gocart race at our good friend Mattias Anderssons Gocart place. After some discussion back and forward it was around 35 people who should take part in the race. Everybody got 10 traininglaps, and then Mattias divided everybody into 7 teams with 5 riders in each after their fastest lap time. After the practice rounds we started with the kids race, and there our cousin Adam was the first to cross the finish line. After that race it was time for the others to do their 1 hour race, with I think it was 12 switches between the drivers, so the teams hade to make up some plan for this hour. A really good race and when it was over Team Donington was the winning team with our Eje as the team captain. The racing drivers Freddie and Magnus also was captains of one team each, and they got on 4th and 5th place :-) But we had a fun time and everybody was happy and that´s the important thing of course!

After the race it was time for everybody to head back to the workshop again, and there more people had arrived so I think we was around 60-70 people at the party - So nice that it was so many who would like to come! After a lot of good food, it was time for the pricegiving ceremony, and after that the party kicked off. A lot of people, a lot of food and a lot of alcohol and a really nice evening, and we hope everybody had a good time. Thank you all so much for coming!

Sunday morning, and it was no sleeping morning as this day was all about something called Straaker Challenge - and this meant 4 hour race at a mud field with scrap cars. Watz Racing was of course on place with a team, and that included as drivers Freddie, Magnus, Anders and Kenneth. They had one more driver, Per Johan, but he was not in so good condition he thought so he could drive a car around a mud field for 4 hours, so he spent most of the time sitting in our dad´s car.  There was also one more Watz Racing Team on the starting line this day (thats why our Team was called REAL Watz Racing) and that included Eje, our cousin Sofie and Ofwerstrom as drivers. But they did not get so far this day as their car only worked for like 6 or 7 laps before it gave up, so the only driver in that team who actually got to drive the car was Eje, the other two just had to spent 4 hours without driving. I think it was like 25 cars to start, but at the end it was like maximum 4 cars left in the race, all the others had died during these hours in the mud, because there was a lot of mud....

After these 4 hours the winners was..... Watz Racing of course with Freddie, Magnus, Anders and Kenneth behind the steering wheel. The week before this race Freddie bought a 4wd Mazda, and that was clearly the car to have in this mud race, of course you can not make 4 hours mud racing with a 2wd car :-) so next race we think there will be a lot more 4wd cars on the starting grid. But the coolest car this day has to be our dad´s Mercedes 450 that he bought over the phone one day just because the guy who sold it sounded so nice on the phone???? He had not seen the car and when it arrived to our workshop, well, it was a car but not so much more - but the guy was so nice over the phone so that was ok??? But he let Pelle and the other guy´s loan it during this summer, and the have fixed the car up really nice, it sounds and looks and works so much better then before so they have done a good job - and it will work for many more miles......maybe :-)

This was our weekend, and Thank´s to everybody who kept the spirit up all days and nights, we had a great time and hope you all had that to. Pictures from this crazy weekend you can find in the Gallery section. Take care for now / Watz Racing

2008.09.10

Yesterday, Tuesday September 9th, it was time for the big autumnrace - the Clubrace at our hometrack Sviestad :-) The weather was quite ok, a bit cold but no rain and even the sun was shining a little bit so it looked like it would be a nice evening. Freddie had decided to try and ride again, last Tuesday he was testing for some laps and that didn´t went so well as it hurted a lot, but now it was time again to try. The start was a bit delayed as the medical staff was running a bit late, but at around 17.15 it was time for the Freddie to go out on the 600cc qualification session. Freddie was the fastest rider on the track but it was hurting quite a bit he said. After that session it was time for Eje to take the bike out for the 1000cc qualification - we had the same bike for both classes, so for Eje it was a bit of struggeling on the straight against the 1000cc bikes, but he was driving good and got 11th place on the grid and that was of course ok. After some good and healthy :-) meal of hamburgers and coffee it was time for race. The 600cc race was first out, and Freddie started in pole position, made a good start and left the others behind almost directly. Of course he could not drive as fast as he normally does on this track but it went ok anyway :-) After some laps the only thing that we hoped not would happend was a fact - in the new chikan on the track there is a section that should have curbs, but there are not any yet so now it is just sand, and when Fredrik came there some of the other riders, on the lap before, had touch it with his knee or something and dragged sand up on the track, and this Freddie didn´t see until it was to late and he crashed. He did not hurt himself so much more then before, but his body is now in not so good condition and he will probably have some pain going out of bed in the mornings. So, no more riding for Freddie at this time, instead back into the paddock and fix the bike up before it was time for Eje´s race.

Eje started from 11th place, made one of the best starts for him in a long time and was up on 4th or 5th place in the first corner. He also made a new lap record for him (I think) during the race and he held a lot of the 1000cc bikes behind him and crossed the finish line as 7th rider - Really good result and he was so happy after the race. Even that Freddie crashed it was a really fun and nice evening with a lot of people who came out to the circuit, and when it was time for the price ceremony Fredrik was the first one to be called, and this to the song Happy Birthday (as it was his birthday yesterday) as all the people in the paddock was singing so nice :-) A huge Thank you to LMS Roadracing section and all the people around for this season, and also to everybody that comes and visit us when we are out on the track. Now Freddie has to take it easy for some more time, and it looks like we are going to miss the final AMA race at Laguna Seca by the end of this month we are sad to say - but next year we hope we will be back in The States again - you´ll never know what the future holds....

A SINCERE THANK YOU for this season to ALL OF YOU who has helped and supported us as we do the best thing we know. You are so many good, nice and helpfull friends and we are so thankfull and happy to you all - YOU ARE THE BEST and we will find some little way of saying Thank´s during this autumn / winter.

TACK, THANK YOU, BEDANKT - Fredrik & Linda, Watz Racing

2008.09.03

Yesterday Fredrik was back on the bike again just to test how the body works. And well, it worked not so good yet, it hurts a lot in the hip and hand so he will wait one more week and then try again. And next Tuesday its time for the Clubrace at our hometrack Sviestad, so he will test again then and see how it goes. Freddie didn´t made so many laps on the circuit yesterday, but the bike was out the whole evening but it was Eje who was driving then. He is also going to take part in the race next week so practice is good.

Get back after the race with an update / Have a great week, Watz Racing

2008.08.28

Now the video from TT Assen is out on www.jaapkingmaracing.nl. Saturday´s raceday are coming in the nearest days, but all the other days are on this video. You find the link to the video on the first news page. A huge Thank you to most of all Jaap and Henk-Jan who has spent many hours filming and editing. So please take a look...

Otherwise the life here in Sweden is mostly about working right now. Last Monday Freddie was at the hospital again for some check up, and the hip doesn´t look to well yet. The doctor would like Freddie to take it even more easy and be still much more so the hip could have some chance healing, but it´s not so easy to be still all the time. The doctor said he thinks it will take at least 3 months before the hip looks quite ok, but we hope we can go to USA again in the end of September to take part in the last AMA race at Laguna Seca, so that is what we are working for at the moment. I´ll get back with some small updates before that.

Have a nice day and take care and also we wish Jaap a Happy Birthday today as it is that day for him / Watz Racing

2008.08.14

Now the Jaap Kingma Racing Magazine, called The end - Part two, is ready. You can read the Dutch version at www.jaapkingmaracing.nl, there will also be an english version but that take some more days, and also a video from the TT-weekend at Assen but that takes also some more days. A great job by Jaap and Henk-Jan with the magazine and the video (I have seen the rough version so I know it will be nice), a lot of work but I think they like it :-)

2008.08.06

Some pictures of how the days are spent at the moment...

A small update about Freddie´s condition at the moment. It is quite ok, some pain he has but it´s working anyway. I have recieved some questions about if he is still at the hospital, but that he is not. The only night he spent at the hospital was in Karlskoga, and after that he has been home. To spend time in the hospital just waiting is no use, and absolutely no fun so be home is better. But he is feeling ok and spend some time here in the workshop during the days, so in some months he will probably be fine. No racing during this month for him anyway, but we hope he can be quite ok to the final AMA race at Laguna Seca in September. Today, Thursday, he will meet a new doctor so we wait and see what he says.

But we are ok and everything is going like normal, for Freddie it just takes a little longer time doing everything :-) but it´s working. Get back when we have some news / Watz Racing

2008.07.29

A little late with the report from teh race at Karlskoga but here it finally is, and we start from the beginning as usual of course... Wednesday night we got back from Stockholm after the trip to Laguna Seca around 02.00 as it was delayed flights. Thursday evening we left our workshop around midnight and headed to the European Cup races in Karlskoga. This weekend was a bit stressful for us as Freddie was taking part in 3 different classes, Superstock 600, 250cc and Supersport 600, so both the Yamaha and the Suzuki was used a lot this weekend, and all the classes was after each other so there was not so much time to take a breath in between.

Friday and this day it was 2 free practice sessions for every class. Fredrik was not taking part in every session as it was very hot weather conditions so he was taking it a bit easy. First it was the Superstock practice so Freddie went out and was just trying to get the feeling for the bike back as it was a long time since he was driving both the Suzuki and the Yamaha. He was making quite good lap times anyway so it was ok. After that parctice it was just for him to switch bike and get on the 250cc and back out on track again. After that he was again switching to the 600cc bike for the Supersport session, and in this class there were only 12 riders so not so crowded on the track, and a lot of opportunities to make good lap times. On Friday evening there was quite a lot of mechanical work on both bikes, our mechanic Magnus was taking care of the Yamaha and Fredrik did the Suzuki, and it was quite a lot to do on that bike also even that it is a four-stroke bike :-) Most of the evening we spent in the tent trying to get all things together, and it became late before we could go to bed.

Woke up on Saturday morning to a new day with temepratures over 30 degrees Celsius - finally summer you could say! This day was all about qualifiation, 2 sessions for every class so Freddie did not do much more than riding bikes all day. On the first Superstock qualification Fredrik ended up at 4th place in the list, which was an ok performance this early in the morning. Back into the paddock to switch bike and out for the 250cc qualification, and there he was the fastest rider on the track with his lap time 1.06.95 before Alvaro Molina on second place. Then back into the paddock again for another round on the 600ccbike in the Supersport session, that one ended with 2nd place after Daniel Kubberod from Norway. After these three sessions it was time for some rest and food and then some checking on the bikes before the next qualifications in the afternoon.

In the second Superstock session it fif not go any faster for any of the riders as it was so hot weather, and the session was also stopped due to a crash so that meant 4th place on the grid for the race. Back to the pit again for changing to 250cc and on that qualification he was a bit faster then on the first one, 1.06.76 was the lap time and pole position for the race before Alvaro Molina on second place, Giacomo Lucchetti on third and Joakim Stensmo on fourth - that was the first row! Again back into the paddock and for the last time this day he was switching to the 600cc bike again and went out for the last qualification in Supersport. On this session he was a bit tired so no improvment on the lap times for him. Start from 2nd place on the grid in the Supersport race on Sunday. The eveing we spent by fixing the bikes again, and also it was some time to meet up with all our good friends from all over Europe, which was so much fun as we have not meet them all for a very long time. A lot of people in the tent all evening and very much fun!

Sunday and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky - so again a very hot day was coming. In the morning it was time for three warm up sessions for Fredrik, so he just had to get into the leather suite and get busy. First out was the Superstock session and Fredrik didn´t make so many laps, he went out just to see so everything worked ok. Back in again and jump on to the 250cc bike, didn´t made so many laps there either but he did good lap times 1.06.88 and that was quite ok time for being the morning session. After that another switch to the 600cc bike again and back out on the track, made only 5 - 6 laps before he thought it was ok and went into the paddock. Some refueling and checking on the bikes, and also some lunch and rest before it was time for race.

First race for the day was Superstock 600, and at this time it was very, very hot weather so there was many riders who were not feeling 100% fit for the race. Freddie did a not so good start but started to catch up with the riders in front directly. But on the first lap the race was stopped due to a lot of crashes around the circuit, we hope every rider is ok. After around 20 minutes of waiting in the pitlane the race started again for 18 laps. From the beginning all the races should have been 30 laps, but that was shorted to 26 laps due to the hot weather conditions. New line up at the grid and when the light was out went out Freddie did a much better start then before. Daniel Kubberodmade a perfect start (he is very good on doing that kind of starts) and he just went away directly. Freddie was on 2nd place and as him and Kubberod was making nearly the same lap times almost every lap Freddie could not catch up with him to fight for first place, but he ended the race at 2nd place and we are happy about that - it was a good race for Freddie and he was satisfied. Congratulations to Daniel who made a perfect race!

No price ceremony for Fredrik as it was just 5 minutes to start in the 250cc race so no time to rest or take a breath, just get on the Yamaha and back out on the track again. After the sighting lap when Freddie arrived to his spot on the grid he said the bike did not work ok, it was going on one cylinder and just behaved really strange. He said it would try for some laps and if it would not go he should retire from the race. But after 7 laps he came on the finish straight and after that it is a tight, right corner, and there the bike just worked on one cylinder, and in the corner it started working on two again and without any warning the bike throwed him off in a nasty highsider. The arce was stopped as Fredrik did not moved, and when he came in from the track he was very much in pain, and he said that this was the worst pain he had ever felt in his life, so then it is not so good. He got some pain killers and after half an hour they took him to the hospital in Karlskoga and there they saw what was wrong with his right leg, it had jumped out of place in the hip, and was like 8 cm in the wrong place. But they druged him to sleep and put the leg back where it should be. Also he had broken his collar bone, but that is quite standars so nothing to worry about, but he will need surgery on that now because it is very short and will probably nit work correct. He was in the hospital over night and monday morning they did a x-ray on his leg just to see so there was nothing more broken, but it was and quite bad also. His hip bone (don´t know the english word for it, but it is the big bone that keep the upper body attached to the legs) is broken and a lot of bone parts was missing, so now he will need a surgery on that very fast, but the problem is to find a doctor in these vaccation times.

This was not the most fun ending of the weekend, but before this happened we had a lot of fun, a bit stressful but very nice anyway. It was nice to meet all friends from Europe again, Rico, Norman and the Pirates, Tomas Pallander, Alvaro Molina and his team, Hannu Mottonen, Toby Markham, Hans Overmaat and all the others - so much fun to see you all again and I sure hope it dont take so long time until we meet again.

A huge Thank you to you all that has followed us during the weekend, and all you who has visited us out on the track and helped out with everything, also Thank you for all the phone calls,sms and mails about Fredrik´s conditions - that feels good in the heart!

Special Than you to Family Fransson (Magnus, Annalena, Bernt, Mona, Johnny, Joline and little Jack) you are the best and we dont know what to do without you all - to our father of course who is making this possible - Mulan for all the help during the weekend and all you others that I might have missed right now - Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Also we hope that all riders who crashed during the weekend is ok and not to hurt, and a special thought goes to Giacomo Lucchetti in the 250cc class who is still in the hospital in Karlskoga - we hope he will be ok!

We get back with an update a little later when we know how things turn out with Freddie´s surgery / Have a nice summer time and Thank you, Fredrik and Linda

2008.07.22

Soon its time to go home from The States for this time. We are not really sure when we are coming back, but if we can get the financial together we perhaps take part in one or maybe two races before the final race at Laguna Seca - but we have to see about that. Yesterday, Monday, Freddie and Anders spent the day in Tomas workshop helping him dissemble a Camaro - so normal work on the Monday :-)

A huge Thank you to everybody that has followed us during this weekend - and as always there are some special people who have help us that deserves a special Thank´s - Our good friend Anders Lifvergren that took some time of from work and headed to USA to help out when we was short of people, Tomas for all help and loan of the workshop, Anders (Hotte) for all help and for the place to stay, Stefan for the help with the car, Pat, who is so kind to let us use the backyard for parking the bus when we are back home in Sweden, Petta and Mark for all help on the circuit, Josh and Misti with crew for loan of everything and for the nice times in the paddock, and of course our father - without him no racing for us! If there is somebody we have missed You all know who you are and we are so thankful to you all!

When the flight arrives in Sweden we will spent less than 24h in our hometown Linkoping before we go to the next race for us. But this time the travelling is not so many hours as we are going to Karlskoga for the UEM / EC Cup (or what is called these days) that takes place there this weekend to come. Which races Freddie will take part in we dont really know yet, maybe just the 600cc class, maybe just the 250cc class or maybe both - we decide when we get´s there I think.

Thank´s for this weekend and now we are looking forward to the next one. Have a great summer time / Watz Racing

2008.07.19 Part III

The race result from Laguna Seca was changed due to the fact that Aaron Gobert was DQ from the race, so Fredrik took over 16th place in the race with 15 new points.

2008.07.19 Part II

The AMA PRO Supersport race is now over and Fredrik ended up at 17th place, and that he is not so happy about right now. Started from 18th place and was up at 15th place as best. The bike worked really good but the problem was the front tire. Pirelli had not any softer tire for Freddie, so he had to drive on a hard one that he did not liked at all, and during the race he was near to crash three times, but he could put the bike up again with his knee every time. The problem was that it lost the grip into the corner and when he had made a gap to the other riders, they could catch up again into the corners - a little frustraded for Freddie but he did the best he could with this tire, and at the end of the race Chaz Davies came up from behind (he was last so he probably had been off the track) and his bike was so damn fast, and when he passed Freddie also Gabor could pass at the same time so Fredrik ended up at 17th place.

Even if he is not so happy about this just now, the weekend at Laguna Seca has still been very good. He had improved his laptimes on every session, and the rear suspension has worked quite ok all weekend, it still needs to be a little more rebuilded to fit Freddie perfect but anyway it has worked so much better then the last race. Ben Bostrom won this race on his Yamaha, and if we could get better tires for the next race Freddie will for sure be higher up in the list then, maybe not to fight with Ben (his bike is so fast) but higher up anyway!

We´ll get back with a little longer report in next week sometime, and also some info about what our next race will be. A huge Thank you to everybody that have followed us this weekend and also Thank you for all supporting sms, e-mails and writings in our guestbook. Have a good night now / Watz Racing

2008.07.19 Part I

Today, Saturday, it´s raceday for AMA PRO Honda Oils Supersport at Laguna Seca. And the day started with that the free practice for Superbike was cancelled due to some heavy fog, but it became clearer when it was time for Freddie and the other riders to go out on the Warm up in the morning. The idea for the practice today was to follow our crazy Hungarian friend Gabor Rizmayer so Freddie could pick up some speed with the help from him. But after just 2 laps the bike indicated that the oil pressure was going down, so Freddie slowed down and entered the pit lane. But after some checking the bike seemed ok again so he went out to get some laps, but still they did not find anything wrong so he kept an eye on the oil indicator all the time. But anyway he was able to go faster then yesterday, so it was quite a good session. Freddie is normally quite slow in the morning sessions so this was a little surprise for us :-)

Now it´s some things to fix on the bike before the race. And that will start at 01.35 swedish / european time if You would like to follow it on the Live Timing. Keep Your fingers crossed for a good race and we get back with the result a little later / Watz Racing

2008.07.18 Part II

They shifted the order of the groups today, so Fredrik´s group started their qualification first, and this we did not know when we put the first report out here today. But well, now the qualification is finished and Fredrik was the fastest rider in his group with the lap time 1.29.22, and that means he will start from 18th place on the grid tomorrow. If he had been in the faster group he probably would have improved his lap times a bit more when he could follow the faster riders. Now he had to do everything by himself, and that is normally not a problem for Freddie, but when it is a new circuit it´s much easier if you have someone to follow and learn from - but anyway we are happy and satisfied. He made some changes on the suspension between the first session and this one, and he was not satisfied with these changes so now he is taking it back as it was before and then it should be ok before the race. Now it is technical inspection as the top three in both groups has to go to that to check so the bikes are ok, and after that it´s some mechanical work to do before go to the hotel for some sleep.

Tomorrow the warm up starts at 20.15 swedish/european time and the race starts in the middle of the night at 01.35. Get back after the race tomorrow / Watz Racing

2008.07.18 Part I

Now the first and only free practice is over. And it started at 08.00 in the morning when the fog still was heavy over the circuit. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a very cool and fun track, but very technical and quite difficult to learn Freddie thinks, and he will need a lot more laps before he can get the speed up. But this weekend it is not so much time on the track, so he just have to do the best he can of course. The rear shock is finally seems to work, so now we have something to work with. But as Freddie didn´t go so fast on this session we have to wait and see how it works when he get the speed up a little bit - but it seems very positive. After the session was finalized Fredrik ended up at 21st place in the list with the lap time 1.31.34, which is around 4 seconds behind Ben Bostrom who was the fastest on this session. And that we have to see as a good performance for Fredrik as it is the very first time on the circuit, and also that he again had to adjust his driving to the Yamaha as he these last times has been riding other bikes all the time - so we are satisfied of course! The only thing that did not really go as we planned was that Fredrik totally forgot about the fact that it was "qualifying" to the qualifying, so he ended up in Group B for the session later today, but that will sure work also.

Get back to you all with a small report after the qualifying session that starts 01.00 european time / Watz Racing

2008.07.17

Tomorrow, Friday, the sessions on Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca starts. Freddie´s first and only free practice starts at 08.00 in the morning (swedish time that means 17.00). In the afternoon the first qualifying group go out at 3.30pm (swedish time 00.30), and which group Fredrik ends up in depends on how fast he goes on the free practice in the morning. Today, Thursday, the day starts with going to the entry office, and that is situated at a hotel 5km from the track??? - very strange but this is how it is, and after all the paddock and car passes are signed for it´s time to go to the circuit to make up the place in the paddock - but it´s nice it finally starts and we´ll get back to you all after the session tomorrow with some small reports.

Have a great day / Watz Racing

2008.07.10

BACK TO THE STATES... The weekend July 19-20 it is time for the next race for us. And this time we are going back to USA and lands on Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in California to take part in the AMA Supersport race. This weekend the AMA races are going together with Moto GP, so there will not be so much time on the track. One free practice and one qualifying session on Friday, and then the warm up and race on Saturday - that´s all time on the track! So quite a long way for us from Sweden for very little time on the bike, but this is good practice for the final race in the AMA that also goes on Laguna Seca in september.

Last Sunday Fredrik was over to England to pick up the new rear suspension that John Stubbs from Black Art Suspension has made for us. And we had hope that he could test it last Tuesday on our hometrack Sviestad, but that day it was raining all day so we cancelled that. But hopefully today, Thursday, there will be some good testing at the circuit at Karlskoga - A huge Thank you to "Lillen" for the loan of his bike so Freddie could test the rear suspension on a quite same bike as the one we have in The States.

On Saturday morning (very, very early) the flight will take off from Stockholm to LA, and there Anders meets up at the airport to go home to his place to pick up the bike and the car. After that we are heading to Thomas and his workshop that he is so kind to let us use for rebuilding the bike. On Wednesday everything should be ready and we are going to Laguna Seca for the weekend.

A huge Thank you to Anders and Thomas for all help so far, and also to Madelene at the travel agency for taking care of all our different bookings and changes all the time.

Otherwise we are of course hopes for a good result at Laguna Seca, and hopefully we can give you some small reports during Friday and Saturday when he is out on the track for the first time. Otherwise you will of course be able to read a full report after we are back home in Sweden again.

Hope You all will have a nice summer week, and would you like to follow Fredrik please visit www.amasuperbike.com and the Live Timing there. Just remember that it is 9 hours time difference from swedish time.

Have a great summer time / Watz Racing

2008.06.30

THE WEEKEND AT TT-CIRCUIT ASSEN IS OVER FOR THIS TIME... Now we are back home in Sweden again after the Moto GP weekend in Assen. But we start this report from the beginning as always.

We left Linkoping late Sunday afternoon and arrived to the village Oude Pekela in The Netherlands early Monday morning. There we found the way to our good friend Henk-Jan Laning´s house for some breakfast and relaxing. Before lunchtime we went in the car to go and meet Jaap Kingma (The owner of the team) and then we headed to the south of Holland to the Lookwell factory to pick up a new leather suite for Fredrik. We spent a little more than one hour there to try out leather suits and gloves - Thank you so much to Lookwell for this. After that we started the trip back again, we just stopped at a restaurant on the way for a nice dinner, which was perfect as we then got some time to know eachother a little bit more, as the only one in the Jaap Kingma Racing Team we have really known for many years is the rider Hans Smees, so this was nice. When we said goodbye for the day to Jaap and Anne, me, Freddie and Henk-Jan headed back to Oude Pekela again. We just made a quick stop at the circuit in Assen to see who was there already before we got back to Henk-Jan´s place for some coffee and nice talking. Around 22.30 we said good night and went to bed as we were a little bit tired after we had spent 1600 km in a car for the last 24 hours.

Tuesday morning we woke up happy and not tired anymore. After some breakfast and shower´s we left Henk-Jan´s home to go in to Assen to fix some things. Henk-Jan left a bit earlier to pick up a driver for the truck so they would be at the circuit later this day. Around lunch time we went out to the circuit to wait for the others - and the first to arrive was Jan with his caravan that he was so kind to let us use this weekend, and after the IRTA guy´s has showed us the place in the paddock we just had to wait for the truck to arrive. Since Jaap Kingma Racing Team stopped with the racing last year, they had no truck, trailer and tent anymore, so for this race they had to borrow everything that´s needed. After some hours the truck came and we could start to build up the tent that would be our home for this weekend. It was good that Mark Bezemer was with us, as it is his team´s truck and tent, and then it was much easier to build everything up as he has done it many times before. Mark is also a 250cc rider and he is leading the Dutch Championship at this moment. Thank you so much for the help Mark - you are a really nice guy! A little later that evening Hans Smees, Bennie and Hans arrived with the bike, and after some hours we had everything ready and we all could just take it easy and have a nice evening in the paddock.

Wednesday morning, and this day was also very relaxed, the only things on the schedule was the technical inspection and the drivers meeting. During the Jaap Kingma also arrived to the paddock, he had not been able to come on Tuesday, and also our Magnus arrived, he had travelled together with Patrik Fredriksson down to Assen so it took some time :-) This was a very nice day as we just went around talking to all friends that we has not seen for a long time - it was so nice to meet everybody again.

Thursday morning, and this was the first time Freddie would try the Aprilia. In the morning there was the one hour free practice, and Fredrik went out to try and learn the bike as much as possible. He got quite a lot of laps on the circuit, and a lot of changes were made on the bike as he started to feel it better. The fastest lap time for Freddie on this session was 1.45.2, so not so fast but as it was the first time on the bike we had to be satisfied with that. After the session the mechanics Hans and Benniw got some work to do as Freddie would like to change some more things, and Fredrik was very happy that Hans Smees was there, as he is the rider who know this bike very well after he has been riding it for several years. So they could discuss everything and Fredrik got good feedback and information from Hans. In the afternoon it was time for the first qualification session and Freddie was ready, Jaap was very nervous and the rest of us looked forward to a good qualifying. Unfortunately he just came 6 laps before the front wheel just disappeared for him and he crashed on one of the fastest places on the circuit, so he went down in 200 km/h, but luckily he was quite ok after the crash, he hurt his shoulder a bit but just to ignore that and keep on going. The bike did not get so bad either as it did not started to roll, and that we are glad for, but Hans, Bennie and Hans did got quite much work anyway - they are phenomenal these guy´s and they worked so hard all evening. Fairings usually gets a bit broken in a crash, but in the GP paddock there is a company that fixes that for all teams. They have a big bus with two floors and inside there they repair and put paint on fairings all weekend - absolutely perfect and not so expensive either. Even that Fredrik crashed in the beginning of the session he was qualified to the race, and he was ok, and the bike was quite ok so Jaap was very happy after the session anyway when he knew that everything would be ok. In the evening Jaap and Hans Smees left the paddock for the night, but everybody else was staying, and Hans and Bennie worked so hard to get the bike ready for the next day. The evening we spent in the tent most of the time, and a lot of people came by to check on Fredrik so he was ok - very nice and it felt good in the heart when it is so many people who cares and wants to help in every possible way.

After a good night sleep (well, Freddie was a bit stiff in the morning and the shoulder was not in so good condition) we woke up to a cloudy and quite dark Assen. But the first free practice was in dry onditions so that was good. He improved his lap time a bit from yesterday´s sessions, but not so much. And the most important for this session was for Freddie to get the trust back for the bike and ride as many laps as possible. To the last qualification session before the race Fredrik was out for many laps to begin with and he improved his lap time with almost 1.5 second to 1.44.4 which gave him 22nd place on the grid. When it was 15 minutes left he came into the pit lane to change tire and then the plan was to go out and improve even more, but unfortunately he came just like half a lap before something happened with the bike, so he shut it down immediately. It showed later that it was a sparkplug that was broken, so we all were happy that it was just that and nothing worse. Fredrik was not so satisfied with the time and the place on the grid, but Jaap was very pleased as one of his goals for this weekend was for Fredrik to qualify for the race. We were not so worried about that as Fredrik has always qualified to every GP he has taken part in, but we understand Jaap as he didn´t quite know how Fredrik was riding before this event, and what he would be able to do on this bike - but now he was happy and then we were happy of course :-) On Friday evening Hans Smees got back so Freddie and him could go over the day. This evening the whole team stayed in the paddock so we all went for a nice dinner in the restaurant, and then it was a lot of people in the tent all evening. Fredrik went to bed quite early to get ready for the race next day, we others stayed up for some more hours and had a nice time just sitting around the table chatting.

Woke up on Saturday morning and listened to the rain before we got out of bed. So the warm up session in the morning was on wet circuit. And Fredrik is very good in rain, so he was in the top five almost all session, but ended up at 16th place on the list when the warm up was over - so we all hoped for rain to the race :-) Now that didn´t happened, even that the 125cc race was stopped due to rain, but to the 250cc race the clouds gone away, so slicks was the tire to have. We had some trouble just before start when the clutch stopped working, so Hans, Bennie and Hans had some stressfull minutes trying to fix the problem. This meant that Fredrik had to start the warm up lap from the pit lane and also he could not start from his place on the grid, instead he had to start as the last rider - not so funny but he just had to deal with it. The start was not so good for him as the clutch didn´t work perfectly, so he was dead last away from the grid. The first 10 laps he was trying to catch up with the other riders, but as the start was not so good they easily had a gap to him, so it was a very lonely race for Fredrik this time and he ended up at 18th place when the race was over. Not the best GP race for us when you see to the results, he has been on 16th place before, but Jaap was very satisfied anyway as his other two goals for this weekend was that Fredrik would not be lapped and that he would finish the race. Our goal for this weekend was to get some points, but that didn´t happen this time. To not be lapped we did not has as a goal as Fredrik never has been that on any GP before - so that was even not in our minds.

But Jaap was very pleased and satisfied, and if he is happy we are happy of course :-) The most important for all of us was to have a great weekend, and we have had so nice and fun at all time so we still very happy for this weekend. Of course you always want it to go a little better, but to be the first time on the bike and also that Fredrik are not used to drive an Aprilia we are not to disappointed. The whole week has been incredible for us, and as we are used to do everything by ourselves when we are out on races it was very nice to have all these guy´s that did all the work and they worked so hard, and Fredrik got a chance to just focus on the racing, and that he is not used to as it always are so much other things that has to be fixed when we are by ourselves - so that was very nice.

Everybody has been so helpful and just amazing to us, and we dont know how to say Thank you enough - maybe we can fly them all up to Sweden sometime to have some fun - something we have to come up with for this great team!

A huge Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to you all - Jaap Kingma for making this possible, you are a great guy, to Hans Smees, Bennie Geurtsen and Hans Overmaat for all the work on the bike, all help and all good times, Henk-Jan, Anne and Jan for all help with everything, Gert Pieper who is the owner of thebike, Magnus for coming with us (it´s nice to finally give something back to him for all help over the years), to all the sponsors and of course to our father Kjell - without him we would not be racing at all.

Also a huge Thank you to everybody else that we have met this week and who has helped and supported us - we are very happy and thankful to all of you. Hope you all have had as much fun as we - and we will never, ever forget you.

BEDANKT, THANK YOU TO ALL

For more pictures and video please visit www.jaapkingmaracing.nl and in our Gallery section there will soon come up pictures.

2008.06.19

Linda asked me to tell you something about my team for the Swedish fans. My name is Jaap Kingma and I am 40 years old. I started a realestate agency in 1996. In 1998 I became sponsor of a locale motordriver (Pieter Rottiné) in the 250cc. He hadn´t a lot of money so I paid a lot for him, I bought a new Honda and a team truck and became a team owner. The results till 2002 wheren´t good, but we had a lot of fun. In 2003 my team had 3 riders, Bram Appelo and Emile Litjens in the 250cc and a 16-years old girl, Carol, in the 125cc. We took part in the Dutch Championship. In 2004 the results became better and Emile took part in the European Championship. In Assen 2004 we got the first wild card for the TT. In 2005 I contracted Hans Smees, he is a really good driver. The first year he became Dutch Champion and ended on the podium at the European Championship. In 2005 the team went bigger and I had contract with 5 riders. The youngest (Jerry vd Bunt) was 11 years old and took part at a minibike. In 2007 Jerry became Dutch Champion in the 125cc Junior Cup. Hans Smees took part at the Grand Prix at Valencia, Jerez and Assen. Also Bram Appelo got a wild card in Assen 2006.

At the end of 2007 I stopped with my racingteam and sold the team truck. The Aprilia and a lot of spareparts are for sale. Until now we couldn´t sell the Aprilia for a good price. The last 4 years we have had a wild card at Assen, and this year would have been the first year I´m sitting on the tribune to look at the races. But in May I talked with Henk-Jan Laning, and he told me that maybe Fredrik Watz would like to race the TT for me if he had the time. So we called and mailed a lot and asked the FIM for a wild card. Two weeks ago we heard that we got the wild card. I´m so happy to be back in the paddock , it is a comeback for one time!! I hope I´ll enjoy and I´m looking forward to next week. Read more at www.jaapkingmaracing.nl

We have know´n Hans and the rest of these guy´s for many years, and they are all really nice people. As we concentrate on the races in USA this year, we had no plan for taking part in the GP, but now as we are going to, we are looking forward to it very much, Fredrik think it will be so great to ride a 250cc in the GP again, and we are looking forward meeting all our friends again.

We hopefully leave Sweden on Sunday, because on Monday I think we will go to Lookwell who support´s Fredrik and the Jaap Kingma Racing Team with some new leathersuits for this event. A huge Thank you to all who has helped and supported us so far, we are gonna do our best for next weekend of course, and hope for a really nice time together with everybody.

Have a great weekend / Watz Racing

2008.06.18

Yesterday it was normal week training at our hometrack Sviestad, and Fredrik was for the first time ever out on an Aprilia 250cc bike. We borrowed Patrik Fredriksson´s bike so Freddie would have a chance to make some laps before the race at Assen. Out on the first session and the bike didn´t behave as Fredrik wanted it to, so after that session he changed a lot on the suspension, and it became much better. The rest of the evening went really ok, and he made some good lap times on tires that was finished, and he got some feeling of how the Aprilia worked and behaved - so it was a good evening. Now we are a little more prepared for the race at Assen and for that a huge Thank you to Patrik for the loan of his bike.

The plan is that this Sunday we are hopefully leave Sweden to go to Holland, as it is some things to be fixed during Monday and Tuesday before we go to the circuit on Wednesday. Maybe we can give you all some small reports during the week, otherwise you get the report after we are back home again.

Have a nice time and keep your fingers crossed for a good result at Assen / Watz Racing

2008.06.05

FREDRIK WATZ - WILD CARD IN 250cc GRAND PRIX AT ASSEN

The weekend after our Swedish midsummer - June 28th it is time for the A-Style TT Assen Grand Prix in The Netherlands, and Fredrik will be on the starting grid as the only wild card rider in the 250cc class.

For the first time ever he will be riding a Aprilia 250cc bike and this together with the Dutch Jaap Kingma Tacing Team. The whole thing started last week when Jaap (Team owner) and our good friend Henk-Jan called us and asked if we could apply for a wild card as they really would like Fredrik to ride for them, so said and done, we filled out the forms and two days later we got it confirmed.

Some history of Fredrik and Watz Racing´s career so far:

1998 - First whole season in the 250cc class for us and Fredrik became 4th in total in the Swedish Championship.

1999 - 3rd place totalt in the Nordic Championship.

2000 - Fredrik had a crash in the beginning of the season and broke his neck so no more racing this year.

2001 - Back on track again and Fredrik became Swedish Champion for the first time, and 3rd in the Nordic Championship.

2002 - First season in the European Championship. Ended up at 7th place in total, also took over the offical lap record at Circuit Cartagena in Spain. Did not drive all races here at home, but still became Swedish Champion for the second time and first runner up in the Nordic Championship.

2003 - Started the season with a crash and was gone for some months, but still managed to become Swedish Champion for the third time. This was also the first year Fredrik got a wild card at the GP at Estoril.

2004 - Whole season in the European Championship and Fredrik ended up at 2nd place in total standings. By this he became the first Swedish rider ever who had made it so far up in the 250cc European Championship. He also had a wild card at Donington, UK and replaces Klaus Nohles in the 259cc GP for Team Castrol Honda Kiefer Racing for some races - this was the first time on a Honda 250cc for him.

2005 - This year Freddie took part in 4 GP races - China, France, Italy and Spain for a German team, and he also took part in some EC races in Portugal and Spain för an Italian 250cc team.

2006 - 2nd place at the European Championship at Assen.

2007 - We were in USA for the first time and took part in the first Supersport 600 races at Daytona International Speedway. He won a CCS / ASRA race from start at 14th position on the grid, and by that he became the first Swedish rider ever to do that. Also Fredrik won the only EC race we took part in, which was held on the Karlskoga Circuit here in Sweden.

2008 - We have been in USA one time this year and raced in the AMA Supersport 600-series, first at Barber Motorsports Park and then Fontana, California. Fredrik became 15th rider over the finish line in both these races. Now it´s the GP that´s in focus and then we go back to USA again to take part in the race at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway July 19-20.

Now we concentrate on the race at Assen and Fredrik will as always do his best. If there is anything you wonder about please do not hesitate to contact us at anytime.

Hope for a perfect weekend at Assen / Watz Racing

2008.06.02

What a weekend this has been - nice and very warm weather, a lot of good friends and a lot of laps on the circuit so good training. Some of us arrived to the circuit early Thursday evening and Freddie and our mechanic Magnus was stuck at our workshop getting the bikes ready so they arrived later. This evening was spent as always by fixing tent and all other stuff, and of course meet up with all friends that we has not seen for a long time.

Fridays sschedule was three sessions of free practice for every class, and as Fredrik was driving both the 250cc and the 600cc bike he had a lot of time out on the track, and we had it a bit stressful in between the sessions as these classes where right after each other. We have had a bit of struggle with the gearbox on the 250cc bike this weekend, and finally it totally gave up so then we had to borrow the gearbox from Patrik`s Yamaha, and that was ok because he is driving the Aprilia and only have the Yamaha as a spare bike. The 600cc bike is quite ok, but very slow when you compare to the Yamaha R6 that Fredrik is riding in USA, so he could not really keep up with some of the riders on the straight, but you just do the best you can with what you have. The evening was spent by going back and forward between the circuit and our workshop when it was some other riders who needed help with welding and stuff.

Saturday and this was the day that the first races should start. It started with two qualification sessions for every class, and Freddie first went out on the 600cc bike. He ended up at third place when the session was finished, 0.4 sec after Kubberod who took care of pole position. After that qualification it was a little time for rest and then out on the 250cc bike. And in that class he should be the fastest rider, and so he was. Back into the paddock for some lunch meal and checking of the bikes and then it was time for the last qualification before the races, and Freddie was riding well on the 600cc bike and was the fastest rider on track, but no faster than Kubberod´s time on the first session, so he will start at 2:nd place on the grid.

Back into the paddock for changing bike and then out again on the 250cc. Improved his lap time from the first session and took pole position with 0.5 sec. Back again into the paddock for some preparations before the races, and first out was the 600cc race. Fredrik made not so good start, but Kubberod made a very good one and he was long gone in no time. When Fredrik got the speed up Kubberod had a huge gap and it was not possible for Freddie to catch up so he ended up at 2:nd place in the race, quite ok anyway and he was not so disappointed. Fredrik thought it was very hard to switch from the 250cc bike to the 600cc, but the other way to go from 600cc to 250cc was not a problem. Back into the pit again and change bike and then out on the grid again. Made a perfect start and had a gap almost directly to the other riders. After two, three laps he had a gap of 8 seconds so that was ok, but on lap nine the race was stopped when Robin crashed - but he was ok and the race could start again after 15 minutes. Fredrik made a perfect start again and when he passed the finish line he had a 17 second gap to the rider in second place. Even that it was a quite lonely race Fredrik thought it was so much fun, he likes to ride the 250cc more then the 600cc bike - it´s much more fun he says, so when there is an oppportunity to ride it we of course take it. The evening was very much like Friday´s, going back and forward between the track and our workshop, and in between that we should have time to fix our own bikes and have something to eat. It got pretty late before we could turn out the lights and go to sleep, but that is normal for us when we are on race so we are used to it :-)

Sunday, and the schedule was exactly the same as on Saturday. First qualification in the 600cc class, Fredrik ended up at third place again, but he is always a little slow in the morning so it should go better on the next one. The 250cc qualification, Fredrik went out, made a good lap time and went into the pit again. He was only out for 6 laps just to save the tyre. Last qualification on the 600cc was exactly like the one the day before, Fredrik was the fastest rider but not fast enough so he could take pole position, so again he ended up at second place on the grid. Last 250cc qualification we didn´t take part in, just so he could still have the feeling from the 600cc to the race. But Fredrik hade made such a good lap time on the first session with the 250cc bike so he had pole position already.

Made a perfect start in the 600cc race, and was leading the way for the others, but as he came out on the straight Kubberod came up behind him and passed him like he was a Ferrari and Freddie an old bus or something. His bike was so much faster so Fredrik could do absolutely nothing, so again he ended up at second place when they crossed the finish line.

In the 250cc race Fredrik again made a perfect start, and left the others behind really quick, but on lap three he had to retire from the race as the bike went broken - they do that sometimes when you drive with old parts :-) But it was ok anyway and Fredrik was happy so that is good.

We have had a really nice and fun weekend, it is so much fun to meet everybody after the wintertime and as we not drive so much in Sweden it can take some time in between. A huge Thank you to everybody for this weekend and a special Thank you to our mechanic Magnus who has worked so hard these days.

Now the next race for us seems to be Moto GP at Assen, Fredrik has got a wild card, and we will do this together with the Jaap Kingma Racing Team and Freddie will ride on their Aprilia for the first time. After that we are probably going back to USA for the race at Laguna Seca, but more information about Assen and Laguna are coming a little further ahead.

Thank you for this weekend and have a great week! / Watz Racing

2008.05.28

Swedish Championship at our home track Sviestad. As and we not are in USA at the moment we thought it would be perfect to take part in some races here at home - and race is the best training as you all know :-)

So this weekend we will try to start up our old bus and headed to our home track, which is a trip at around 800 metres or something like that. Two races in the Swedish Championship is the schedule for this weekend, races on both Saturday and Sunday. And Freddie will take part in both the 250cc and the 600cc races so there will be a lot of laps for him.

The weather forecast looks really nice, very warm and sunny all weekend, and of course it´s always fun to take part in these races here at home, so we are looking forward to a great weekend. As always there will be an update in the beginning of next week.

Have a great time / Watz Racing

2008.05.12

Now we finally have a new Photosection for you to see - not everything is ready yet but it´s a start anyway. Please take a look and if you see something that look´s strange please let us know / Watz Racing

2008.05.06

If you log on to the website www.racing-underground.com you can watch the races from Barber and Fontana. Also if you have the channel MotorsTV you can see the races there at Wednesday, Thursday and Monday, go to www.motorstv.com for the times.

2008.04.28

Well, what to say about the race at Auto Club Speedway, Fontant. A very frustrated race for Fredrik as the rear shock didn´t work, but as he said - just to break down and get up again. Even it has been som problems during these 2 first races for us this year it has been really good and fun anyway. We have to look at this as perfect training weeks, and to the next race in The States we will come more prepared. This time everything was new for us so a good period of learning. But of course Freddie is a bit disappontied as he know he can do so much better, but that has to show next time instead. Now he is at 18th place in the total standings with 32 points, but that will change during the year we hope. We are not going to take part in the next race that´s for sure, but hopefully we´ll come back quite soon again.

Now it´s time to have some days off before going back to Sweden again, and I think it will be a visit to Las Vegas in the beginning of the week. And then on wednesday or thursday San Diego is the target, and that city will be seen from the air as our good friend Berra offered a trip in his plane - sure will be a great experience and something to look forward to. The flight back home leaves on Friday and then we´ll see when we get back.

A huge Thank you to everybody who has followed us during these races in The States, and as always there are some special people who deserves a special Thank´s - Our father of course (without him nothing of this is possible), Rob for all help and ideas before, during and after these weeks, Mulan - without him we don´t know how this would have gone, he has helped us and fixed things all weeks even that he is on vaccation, Gary and the rest of that gang for all help and nice times, Ohlins USA with Mike Fitzgerald for all help trying to make the bike better, Petta at Kawasaki for all help during these weeks also, Hotte with family for a place to stay in California and very nice times, Patrick for a place to stay for our car now when we go gome again, Tomas at So Cal Shippning for all help (he worked for Boyd Coddington at American Hotrods before) with everything, Stephan at Scandia Pacifics for all help with insurances and stuff like that on the car, Per-Ola and Johan should also have a special Thank´s and of course Berra who takes photos, help´s out when needed and fixing an airplane to go up in. We have surely forgot some of you, but you all know who you are and you are special to us - without all of yoy this would not have been possible.

We get back when we are in Sweden again and we know what the next race for us will be. / THANK YOU, Fredrik and Linda

2008.04.27 Part III

Very short report from the race, there will be a longer report tomorrow. Freddie was 15th again and 16 new points, and this with a rear shock that is still broken. They have not been able to locate the problem after 2.5 hours of working, so now he will bring it back home and then we´ll see if we can find the problem here at home.

Get back to you tomorrow / Watz Racing

2008.04.27 Part II

The morning session was almost like all the sessions before. The rear shock is not working at all, Freddie tried to set the compression to 0 - and he felt no difference at all so the shock is broken. Now right before race Ohlins will try and fix it (at least temporary), but that is not the best preparation before a race. A new shock that has never been tried before, but still - can it give Freddie some more feeling it´s good. A little sad it has been so much problem with this all weekend, but that´s the way it is, so it´s just to make the best out of it. We of course hope that the race will be the best laps this weekend, and Freddie will of course do the best he can and not give up. Some hours and then the race starts, wé get back with a short report after that.

2008.04.27 Part I

Now the qualification is finished, and that din´t went so well for Freddie, he can not improve his laptimes, so he starts from 19th place on the grid when the race take part later today. He´s driving better and better for every lap, but stand still in the lap times, and now he is a bit frustrated. It is the rear shock that makes all this problems, and he thought maybe it is broken again. And that is nothing he can fix on the track so when the race is over he can bring that one home so we can go up to Ohlins and test it there to see what´s wrong with it. But now he has to find a temporary solution for the warm up and the race. The warm up session starts in about an hour, and the race starts 00.20 swedish time tonight, so it´s a bit stressfull right now.

Maybe we get back after the warm up otherwise there will be an update after the race / Watz Racing

As You can see on the pictures below he has this problem in almost every turn of the track, so there is little to struggle with. But we do our best and see how it goes. The pictures are taken by Jared Pack during the training yesterday.

2008.04.26 Part II

THE SUPERSPORT QUALIFICATION IS CANCELLED -  Due to the very windy conditions at Auto Club Speedway in California the qualification that should have started around now is cancelled. The wind makes all things, like the temporary curbs and stuff like that fly into the circuit, and that is not so good to have a lot of stuff you can crash into laying out on the track. So for now the have stopped all racing on the circuit, they will try to run the first Superbike race and also the Formula Extreme race later today, but Freddie and the guy´s have to do their qualification early tomorrow morning instead. Group A will start at 08.00 (17.00 swedsih time) and Group B where Freddie is starts at 08.30 (17.30 swedish time). So we get back tomorrow when the qualification is over / Watz Racing - Like´s to be in the refreshing California

2008.04.26 Part I

Some parts of the morning practice was blown away! Our thought was that if the bike worked quite ok, Freddie should just be driving and driving, to get some more miles on the bike, and he did, but the setup of the bike is not so good yet, it still sliding a lot, but it´s only to work some more on that problem. He says he is a little bit frusterated, he thinks he drive better and better but still he is at the same place considering lap times. But the solution to that is probably to get as much training as possible, the other guy´s has been driving so much more this year, so he is a little behind - but it´s just to keep smiling and try over and over again. But that is not so easy when a storm passed by during the session, the wind was so strong that it came things flying into the track, and the temporary curbs that show how the track goes was moving, so suddenly there was a new design to the track. So the session was stopped for about 50 minutes, and 50 minutes in the pit without tire warmers make the tires quite cold, so the last 10 minutes of the training Freddie did not improve his lap time at all. But now its the qualification that´s the next one, and hopefully that will go a little better.

Get back after the session / Watz Racing

2008.04.25

The practice is just over, and we do not think Freddie will be able to qualify in Group A this time. The bike was ok and he is faster than last friday at Barber, but the whole hour has been spent by finding the right setup - this work should have been done at the practice yesterday but as the rear shock was broken it was not possible to do so. And the setup on the fork and shock is very important on this track as it is a "stop and go" track. Freddie is closer to the top now then he was last friday, and this on a rear tire that is completely done, so he drives faster on that tire than with a new one that he had at Barber. So he thinks he can improve his lap time tomorrow morning with at least 1 second, and some more at the qualification. The only thing we can not do anything about at the moment is that he is losing very much compared to the factory bikes on the straight - but that´s the way it is so nothing to do much about.

Get back during Saturday sometimes, and so far so good and tomorrow it will go even better / Watz Racing

2008.04.25

Now the trainings has started at California Speedway, and the track is in quite bad condition, but it´s the same for everybody. It´s a acceleration track, so maybe we will see some difference between our bike and the factory bikes, but if he brakes late and use the full throttle maybe it will work :-) Yesterday he spent the half day trying to locate the problem why the bike is sliding and dont behave as he wants to, and finally he found it. The rear shock was broken and it has been even at Barber. It was not a easy job finding the broken part as Freddie has been over the shock many times last weekend. But now it´s fixed and hopefully it will go much better now. He got half an hour in the afternoon with some good practice, he drove 1.30 lap times, and last year the fastest laptime was 1.27.7 so he is not so far behind. This Thursday practice was much better if you see to the lap times then last Thursday at Barber so this will go well we hope. Today, friday, there is just one session, and this one is very important when it decide in which qualification group you will take part - and of course it´s Group A that is the goal for Freddie.

Get back after the session tonight. If you want to follow the Live Timing you can do that at amasuperbike.com (Swedish time 18.40) / Watz Racing

2008.04.23

Now it´s time for California Speedway and the race there. Think the practice starts tomorrow, Thursday, and the schedule for the rest of the weekend Henk-Jan has wrote in our guestbook. The trip from Barber has gone well, and during the way Fredrik has had his first crash as they went off the road to Grand Canyon, and there of course he fell down - well, we should be happy he crash during the free time and not on the track :-)

To this race they are not so many riders as last weekend, I think they are just 26 this time, so it will not be so crowded on the track. Fredrik is one of very few private riders, the rest is factory riders so with some luck and good driving he can be the best private rider this weekend. This track is also new for him like Barber was, and it is in quite bad condition the other´s say so we have to see, but as always is just to do the best he can.

Get back with some small updates after the practice sessions / Watz Racing

2008.04.20 Part II

It didn´t work as we planned - but anyway, 15th place at Fredrik´s first AMA Supersport race ever, so that is ok. Made a really bad start, and then he could not improve his lap times anything because the changes they did this morning on the bike turned out to not be so good when they put a harder tire on the bike. It slided very much and he had to struggle to keep the bike on the track. Right now he is a little disappointed, but anyway he has now been racing together with these guy´s and know what he has to do. But the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park has been very good anyway, and a lot of people has got their eye´s open for Fredrik and are very impressed with him, so that´s good. It has been a good learning weekend, and tonight we put everything in the bus and start the long trip to California. Our good friend Mulan think it will be nice to have some more in the bus, on the trip to Barber it was quite lonely he said. Hopefully the race on California Speedway next weekend will go better - but that we dont know until next sunday.

We get back during the week with a small update. Thank you for this weekend to all of you who has followed us, and a special Thank you to Gary, Doug, Stuart, Stephanie, Rob and Mulan for all help / Watz Racing

2008.04.20 Part I

Now it´s only just a little less than one hour (21.00 Swedish time) until Fredrik´s first start in the AMA Supersport. At the warm up session some hours ago it went ok, nearly the same lap time as yesterday but this time on old tires. He is always a little slow on the first session of the day, but he thinks he can improve the lap times now on the race. As wwe have not found a TV channel here in Europe who broadcast the race you can watch the live timing at amasuperbike.com. The plan now is to make a good start, push his way thru and be very late on the brakes - we´ll see if this works :-) We of course get back right after the race with the results. Keep your fingers crossed now and he will do his best...

2008.04.19 Part II

For the first time this year Freddie has qualified in the AMA - and it went ok. He ended up at 17th place with the lap time 1.29.63, that means 3 seconds behind Ben Bostrom´s time 1.26.53. First time on a bike this year, first time on this bike and first time on this track that he has only seen on video before - that is not bad. But some problems during this session it was, Freddie goes out and nothing happends - the lap times are standing just still and he think´s he rides well and fast, but nothing!! He struggle even more and the bike is sliding and don´t behave as it should be - and Freddie can not figure out what is wrong. Go into the pit and change tire because thats the only thing he can think of that is wrong, out on the track again and the bike behaves exatly the same - the engine is working fine but the bike just does not feel right. Back into the pits and Freddie starts checking every bit on the bike to see if he can figure out the problem - and there it was - the suspension, some misunderstanding between Freddie and Gary, our mechanic, and the suspension was all wrong. Not any hard feelings for Gary, everybody can make mistakes - so thats not a big deal and he is great guy. Well, now when the problem was solved back out on the track again, not so much time left and Fredrik had to work his way up from a lower speed, so 17th place for this session.

Even if the qualification didn´t go as planned he is quite happy anyway. He knows he can improve his lap time by at least one second or even more without a problem, and the bike is working really good at the moment. They will just make some changes to try out on the warm up tomorrow morning to see if they can get the bike even better, then it´s just to make a good start and be hard on the brakes on the race and then hopefully it should be good. We all are happy and quite satisfied with this day anyway and tomorrow will be even better.

Get back to you all after the morning session tomorrow / Watz Racing

2008.04.19 Part I

Now the first training session for the day is over. And it has been raining all night so some spots on the track was still a little wet. Maybe it hasn´t done anything but it gets to your head Freddie says, and because of that you dont get full gas at everytime. He did ride almost the same lap times as yesterday so it was quite ok. On lap three the quickshifter didn´t work anymore so that messed it up a bit, but that is fixed now, and also he went out on the same tires he has been using all practice yesterday, so we think it´s a good performance this session. He is also, just like yesterday, the second private rider among the 19 first, the other 17 guy´s is factory riders so that is not so bad.

Now it´s some more mechanic work on the bike and also change tyres and some other small things before the qualification. That one starts at 21.00 our time, if you want to follow the Live Timing you can do that at www.amasuperbike.com. We´ll get back after the session later tonight / Watz Racing

2008.04.18 Part II

Small update from the first official practice at Barber today. It went quite ok for Fredrik, he improved his lap time from yesterday with more then 2 seconds and ended up at 19:th place on the result list which has 49 riders in total. 1.30.10 was his lap time and the fastest rider, Steve Rapp, was driving 1.27.53 so Freddie is just 2.5 sec behind at the moment. And that we see as a good performance, everything is new for him on both the bike and the circuit.

This was the only session for today, so tomorrow it starts with first a practice session and then the qualification, and Freddie will be in Group A - and that was the goal for today as the fast riders are in Group A, so a very good day at Barber Motorsports Park for Shuker / Watz Racing Team. Now it´s some mechanical work on the bike and try to reload for tomorrow. Get back during saturday sometimes / Watz Racing

2008.04.18 Part I

Small report from yesterday. The trip to Barber went well, and arrival to the track meant big weather change from what it has been in Detroit. Now it is around 20-25 degrees Celsius, so much better. The circuit is really cool and seems fun to ride. Today (Thursday) the training starts and Freddie missed the first session because the bike was not quite ready, but at the second and third he was out. First time on a brand new bike and first time on the track, but it went quite ok under these conditions and he improved his lap time with around 7 seconds just on the first testing. The bike worked, but as it is a new bike and not has been driven before the engine is not working correct yet, but that will change in a couple of more laps. Freddie´s lap time ended up at 1.35. something, and he thinks he has to drive like 1.26 to be in the top - so there is some seconds to catch up!

At the next session for the day the bike and Freddie worked much better and he improved his lap times even more now when he is starting to learn the bike and the circuit a little more. 1.32.5 was the lap time for this session, and the fastest riders was driving 1.29.high times so there is still some seconds to be in the front, but it goes better and better for every lap he is out. It of course takes some time to adjust to the bike and learn the track, but for every meter it will hopefully go better and faster so it´s just to wait and see.

After these sessions they went to the Dynojet with the bike to see if they could find some more horses, and then he thought he maybe could take part in one or two more sessions before the day was over. We didn´t hear anything more from him so update on this is coming later. Rob has now arrived, so now it´s just Mulan who is missing but he´s probably coming soon. / Watz Racing

2008.04.13

Sorry Henk-Jan for the none existing updates in this english section, we have been quite slow with that. But now we will try to keep this site updated also. In the guestbook our good friend Torkel has wrote that he would like to have a report about what happends on the trip to Barber and if the bike is fast - but we do not have the future sight on, so he just have to wait until we start the trip to Barber, and that will be on Tuesday. And if the bike is fast we also dont know yet because the first test is on Thursday. Also our friend Mulan is on vaccation in California, so he has helped us with some things over there, one thing is that he has found a car that we have bought so on Monday he will start the trip from California to Barber (right across the country) to help out on the track, and then we pack bike and everything into the car and go back the same way to California. So Mulan will see a lot of highway these days :-)

Otherwise the flight was on time, and landed in Detroit as it should be. First it would have been Florida that was the first stop, where we should have been building the bike together, but that was changed in the last minute to Detroit instead. And that made a big difference in the weather conditions - its quite cold here but hopefully that changes when we come to Barber next week. Now we spent these days building the bike together and waiting for parts to arrive. To help we have Stuart Carter, he has the place where the bike is, and also Gary who is the mechaninc so everything works out fine.

We get back after the first test at Barber, so it will be Thursday, Friday sometimes / Take care for now / Watz Racing

2008.04.01

Now the season 2008 finally starts for us. It should have started around Easter at Assen, but due to the bad weather conditions that race was cancelled. To drive road racing on a snowy track is maybe interesting but not so funny so it was good the event was cancelled.

But now it´s time - and the first race for us will be the weekend 18-20th of April at Barber Motorsports Park in the USA. The weekend after that race it´s time for next, and then we have to cross the country to the other side because that race goes on California Speedway, so that´s a nice little road trip at 3000 km one way. What we will be driving over there is AMA Supersport 600cc. We have bought a Yamaha R6 which this moment is just standing in Florida and waiting for us, so the idea is to go over there some days before the race to get everything together for the bike, transportation, parts and so on.

The team we are going to ride for is called Shuker / Watz Racing Team, and that means that is our good friend Rob from England, and us who is trying to help each other out - so you see, there are some things to take care of to build the team - but it´s a fun job! Starting number 440 is Fredrik´s number so keep an eye up for that. And if you have the TV-channel Motors you can watch the races there.

If everything goes as we have planned we are leaving Sweden around 11-12th of April, and when we get back home we don´t know - if it goes well maybe we stay there :-) A small update here on the site before we leave and then we will try to keep you all informed about what´s happening during these weeks. This should hopefully be a nice trip, and to spend some days in both Florida and California is nothing to complain about. Freddie will as always do his best and we´ll see how far that gets us. We also saw on the entry list that our crazy friend from Hungary, Gabor Rizmayer, also riding AMA this year, and Chaz Davies is still there also, so that will be very nice to meet them again, it was a long time ago.

Now we are looking forward to this event, and we´ll keep you updated. / Watz Racing

2008.01.28

Hi there. Well, now it´s a new year again and we hope we´ll soon be able to put out some news here. At this moment we have no idea what we are going to do this season, but keep an eye on this site now and then, it will hopefully soon be updated.

Take care for now / Watz Racing

2007.12.18

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR! Well, now it´s that time of year again. We hope you all will have some nice days and we´ll be back in January with hopefully a new website (we are working on that now, but it always takes so much longer then you think) and also maybe we can give you some information about what we are going to do in 2008.

So, Thank you to everybody for 2007, and we´ll see you in 2008.

With kind regards from us / Watz Racing

2007.09.25

Now the weekend in Holland is over for this time and we are back home again. We arrived to the circuit Friday morning and as the gate to the paddock was closed until 16.00 we slept for some hours. Around lunchtime it started to be a lot of vehicles at the parking area around the Welcome Centre and we saw some well knomn faces. Just before 16.00 our Team owner Mr Willy Pomper arrived and after the entry papers was ready and the key to the pit box was collected it was just to start unloading the bus. Friday evening we spent most by seeing all friends again, and a lot of hours go by just to have some nice chats with everybody. We did go to bed quite early as we have had many hours on the road the night before. And Patrik he went to bed even more earlier then us, maybe it was the last whiskey that made him so sleepy :-)

Saturday and it started with the first qualification at around 11.00 hours. Now it was some time since Fredrik last was riding on this bike. Last race he was driving on our own Yamaha so he thought maybe he could need some laps to adjust to the bike again. The team had since last time worked really hard on the bike to get some more power and speed to it, and the front fork had been to Rooske (Ohlins service) for some rebuilding and adjustments that Freddie had asked for.

The session was 25 minutes long, and Freddie took it quite easy for some laps just to find the right adjustment to the bike. He thought it felt quite ok, but he was still not all happy about the suspension. But he thought the bike was better then last time he was riding it, so that was good. When the session was over he was at 5th place on the list with the lap time 1.49.53, and hopefully he would be able to improve that time at the next session in the afternoon. Our friend Patrik, who we were sharing bus with this weekend, also was out at this session on his green Yamaha. He lives after the device not so much gas, and brake early :-) so he ended up at 18th place on the list. Now the thing is that patrik is just riding the 250cc because he think it is so much fun, and he don´t care if he is last or first, he enjoy it very much anyway and having a good time.

To the last qualification of the day, Freddie had changed some more at the front fork and the team had gone thru the bike, so now we all hoped it would go a little better. And that it did - the fastest lap time for Fredrik was 1.47.82, so it felt a little better he said. Still he didn´t think the suspension was 100%, but some more work on that and it would probably be a little better. Freddie´s back and wrist felt quite ok, so that was a positive thing. To the race on Sunday Fredrik would be starting from 6th place on the grid, and Patrik took his bike to the last spot. Hans Smees took pole position on his fast Aprilia. After the qualifications was over we went to the restaurant for some dinner, and then it was time to make some work on the bike. Fredrik would like to change some in the gearbox and also it was the front fork again, so the team was quite busy for the evening. Patrik didn´t make so much work on his bike so I assume he thought the bike worked perfect.

Sunday and race day. The warm up didn´t started until around 12.00, so we had a sleeping morning. And before it was time to go out on the track, Jan the team mechanic, thought it would be a fun thing to switch transponders between Freddie and Patrik, so he did. It was only Jan, Fredrik and me who knew about this, so when we are standing besides the track and the riders come on their first lap Willy come running out from the pit box screaming - What have happen, Fredrik is last and PATRIK is third - what the f... is going on? It was very funny to watch his face just before Jan told him what he had done, and then we all got a good laugh. When patrik then came back to the box after the session was over, everybody clapped their hands and said Well done Patrik - and he didn´t know what we all was talking about. You got third fastest lap time we said, and he didn´t know what to think. He was a little confused but he thought it had gone quite well out on the track, and he had been braking later, but he hard a hard time belive that he could have cut off 20 seconds just to brake a little later. He the after a while went to pick up the list from the warm up session, and then when he saw were Fredrik was in the list he understood - but he thought it was very funny and it was a good joke.

A lot of people during the race day, as it always are in Assen - very nice! Freddie started from 6th place on the grid and made a quite good start and was third in the first corner. Then he dropped down to fourth place during the first lap, stayed in that place for some laps but the his wrist started to make trouble for him. After five laps it did not worked at all and he could not feel the braking, due to this he was off the track three times during the race and could not hold the fourth place, instead he ended the race at 7th place. Not really what we had wanted, but he could not do anything more when the wrist not worked. Shit when the body doesn´t work as it supposed to, but there was nothing to do for Freddie at this point. Of course he was disappointed after the race, but these things happen. Now we really have got to do something about this wrist, it has been over a year now and we can not have it like this anymore.

Patrik retired from the race after around 5 or 6 laps, he didn´t wanted to take any points from the other riders he said :-) but the truth is that he was completely tired, but he was as happy as always anyway. Hans Smees from The Netherlands won the race with about 15 seconds to the next rider - Congratulations to him and his team. Next year Hans will not race anymore, and we are going to miss him in the paddock and on the track - he and all of his team is very nice guy´s all of them and Hans is a very good friend. But I´m sure we´ll meet somwhere sometimes again.

After everything was packed into the bus and the pit box was clean we all went to take a drink together with the team and to say Thank you and Goodbye for this time. We arrived here at home yesterday, Monday, and now we are back to work again.

We have had a very nice and fun weekend, even the race didn´t turned out as we wanted. It´s always nice to come to Assen, and the races there are always so well organized and we feel welcome when we come there. A special Thank´s for this weekend especially Willy and Jan together with the rest of the Team, it was very nice to meet you all and hope you also had a good time. Also a huge Thank you to our good friend Henk-Jan for all he has done during this weekend, you are a great friend to us. Also of course Patrik is included in the Special Thank you list - as we could go with him to this race. We are so Thankful to you all that follows us, and without you all it would not be so much fun - so Thank you very much!

Now we´ll see what the next thing for us will be, but the season is not over yet so hopefully we can do some more races before winter time. We keep in touch!

Have a great week / Watz Racing

2007.09.19

This Thursday, if everything goes as we planned, we are slowly leaving Sweden and heads to The Netherlands. And this by going slowly is very much near the truth as we this time will go together with our good friend Patrik Fredriksson in his bus. And economic as he is the speed limit on this trip will be maximum 85 km/hour, as it over that speed makes a big hole in the money pocket as the fuel stops will be more than calculated - so 85 km/hour is what it is said, and then it will be so :-) But anyway we surely will be at Assen sometimes, if nothing happens along the way, and we are planning to be there sometime on Friday.

It is the Dutch Championship, also called Race of Champions, that will take place there this weekend, and Fredrik will again ride om Mr Willy Pomper´s Honda RS 250cc. Last time he was riding this bike he ended up at 5th place in the race, and hopefully it will go even better this time. The only thing we hope for at this moment is that Freddie´s back and wrist will work quite ok, but that we don´t know anything about before he has been riding some laps on the bike, but of course we hope that he will be able to ride good, and of course he will as always do his best. We are now looking forward coming to Assen again and meet all friends and have a nice weekend at the circuit. And the races at Assen are always so well organized and we are feeling welcome to come there, so that place is a favourite for us.

If you are near Assen this weekend please come and visit us. Otherwise this place will be updated with an report after we are back home again, and I am sure our dear friend Henk-Jan will write some small reports in the guestbook during the weekend.

Hasta la vista / Watz Racing

2007.09.11

Nordic & Swedish Championship.... We arrived to the circuit in Karlskoga Friday afternoon and parked beside Patrik and Raffe as usual. As we arrived so late the trainings was finished, but Freddie thiught he didn´t need to practice on Friday as it was not so long time since we was here.

Saturday and first qualification session, ok weather conditions and Freddie was the fastest rider from start to end. We still have some problem with the front fork, but it was quite ok and he could ride ok lap times, and when the session was over Fredrik had pole position with 1.8 seconds to Robert Dobrich on second place. Some hours before the last qualification of the day it started to rain, and it was a lot of rain and very much wind, so Freddie decided not to go out, instead we took a coffee in the tent. And as it was so wet on the track there was no other rider who improved the lap times so Fredrik was still in top of the list when the session was over. We spent the evening by making some adjustments on the bike and had a good barbeque with some friends. It is now starting to feel like autumn, very cold and not so good weather anymore, but we took our heather from the garage back home with us so in the tent it was nice and warm.

On Sunday morning we woke up and the sun was shining, so that was a good sign. Warm up in the morning was not a problem, Freddie was again fastest rider and he thought the bike worked ok. During the day a lot of family and friends arrived, it´s always fun when people come and visit us at the races. First we looked at the 125cc race, that is almost every time a fun race to watch, and it was this time to. The Swedish rider Robert Gull won the race, just before our favourite Sturla from Norway. And with this win Gull became the Swedish Champion with one race to go. Both of these guys ride in the Red Bull Moto GP Rookie Cup so they are fast and ride very similar so it is always thight racing between them.

Around three o´clock it was time for our race, and Freddie parked at the first spot at the grid. Made an ok start and was first in first corner, started to make some gap to the others, and on lap 10 he had a gap of 13 seconds to Robert Dobrich on second place. On lap 13 he had a gap of 16 seconds, but then he crashed on that lap and the race was over for us. We are not really sure what caused the crash, but probably an o-ring that went broken or something like that because he crashed when he got water on the rear wheel. We have not looked it up yet, but I think we will do that today - it´s important to know why it happen of course. The bike was quite ok after the crash, not so much broken, but Fredrik got some smashes on his back so he has little pain at the moment. But he was to the hospital and did an x-ray and they could not find anything that was broken, so that is good news. This is racing, sometimes you win and sometimes you loose and sometimes you crash, but the important thing is that Freddie is ok, that´s all that matters in every race.

Today, tuesday, we should have been taking part in a Clubrace here at our home track, but I don´t know if Fredrik is ok for that, he has quite much pain in his back. I think maybe it´s better to rest some days before he get on a bike again. But anyway we will be out there today because our uncle will take part in that race on our Aprilia, so we will of course support him. If Freddie gets up in the saddle we´ll see!

Otherwise we hope that his back will be ok to the weekend September 23rd when we hopefully will go to Assen and ride for Mr Willy Pomper on his Honda 250cc. We´ll see how Fredrik feels in these near days and of course we update this site when we know how to do.

Well, the weekend didn´t turned out as planned, but before the crash we had a lot of fun and now we are looking forward to the next race. So, Thank you all for this weekend and we let you know what happens in the near future. Also this weekend to come you will be able to read some small updates from Sturla as he is in Estoril for the Red Bull Moto GP Rookie race. Their site www.sturla-racing.com is down at the moment and it will not be fixed before this weekend so they will be using our, so otherwise they update in the guestbook or under the News section, so check it out this weekend. And we say Good Luck to Sturla of course.

Have a great time / Watz Racing

2007.08.24

Hi there... Now it was some time ago again since we last wrote something here. That depends most on that it has not been so much racing, we have just been working with all normal stuff. But now we are back on track again, and the weekend september 8-9 we are going back up to Karlskoga again, and this time it is the Nordic and Swedish Championship that takes place at that circuit. Fredrik is still leading the Swedish Championship, even that we did not took part in the last round at Knutstorp, so we thought it could be a good idea to go to Karlskoga, and as always it is good to ride any bike at any circut just to get some laps.

After that race we hope to go to The Netherlands and the Dutch Championship at Assen, this will be at the weekend september 22-23. At the same time the Final of the Swedish Championship will take place at a circut called Falkenberg, and if we are going to win the Championship maybe we should be there, but that we know after the weekend in Karlskoga. But if you have to chose between Assen and Falkenberg, that is not much to think about, of course Assen, and we have already won the Swedish Championship several times so hopefully it will be Assen instead.

What else then, well... the tuesday after Karlskoga there is a Club race here at our hometrack Sviestad between 16.00-20.00 in the evening. And we are gonna take part in that race I think just for fun and to get some laps on both the 250cc and on the Aprilia, and also maybe on a 600cc bike - so that could be a nice evening.

This was a small update at the moment, after Karlskoga we update with an report of course.

Take care and have a nice time / Watz Racing

2007.07.30

Now the European Championship  at Karlskoga is over for this year. We arrived to the circuit Wednesday evening because on Thursday we were helping our uncle Eje who was taking part in a race for the first in 23 years. The race was called Bott (Battle of the twins) and he was riding on Fredrik´s Aprilia. The whole day was nice and Eje improved his lap times every session, so now maybe we will see him out on a racetrack again sometimes as he thought it was good fun all day.

Thursday evening we spent by fixing our 250cc bike, but most of the time we spent meeting all our good friends from around Europe. So nice to meet them all again, it was a long time ago since this is the first European we take part in this year, so you notice that you miss them all when it takes so long time between. Friday it was two practice sessions, but Fredrik didn´t go out on the first one because it rained so much, but on the second one he was out. We have some big problems with the front fork which doesn´t work at all as Freddie wants, and we have had this problem since last year. Fredrik has rebuilded it so many times and changed all parts inside but it doesn´t get as he wants anyway. But the practice went ok anyway and he was the fastest rider in this session. At the evening the Fransson Family, Fredriksson and all the others arrived so it was a lot of people in the tent.

Saturday and qualification time. It looked like maybe it would be rain but we had some good luck and it stayed away, but the wind was very strong all day so you had to hold on to everything otherwise it would have been disappered. First qualification and Freddie came two laps before he got a highsider that slammed him to the ground, but nothing big happened, so just into the pit area and fixed some small things and then back out on the circuit again. When the session was over Fredrik was in pole with lap time 1.07.8. To the second qualification we have made a lot of changes on the bike and a completely new setup, and a lot of changes on the front fork as it still didn´t worked as Fredrik would like it to. It is very frustrated when you can not find out what the problem is, Freddie had talked a lot to Ohlins who gives us great support, and they can not find the problem either. But at this moment it is just to make the best out of it and try the best you can. Many laps for Fredrik on the second session and Freddie were at the top of the list almost all session, but at the end our good friend Molina was out and made a better lap time. So to Sundays race Fredrik had 2:nd place on the grid, and that was ok for us as this was the first European race for us this year. In the evening Fredrik again built a new front fork, and now we don´t know how many times we have done this. At night there was some heavy rain, but at Sunday morning it has stopped and the circuit was dry again.

on the morning session Fredrik was out again with a completely rebuild bike for the second time this weekend and it worked ok, but still not perfect. But Freddie thought it was ok to ride on, and maybe it is him who has to find the right feeling again due to the fact that it has not been so much riding on this bike this year.

To the race Freddie had again made some small changes on the front fork so at the sighting lap he had to push quite hard and brake very hard just to see how the bike behaved... and it was not so good so at the grid there had to be some adjustments again. Started from the second place at the grid, made a quite good start and was third in the first corner. Then he thought he should take it a little easy and just wait and see what the others didm so when three laps were finished it was Molina, Toby Markham from UK, Joshua Sommer from Germany and Fredrik in the leading group with a gap back to the rest. Unfortunately maybe Joshua was a little to aggressive at the beginning so when he thought he should overtake Molina for the first place he crashed and took Molina with him, so then it was just Fredrik and Toby left in the front group. And Fredrik stayed behind Toby because he knew he could overtake him later in the race, but maybe Toby got a bit stressed having Fredrik behind him so when a little more then half the race was over Toby lost his front and crashed, and then it was just Freddie left in the front group, and now it was not a group anymore :-) He was leading by 6 to 8 seconds to the rider in second place, and on the last lap he slowed down a bit and he won the race with around 5 seconds to the Italian Marco Petrini and on third place our good friend Hans Smees from The Netherlands. Very nice to win the race of course, but it was sad that all the other crashed out, it was so close between them in the beginning of the race so it could have been a fun ending. But this is racing and of course we are very happy for this victory, and of course it´s always nice to win at home.

A huge Thank you to you all who has been with us this weekend and helped us, and to all who has come and visited us during all days in Karlskoga, it´s so nice to see you. We have had a very nice weekend, even if we had some trouble with the front fork, and it has been so nice to meet all our good friends from Europe again.

Now we don´t know what the next race for us will bem but we´ll let you know when we know of course. We are talking about maybe going to the final European race at Cartagena in Spain in octiber, but it is the money it depends on, but it would be fun and hopefully we can come to a solution so we can go.

Thank you so much for this weekend to you all, and a special Thank you to Henk-Jan who has updated our guestbook during this weekend.

Have a nice time and take care / Watz Racing

2007.07.24

This weekend to come it´s time for the European Championship to land in Sweden again, and as 2006 it´s the circuit called Gellerasen in Karlskoga that is the host of the event. Last year was not so good for Fredrik as he crashed in the training session before the race and broke his wrist quite bad. And it took almost six months before the wrist worked ok again. But this time we hope that we do not have to sit at the spectators place during the race, instead we hope that everything goes as planned.

We will be on the circuit from wednesday, so if you are in Sweden this weekend please come and visit us. And if you are not here we will as always write a small report here after the weekend. So now we are looking forward to the race, meeting all friends again and hopefully some nice weather - we have had really bad weather here in Sweden all summer so now it´s time for the sun to come again.

Have a nice time and take care / Watz Racing

2007.07.15 II

Now the race is finished after a long delay before they could start. Freddie ended up in 5:th place when he crossed the finish line. And that must be seen as a good performance with a new bike that was not so fast, and not so much time on the track to test things out. But he is happy anyway, he did the best he could and he have had a lot of fun. I am sure Henk-Jan will write a report in the guestbook later this evening, and here we´ll make an longer update during monday.

Thank you so much to Willy Pomper and the team for this weekend. Take care for now / Watz Racing

2007.07.15 I

The report from yesterday you can find in our guestbook. Our good friend Henk-Jan has made an perfect update so it is not necessary to write one more here. We will be back with an race report after the finish of the race today / Watz Racing

2007.07.14

Now is the first and only practice at Assen over..... And well, there is a lot to do. The bike Fredrik is riding on is a Honda RS250 that belongs to Mr Willy Pomper and his team. And the bike is not 100% but Fredrik is a good rider and mechanic so hopefully it will go ok. Last time we were at Assen Fredrik was riding 1.44-times, but today he didn´t came any lower than 1.51-times. He says it is a lot to do on the bike, but what he will concentrate on for the qualification is the suspension because that was completely wrong for him. The bike doesn´t go so fast, he was passed by a 125cc bike on the training (125cc and 250cc rides together at the circuit all weekend) so the speed is maybe not the highest :-)

But Fredrik think´s it is fun to be back at Assen for racing, so the bike is not so big problem. Maybe they don´t have time to go thru the whole bike this weekend but Fredrik will of course do his best with what he got. Now it´s time for qualification soon, hopefully we can update after that...

2007.07.08

Well, what have happend and what will come in the near future. It was a long time since we wrote something here so now it is time for an update. What have happend is not that much maybe but Fredrik has been riding some races since last update. First race was in the end of June and that was a race called Bott (means Battle of the twins) at our hometrack Sviestad. They had the same timetable as on the Swedish Championship so it was one race on Saturday and one on Sunday. Freddie drived on his Aprilia that he has just for fun, and in the first race he ended up at 2:nd place, and the race on Sunday he won. He thought it was a nice and funny weekend, and that was why he was taking part, just to have some fun and it´s always good to ride as much as possible.

The next race was last friday, and that was a race called Erf (means Endurance Racing for Fun) and it was a 6-hour race with three riders in the team. They had our friend Filips new bought diesel bike to ride on and they had a really fun friday. I think they ended up at 10:th place when the race was over, Fredrik was so much faster than the other two riders so when it was his time to take over the bike he had to struggle a bit to take them up in the list because the others dropped back some steps everytime they was driving. But that didn´t do so much, the goal for this day was just to ride some bike and have a great time on and off the circuit, and they had.

What will happend in the near future then. Well, on Thursday this week we are going to The Netherlands and Assen, where the Dutch Championship is held next weekend. Fredrik has been offered a place for this race in a Dutch team and will be riding their Honda 250cc. This is going to be fun, it is always nice to go to Assen and meet all friends there. An update about that weekend will come after we are back home again. After that it is the European Championship at Gellerasen in Karlskoga here in Sweden that is our next stop, so now the weekends are really busy for some time forward.

Have a nice week and enjoy the summer (here in Sweden we have really bad summer weather at the moment) / Watz Racing

2007.05.29

This weekends races on our home track Sviestad is over for this time, Fredrik was completely in his own class. We arrived to the circuit Thursday afternoon after around 1 minute in the bus (we have 700 metres to the circuit). The evening was quite late before we got to bed beacuse we waited for the Fransson family to arrive. But they were a little late beacuse they had to go into the forest in the dark to try and locate the wheel to the caravan. It just went off when they were driving and jumped a long way off the road so they had to spend more that one hour just to find it. But around half past one in the night they slowly arrived into the paddock.

Friday had three practice sessions on the schedule. Very good sessions with a lot of time to change setup on the bike and then out on the track to test it. The new section on the track was much better and not so slippery anymore, and it only got better and better during the day. Freddie thinks that the new section is very nice and fun to ride, and many of the other riders said the same. Fredrik had fastest lap time on all sessions. For Magnus the day was about trying to find his way on the bike and on the track, he has not been riding since 2004. But it went ok and it was very nice to see him back on track again. He himself smiled all the time so I think he was happy. The evening we spent by making some changes on the bike, and Fredrik and our dad went back and forward between the paddock and our workshop to help some other riders that had some trouble, it was all from welding to fixing cylinders.

Saturday and first race day. The morning started with the first qualification, and that was quite easy for Fredrik. He was around 1,5 second faster so no problem there. But he was not satisfied with that as he thought the bike didn´t worked really as it should, but that we waited to fix until the evening. The second and last qualification session ended just like the first, Freddie at the top of the list. Magnus also droved well and improved his lap times. He ended up at the second row at the starting grid. The race didn´t became so exiting as Fredrik left the others quite fast, and after the 17 lap race he crossed the finish line 19 seconds before Robert Dobrich, and on third place Juha Kallio from Finland. Fredrik thought the race was ok but not more, he is only riding against the lap time, and he didn´t go as fast as he would have liked, so he was not quite satisfied. For Magnus the race ended up with a crash in the new section, so he was the first one to crash there, therefore wwe have now named the place Fransson´s Corner. He smashed his hip quite hard so later that evening we gave him a lift to the hospital to check that nothing was broken. The evening we spent by fixing Magnus bike again, and Fredrik was taking apart the front fork on our bike as he thought it felt strange during the day. Magnus gor back from the hospital around 2 o´clock in the night, and there was nothing broken on him but the muscles was a little damaged in the hip and in the back, but it was nothing to worry about.

Sunday and race day no 2 started exactly the same as on Saturday, Fredrik on th etop of the list with around 1,5 second to the next rider. Magnus didn´t go out on the first session, he had abit of a trouble getting out of bed, but on the second session he was out. Didn´t improve his lap times from yesterday but it went ok anyway, he had some pain he said and could not move´on the bike as he would have liked.

The race was an exact copy of the race from Saturday, Freddie won by 19 seconds to Robert Dobrich, and on third also this day Juha Kallio. No new lap record for Fredrik this time, he didn´t find the motivation he said, but maybe next time. He is anyway quite happy as he had been riding the bike very much this weekend, and that is what he wants - ride as much as possible!

A very nice weekend this was and it was fun to meet all the other teams and friends again. Now we don´t know what will happen next as usual, but we will of course let you know when we have decided.

Thanks for this weekend / Watz Racing

2007.04.29

Now the first race in the Swedish Championship is over.... And as always it was Anderstorp who was the host of this event. Freddie didn´t left our workshop until quite late on friday evening, and also he had to be on his own this weekend as the rest of us was not able to come with him, but it worked of course but he don´t like to be alone on races, it is so much to do with everything and when you are alone is it not easy to have time for everything. But hopefully this was the only time this season he had to go by himself. Yesterday, saturday, it was only 2 qualification sessions on the schedule. The most of the other riders had been on the circuit since thursday for practice, but for Freddie it had to be enough with just saturdays sessions. On the first one in the morning he came about 5 laps before the front tire disappered and he had a small crash. Nothing with that, but as the sessions are quite short he didn´t come out again. He ended up at second place on the list. On the last qualification he was out all the time, and he was fastest on the track and took pole position to the race. But anyway he was not quite satisfied with that as he thought he didn´t come down to the lap times were he should be. He still feels that he has to have more time on the bike to get his feeling back. When he was over in the States he was riding a 600cc bike, and that is completely different from the 250cc. And before this weekend he has only been out on the 250cc for one training, but the feeling will of course come back just as he gets more and more laps on the bike.

The race today was no problem at all. In the last laps he had to slow down very much beacuse there was some crashes and due to this of course yellow flags and ambulances on the track, we hope the riders who crashed are ok. Even that he had to do the final laps in slow speed he won the race with 24 seconds to our friend Robert Dobrich who was the second rider over the finish line. He was not all happy after the race, he wanted to go much faster then he did, but he was of course happy to win the race. As we do not have all focus on one specific championship yet, Fredrik goes out on the circuit and just ride against himself and the lap times, and when he not are riding so fast as he think he should he is not quite satisfied. Now we do not really know what the next race for us will be, but maybe Fredrik will ride the next Swedish Championship in the end of may here at our hometrack. But who knows, maybe something else will come up before that so keep an eye on this website as we of course update when we know what will happen.

Thank´s for this weekend and have a nice week to come / Watz Racing

2007.03.16

Freddie has now a little vaccation, and for the moment I think he is down in Key West to check that place out. But on sunday he will be back here at home and start working again. At the excellent site www.onthethrottle.com you can find a quite long interview with Fredrik after his win at Daytona. Click on the Daytona 2007 button and then scroll down and you´ll find it.

Have a nice weekend / Linda

2007.03.09

Fredrik did not start in the race yesterday, he took that decision just 2 hours before the start. He had no feeling in his left arm, that just disappered more and more during the morning. His foot was not a big deal, but when he even not could keep on to the bike with his arm it was not so much to do. Of course is a little bit sad due to the facts that it was this race that everybody had waited for, and Freddie thought it was hard not to drive - but the important thing is that he recovers well and feel ok. And who knows - maybe it will be more opportunitys to go over there to do some racing! He had made a good impression on a lot of people there, they have seen that he is a good and fast rider and that he can adjust to new situations quite quick. So this trip has not been wasted even that he could not take part in the big race, he has got the chance to ride a lot of motorcycle, he has won one race, he has made a lot of good and important contacts so it has been two good weeks anyway. Now he will have a little vaccation for about a week before he come home again, and then he probably has to be working a bit and we also have to decide what we are going to do now when the season in the European part of the world starts soon. A huge Thank you to our good friend Rob that made this happen, and also to the Team that have helped us during these weeks.

Get back with info about what we are going to do next. Thank´s for this time / Linda

2007.03.08 Part III

Now the morning session is finished and Freddie was out on the track for 12-14 laps. It didn´t go so well he thought, his arm is not working as it should and it don´t feels so good. But the good things are that the bike is working perfect. He has not decided yet if he is going to take part in the race, he wanted to talk to our father first and then think about a little, so probably it will take some more hours before he decide what to do. He feels that he will be needing much more training if he would be fighting for the top spots, he says it shows that he has not been riding a bike for almost half a year, but even if he is not going to take part in the race today he still have got a perfect before season start practice. For Chaz this training session was not so good either, hi crashed in the beginning of it but Fredrik didn´t know yet how it is with him.

Get back with info if he will start in the race or not. / Linda

2007.03.08 Part II

I have just spoken to Fredrik now, it´s around eight o´clock in the morning over there and they had just arrived to the circuit. He feels a little tired and the body is quite stiff but he will drive the morning practice and see how it feels. The arm is not in so good condition, he saids it feels like it is broken inside, but he thinks maybe it can go anyway. Get back to you all after the session with how Freddie feels / Linda

2007.03.08 Part I

Yesterdays qualification did not go very well. At first Freddie had to be in the slower group of riders due to the time he had on the practice before when the bike didn´t go so well. When they were with the bike to the Dynojet it turned out that 13 horsepowers was missing, and that is quite a lot so it was not a big surprise that the bike didn´t worked. What have caused this lack of power they didn´t know when I spoke to him before the qualificaton, they were about to start searching for it at that moment.

Then the qualification session... He was riding faster then before, and the bike worked ok but not 100%. When the session almost was over he thought he should try and make some good lap times to climb up in the list some steps, but when he changed gear the back wheel just locked up and the bike throwed him of at 240 km/h at the banking. He was stuck with his foot under the bike and was going like that several metres before he hit the airfence. He was trying to kick the bike off but it was going to fast so he didn´t manage to do that. We have to say a huge Thank you to Alpinestars for their boots, if they haven´t been so damn good Fredrik would now only have one foot, but now he only scratched a bit of it off, and that was nothing to care about he thought. He has now a lot of bruises all over his body, but worst he thought one of his arm was, it had a lot of scratches and became bigger and bigger all the time. The bike it didn´t happend so much with, Freddie saved it when he had his foot under, so the bike is ready for race - the problem is if Fredrik is. He thought the arm could be a problem but we´ll see what he says when it´s morning over there. The foot he thought was no problem only if he could get it into the boots, but the arm was not looking so good - but we´ll hope for the best and he calls when he wake up so we know if there are going to be a race for him today or not. Get back with info later / Linda

2007.03.07 Part II

Have just spoken to Freddie and he was a little bit frustrated. First and only free practice for today have just been finished (you who followed lthe live timing on the AMA Superbike page saw that it didn´t happend anything for around 1/2 an hour, but it was some technical problem beacuse they were out on the track). At some point there was a red flag due to crashes, but they were soon back on the track again. Fredrik thought he drived better then he did on the race last sunday, but something has happend to the bike - there are many horsepower missing and he couldn´t even slipstream riders that were much slower then him, so he was a little upset right now. Now they are going to take the bike to the Dynojet and see if they can locate the problem, and hopefully fix it before the qualification starts. Get back with the result from that session / Linda

2007.03.07 Part I

Today the trainings and qualifications start for the AMA race that goes tomorrow at Daytona Speedway. You can find the results at www.amasuperbike.com and of course we update this site also with results and reports. Hopefully it will go well, Freddie has has a lot of laps on the track now and he find his way round. I wrote in the report from sundays race that Chaz Davies started 12 positions behind Freddie at the grid, but that should have been 12 places in front of him, and when the race was over Chaz was around 10 places before Fredrik, so they drive almost the same, which is a good compare for Fredrik beacuse before the trip to the US Chaz was almost the only one we knew how he was riding.

Otherwise they have spent the last days checking around a bit, but yesterday it was time to head to the track again for picking up tickets, check the bike and go to the scrutineering and a lot of other things - and that took almost the whole day. Most time the paper work took and fixing tickets and so on. If you ever has been to Germany to buy a car, you know how long time it takes to get the temporary numberplate, you have to go to a lot of different places with different papers - and just like that it is in the AMA - different papers to different places, pick up one ticket there and the other ticket at that other place. Fredrik thought it was quite insane and it took over half the day just to fix that, but now it is over and maybe he can start concentrate on the practices now.

Get back with result and report a little later today hopefully / Linda

2007.03.05

Yesterday it was only one race (and no practice for Fredrik) - and the race was only 5 laps short! It started with almost a highsider for Freddie out of the pit area, this beacuse of in US it is not allowed to drill holes in the fairings so the water, for example in rainy conditions, has somewere to go. So when Freddie was on his way out it came out some water that was left in the lower fairing, and it became very slippery, so he almost crashed, but somehow he manage to fix it, with both feets up in the air, so no problem there.

Well, the race then.... They startingprocedure was very strange. It appered like the place on the grid was decided from how fast your entry for the race was confirmed by the organizers, or maybe it was decided by lottery, Fredrik didn´t really know but anyway his place on the grid was 63:rd place, and Chaz Davies was 12 places further back - so you can say both of them had not so good luck in the grid placement. And then the strarting procedure was in two halfs, first they let the first group away then waited some seconds and then the next group - very strange. Made a good start and passed like 6 - 8 riders on every lap, and after 5 laps the race was over, and Fredrik ended up in the list as 20-21 rider. Very strange race he thought, but anyway he got good training of passing people on the track :-)

Now they have some days off before the big AMA event start on wednesday, and soon it will be a lot of people and spectators at Daytona as the Daytona Bikeweek starts. Fredrik´s AMA race goes on Thursday I think it was so now he only has to focus on that. Today I think they will go to Mickey Mouse Land in Orlando to check that out. Maybe update this site with some small news, otherwise we start the reports again when the trainings and qualifications start on wednesday.

Have a nice week!

2007.03.04

A very nice day yesterday at Daytona Speedway. It started with some trainings and qualifications, but it is so hard to get a grip on positions and times and so on, the trainings are just some few laps, and also the qualifications and on top of that they are mixing different classes and bikes and I don´t know what. Freddie and Rob have some problems sorting it out, and then it´s not so easy for Fredrik to explain over the phone when he quite not get it himself. But anyway, first race of the day was some Superbike race. Freddie started from around 15:th place on the grid, was on 12:th place after first corner but then he had to ride on the grass in the fifth corner beacuse he was put out by another rider who crashed, and for Freddie not to crash also he had to take some riding on the green stuff. Back on to the track again and he was dead last of course, but he overtook 12-13 riders on 1 lap and then it started to rain. He was improving on the riders in front of him quickley when it started to be a bit wet on the surface, but then the race was stopped beacuse it was declared as a dry race, and on top of that it was some riders who crashed. No restart of the race again and due to the facts that they took away the last lap Fredrik ended up at 22:th place in the list I think it was.

Yesterdays second race was declared as a wet race. And the race was called ASRA Factory Pro Superbike or Sportbike or something like that (it´s not easy with all these classes :-). And it went really well you can say! Fredrik started as 8 or 10:th rider on the grid, made a good start and was up on first place directly. The Americans can not ride in rain, they are very slow when it´s wet surface so Fredrik just made a bigger gap in every second. There was one rider who was riding quite good, so Freddie waited for him and let him pass (he thought it could be fun to ride with him) but then he missed his breaking point and disappered, so again Fredrik was all alone - so he had nothing to do then to ride his own race. On the last lap he took it very slow, but anyway he won the race with around 4 seconds to the next rider! He is very good in this weather condition, so we knew it would go well! After the race everybody wanted to talk to him, they were all very impressed by his driving, and for this win he got a lot of dollars - very nice with pricemoney - maybe something we should try here at home at our races :-)

On www.roadracingworld.com there should come up an interview with Fredrik in not so long time. They were talking to him just after the race. Otherwise it is warm, quite confusing with all trainings, races and so on, but Fredrik thinks it´s fun and he just take everything as they are.

Today it is one or two more races - I´ll get back with an update on that / Take care, Linda

2007.03.03

After the strange trainings sessions it was time for the first race of the year for Fredrik - and why not start big so you get the feeling for it, 56 laps and racetime around 2 hours. After some trouble in the pit area with a lot of stuff and two stop and go for something they did wrong but they didn´t know, he ended this first race at 8:th place. Not so very good result maybe, but for first race in over 6 months and a lot of problems during the race it was quite ok, and the most important thing is that Fredrik get as many laps as possible. It is not hard to ride a 600cc he says, you just move it around, but he has to find the feeling again, and it will come as more as he drives. Yesterday it was also qualification for the race today but I don´t have any info on that yet so I let you know later. Today I think it´s one race, and tomorrow there is also one race, and then they have some days off before next race that goes on Thursday - so he have a lot of opportunites to ride a bike.

Get back ev during this day or otherwise tomorrw with results and info / Linda

2007.03.02 Part III

Now Freddie has been out for his first tests at the Daytona Speedway. He thought it feelt that he has not been riding any bike for almost six months, but the feeling should come back quite quickley. They have strange practice sessions - the riders go out for 4 - 5 laps, and then the practice is over, back into the pits and wait for half an hour or an hour, and then back out again for a session just like the other one. When there are so short practice time there are no chance to change anything on the bike and then go out and test it, that you have to save for the next session - so even if we think are practice times here in Sweden at our races are short - well, they are much longer then this one today anyway. But soon there are time to drive some more laps on the track - the 56 lap race will start in just a short while, and that race will last for about 2 hours - we´ll see if Freddie can keep the concentration up for so long time.

Get back to you all with the results tomorrow / Linda

2007.03.02 Part II

Now we have spoken to Fredrik och we got maybe not so much, but anyway some information about what´s happening at Daytona International Speedway today. In an hour he must check out from the hotel and make his way over the huge street to the track, were the trainings start at around nine o´clock. And this afternoon / evening there is also something called like 200 miles race, and that means 56 laps on the circuit and Fredrik will take part in that race. So today it is finally time for testing the new bike, new circuit and everything else that comes with it - and the race with 56 laps is perfect training before all the other races he will drive this and next week. Also, Rob and his boys had arrived now, so after the track is closed this night Fredrik and he will go out to see if they can find some hotel or something to stay at.

Update this site tomorrow with a report and results from practice and race / Take care!

2007.03.02 Part I

Yesterday (local time Florida) Fredrik finally meet the team, they had not arrived to the track until two o´clock in the night. This day Fredrik has gone over the bike, and changed some things, for example the suspension to Ohlins and the brake discs to ISR. The team with manager Barry is very nice he thinks, but still Rob (our friend from United Kingdom) is missing. He should have arrived to Daytona March 1:st men no one has seen him yet, and he doesn´t answer his phone, but hopefully he will show up in the near future.

Today the practice starts, and then I think if I got Freddie right when he called around 02.30 this night (local time here in Sweden) that he also had entered one more race and that goes today sometime - I was not quite awake when I spoke to him, so any more info about that I can not give you at the moment. But we will wake him up today, and then we´ll probably get some more info. Otherwise the results of today will come up here this night or tomorrow morning.

2007.03.01

We are having snow and warm clothes here in Sweden, Freddie think it is a little to hot to wear a t-shirt... Well, we are like it here at home :-) When I spoke to Fredrik last night he was waiting for the opening of the track so he could get his tickets and all other things ready. The team had not arrived yet, they had been a little delayed and probably would not arrive until night sometimes, so he had a day off today to visit the beach and stuff... Fredrik calles when he knows the time schedule so we update this site when we know how the trainings are.

2007.02.28

Now Fredrik has arrived to Daytona after some troubles. I just called him and woke him up, he was a little bit tired beacuse the plane had broken down, and they had to switch plane and stuff like that before it could move on to Orlando, so they had been around five hours delayed. But now he is there, and when he wakes up in the morning he should cross the street and go to the track and meet the team that arrives from New York. Today it is no trainings, so we keep you all know a little later what he thinks about Daytona International Speedway.

2007.02.07

2007 - WE START IN THE STATES

Soon the season 2007 starts - and why not start this racing year with crossing the Atlantic Ocean? And that is exactly what we are going to do - Fredrik is going to take part in two races at the legendary track Daytona International Speedway in the USA by the end of this month and the beginning of the next one.

How did this plans come up then, maybe you wonder? Well, during this winter our good friend Rob from The United Kingdom called and he told us that he had bought two Yamaha R6 bike in The States from a team who rides in the AMA (that is the name of their Championship), and he wanted Fredrik to come over and ride these bikes at Daytona. And that was nothing to think about so we said yes of course, so now Freddie´s entry is filled in and posted, so at this time we are busy getting all things together before the flight leaves Sweden in a couple of weeks.

The team he will be riding for is called Team Moto UK Celtic Racing, Moto UK stand for Rob´s team and Celtic Racing is the team he bought the bikes from. Celtic Racing has to this year contracted Chaz Davies as their rider (he was in the Moto GP in as a rider in the 250cc class before), and they will also help and support Freddie during these two races at Daytona. Starting number 378 is what you are going to keep an eye on.

The first race is a national race, and for Fredrik that is perfect as a training race, he needs some time to get the feeling on this new bike and a totally new track to learn so every lap is important. The weekend after, around March 10:th, it is time for the big event called something like Daytona Bike week / Speed week (not quite sure what the name is), and that event is a massive event, a lot of spectators and many riders.

This will be a very interesting and fun experience, but don´t think we have changed to four stroke permanently, we still have our 250cc bike and that one has to be out on the circuits even this year. But we´ll start in USA and see what happens after that.

So, welcome to the season 2007, and as always there will be a report here on the website after we are back home in Sweden again, and maybe if we are lucky and everything works there could be some small updates during the time we are over there - so check in now and then!

Take care for now / Watz Racing

2007.01.21

Now the new year is here, and this year has started quite the same way as the last one ended. We have mostly been working here in the workshop, Fredrik has for example disassembled his KTM motocross after it went completely broken some weeks ago. I think he has been riding on it for about just 4 hours since he bought it, and now all the parts are in boxes, the cylinder is in England and a lot of new parts is ordered. But he will soon has it together again, so he can get out for some training, and that kind of training is perfect, especially for his wrist that is not quite ok yet.

Otherwise it is time for the Motocycle Expo in Stockholm last weekend in January. It opens on thursday I think and the doors are closed on sunday. We will go up there on saturday and check out everything, and on the evening we are going to have a minimoto race with a lot of friends, and after that we all go to Patrik Fredrikssons home for dinner and party - think it could be quite ok and of course a lot of fun.

The plans for what´s going on with the racing is still not completely finished so that has to wait some more days before we come with an update.

Have a nice week / Watz Racing

2006.12.30

Hi there..... Long time ago again since we wrote something, but now it is the end of this year and we can put 2006 to the history books. On the top of our list of good things about this year it has to be the European Championship race at Assen during midsummer - a very nice weekend it turned out to be (you can read about it a little further down this page) -  Freddie was riding very good and we all had a nice and fun weekend. On the top of the list of not so good things during this year it probably must be the European Championship race here in Sweden at Karlskoga - a broken wrist for Freddie and very long healing process - you could have more fun than that! On second spot on that list we also have to put the fact that it didn´t became so many races for us that we had hoped and wanted - but now we turn the page over and see what this new year has for us. The nearest plan for us during January is that we are going to our good friends, the Fransson Family, for a weekend and just gonna have fun and maybe drive some bikes on the ice (if there are some ice on the lakes, we have a very warm winter so far), and the last weekend in January we are going up to the old man Patrik Fredriksson in Stockholm to stay with him for the weekend and visit the Bike Exhibition, have some minimoto race and just have a great time. So January looks like a month with a lot of fun... A good way to start the new year!

About the racing we don´t have so much ready yet, we have a lot of plans and ideas, but nothing is clear at this moment - but of course we will all let you know when we have something ready to present. We will be back when the new year has started. Thanks to all of you who are following us and we wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Take care / Watz Racing

2006.10.15

It seems like it´s going to be one more race for us this season before we close for this year. Last wednesday Freddie was up to the hospital again to take out the last small nails in his wrist, and it don´t look 100 % ok, but he think´s he will be able to drive the bike. The race that we are going to is the final round in the European Championship at Cartagena in Spain this weekend to come. And as we said, we are not sure how the driving will go, it feels when he use the wrist he and it don´t look perfect, but only he can get the gloves on the hopefully it will go ok - it will show on the first training if he can manage to ride the whole weekend.

Why we are going to take part in this race is mostly beacuse this year Fredrik haas not been riding the bike so much, and it´s always fun to go the European and meet all friends, and as we have said before - race is the best training! And of course it´s just nice to leave this cold country and go to Spain for some days...

After the weekend we will of course update with a report as soon as we are back here in Sweden.

Have a nice week and weekend! Hasta la vista / Watz Racing

2006.09.11

Now we are back home from the weekend in Karlskoga, and as usual it didn´t turned out exactly as planned. Due to the fact that Freddie is not ready for riding a bike at the moment was the plan that we should help "The old man" Patrik Fredriksson instead, but on the last session on friday he crashed and broke his arm also, so we had to make some changes in the planning. Instead of Patrik on the bike Hans Gustavsson took over, normally he is helping his son who also drives in the 250cc class, but now he got in the race himself instead, and that he was very happy about. On friday evening the Fransson family arrived and then it was just Freddie who was missing, but he had to be home in our workshop to help another 250cc rider who had some problems with his bike, so he and Alexandra didn´t arrived until saturday.

And on saturday it was Fredrik´s birthday, so we celebrated with cake and some gifts in the afternoon and the rest of the day we spent like we were on holiday, not so much to do when all our riders are broken, so just realxing and having a good time. It still feels a little bit strange to watch the practices and races from the spectators place, but it works. Late saturday afternoon it was time for the first race of the weekend, a so called sprint race in the Sidecar World Championship, and this means that they only make 15 laps at the race and then the big race is on sunday. And this race was entartainment!! In the first corner after the start some sidecars crashed, and after some more laps the World Champions (Reeves) suddenly drove into the pits in high speed, the driver jumped out and left his companion (or what they are called) who didn´t understood anything, run to the flags and got the red flag in his hand, runs out to the track and start waving with the flag and stopped the race. Everybody started to wonder when they saw the rider, still with helmet on, stopp the race... We don´t really know why he did this, but as we heard there was a lot of dirt and oil on the track and this was why he decided to stop the race himself when the race directors didn´t. There was some time before they could start the race over again, and this time without Reeves who had to take care of his speeding ticket instead. The rest of the race went ok without any red flags - if You never has seen a sidecar race You must take the opportunity to do that someday - it´s really cool to watch and as you see, it can be very entertaining also. The evening we spent having a little birthday party for Fredrik - a lot of people and very fun as always.

Sunday and raceday. This day can be a lot of waiting when we don´t have Fredrik riding at the moment. Otherwise there is always something to do and prepare but without a rider there is not so much to do in between the races. The weather was great so the waiting was not so hard, just to sit in the sun and relax - quite ok that also. The first race was the "big" race in the Sidecar World Championship, they had 32 rounds on the circuit and it can be a bit tricky to sort everybody out after some laps beacuse the track is so short. After that race we went back to the tent for some coffee and then back to watch the 125cc race. Our favourite Sturla from Norway crashed after some laps, but as always it´s fun to see the 125cc out on the circuit. Next group out for race was some Rookie class so we went back to the paddock to prepare for the 250cc and see if Hans needed some help before start. And the race then - well, the best start I think Kari Vehniainen did, who was riding Kari Autio´s bike, beacuse he lost his feeling in some fingers during the weekend and on saturday evening he decided he didn´t gonna take part in the race. Vehniainen took over his bike, but not his place on the grid beacuse he only took part in the short morning session so he didn´t had a lap time, so he had to start from the last place on the grid - and from start at the back he was up at fifth place after two or three corners on the first lap - not bad at all, and then he just some hours ago finished third in the Superbike race where he normally competes. He said himself that it was three years since he ride a 250cc in the Finnish Championship, but he still looked like he had the feeling for it. Some way back in the race Hans was having a fight with his son Robin, and he overtook him at some part of the circuit, but then he thought that maybe this was not so good so he slowed down so Robin could pass again, otherwise maybe the way home in the bus could have been a bit silent. No new circuit record on this race, it is still Alvaro Molina who has it after the European Championship some weeks ago, and none of the riders was able or pushed hard to overtake it from Alvaro. Best lap time in the 250cc race was almost 1 second slower then Alvaro´s record so the lap times was not very fast. It´s a bit strange beacuse when Freddie is riding he always looking forward and wants to improve his lap times all the time, and very often he only drive against the watch and nothing else - but I guess that every rider thinks different and of course not everybody is the same, and if you don´t have to pressure yourself maybe it´s hard to do it by yourself. It was the same fo Alvaro at the EC, no other rider could keep up with him when Freddie had a broken arm, so he didn´t ha to push so hard. Fredrik don´t think like that, he always wants to see how fast he can go and during one race at Karlskoga for maybe 2 years ago, he sat a new circuit record for almost every lap in the race - but everybody is different and I am sure most of the riders out there did their best at the moment. The race ended with Vehniainen on fourth place from starting last, won the race Cashback did before Martensson and Dobrich. Hans ended the race just after his son so the trip home was saved...

Now we don´t know if we are going to anymore race this year, but Spain in october could be fun so you should never say never. Freddie will of course not be able to race anymore this year, he still has one or two operations on his wrist to do, but this gives us some more time to prepare for next season. So Thank you all for this weekend and take care / Watz Racing

2006.09.04

Now it was a long time since we wrote something here, so maybe it´s time for a small update. Fredrik is still having a plaster on his arm since the crash at Karlskoga, and as it looks he will be having that for several more weeks. 1 1/2 week ago he were up to the hospital to take some of the small "nails" (I think he has 11 operated into his wrist) off, but the doctor didn´t think it looked quite ok yet, so a new plaster on and some more waiting. Next time he will be up there maybe they will do an operation then to take some of the "nails" out, and then it looks like it will be one more operation and a lot of more weeks to healh before we could see the end of this. To bad the season became so short for us, but that is not much to do about that. But to stay away from racing is hard, so this weeend to come we maybe go to Karlskoga again to meet our friends and see some racing, I think it is a lot of Championships but together as one, and on top of that it is also the Sidecar World Championship - so it could be fun. Also this weekend Freddie is having his 30:th birthday so in some way we have congratulate him - and that could also be very fun.

So, have a nice week and we´ll keep you posted / Watz Racing

2006.08.04

Yesterday, Thursday, Fredrik finally got a operation on his arm. He would have been operated this monday at first, but as the swedish medical care is not so fast, they waited until yesterday. Everything went ok I think and the operation took a little over two hours. Now he has his wrist full of little "nails" or what they are called. His doctor said it didn´t look so well in the beginning, but he think it should be ok if we let the time go. And now we just have to wait, they said it should take at least five to six weeks before it is time to take a look at it, so we just have to do the best of it in the meantime. We let you of course know what the next step for us are in the future. Take care until then...

2006.07.31

What a weekend this turned out to be - the European Championship at Gellerasen in Karlskoga, Sweden. We arrived to the circuit wednesday evening and it was already a lot of people in the paddock, but our friend Fredriksson had saved us a spot so we just parked and started the procedure to unpacking the bus. It was nice to meet all friends from Europe again, we don´t see them so often anymore when we don´t take part in all races this year.

Thursday started with a late morning beacuse this day it should only be one practice, and that one didn´t started until 16.45 in the afternoon. Out on the circuit, and to this year it is a bit modified and very bumpy, so Freddie took some slow laps to learn the new section, and behind him there was a lot of riders following him. For almost all riders, except the swedish ones, this was the first time in Sweden and of course on this track, so follow Fredrik they thought was a good idea - and that´s ok for Fredrik, can he help someone he is glad to do that! After the session it was mechanical work, Freddie was not really satisfied about how the bike behaved so there was some changes that needed to be fixed. During the evening our mechanic for the weekend, Magnus Fransson, and his family arrived, so then everybody was on place for the weekend.

On friday there were two sessions during the day. The bike was better, and on the last session of the day Freddie was the fastest rider, 1/2 sec before Molina. Still there were some changes he would like to do on the bike, so the evening we spent in the tent, and it became pretty late before we went to bed.

Saturday, and this was the day that should decide how the starting grid gonna look on sundays race. First qualification session went ok and Fredrik and Alvaro switched places all the time, but when the flag went down Alvaro was the fastest rider with Freddie just behind, and then it was a big gap in lap time down to the rider on fourth place. It was only Fredrik, Alvaro and Thomas Walther who had lap times at 1.06, the other riders seemed to have a bit of a problem to keep up with them. To the last qualification Fredrik changed the front tire to a harder one, the compound we usually use on the bike didn´t worked so good Freddie thought so now he wanted to try this instead. Just before the 250cc should go out on the track it started to rain (this was the only time during the whole day) and most of the riders waited in the paddock until it stopped. After 15 minutes the track was dry again, the weather has been really nice all weekend so it dried very fast. Fredrik took it guite easy in the beginning, he thought he just going to go fast on the last laps and then take a good pole position time, but that didn´t happend. When it was just half a minute left of the practice the front just disappered without warning and Fredrik crashed - this will be ok he thought when he still was on the asphalt but when he hit the grass he started to roll around several times, and during that he somehow got his right arm under his body or something like that and he felt immediately that it broke. That also showed later at the x-ray at the hospital, the wrist in the right arm is broken on both sides and there are some bones that are not bones anymore. Not so fun and Fredrik had only one goal this weekend and that was to set a new circuit record and he wanted to go 1.05 lap times. Beacuse we are not take part in the whole Championship this was not important for us, he just should go out there and ride against himself and the watch - that was all! But now the wrist was in quite bad condition so not possible for Fredrik to take part in the race. Most of the other rider thought it was a shame that he couldn´t be in the race, they all have looked forward to race against him here in Sweden.

But now the weekend for us ended like this - not funny at all, and the arm hurt a lot Freddie said, so during the night he cut up the bandage and then it became a little better. But he was in a good mood anyway and we got a different sunday from what we are used to. I think this was the first time we saw a 250cc race from the spectators place, not what we have had in mind but it was ok. The race was quite good anyway, a lot of riders went down, but most of them were ok, it was only our friend Raffe that had a bad crash and he is still at the hospital at Karlskoga. We hope he recovers well, but as it seems now it can take a long time.

The rider who won the race was of course Molina and with this 1:st place he is the European Champion 2006 (for the fourth time I think), and still there is one more race in the Championship. Second place was taken by our dear friend Filla who was riding his bike very good and he was really happy over the finish, but the happiest rider must have been Nicola Milovanovic who made a perfect race and for that he had to step up at third place on the podium. A very good podium it was and we congratulate all three riders and their teams - we are most happy for Niko who have a had a tuff season so far but now he is starting to find his way on the bike and he rides better and better for every lap - very good work from his this weekend. The only bad thing was of course that Freddie not could be a part of this - but hopefully we are back on some track in the near future.

Now it is operation on the arm today, monday, and then we´ll see what happens. Probably it will take quite long time to heal, the wrist was not in good condition, but we will of course let you all know what happens in the near future.

A huge Thank you to everybody for this weekend, even of the crash we have had a very nice time and hopefully this was not the last one - we´ll be back some day!

Have a great time until then / Watz Racing

2006.07.25

Now the European Championship comes to Sweden and to the circuit Gellerasen near the town Karlskoga. This will happend this weekend to come and we thought we should try to get there, but that depends a little on how Freddie is feeling, beacuse he has a huge infection at the moment and not feeling so good. But he is looking better right now and perhaps the infection will go back, so if everything goes as planned we are leaving our workshop wednesday afternoon and going slow and easy to Karlskoga, the frame on the bus is still not quite fixed so we have to take it nice in the corners :-)

This is the first time the European Championship will take place at Gellerasen if I remember correctly, and to this year the circuit is a bit modified. We have not been up there this season to test it, so for Freddie it will be to learn a new section, but that should not be so difficult. He has been doing very good results before on this track and even with the new part he would be able to build up the speed quite fast. We´ll see how the weekend goes and how far it takes us - but as always we will of course do our best!

A report comes after we are back home again. Take care and have a great week in this nice weather / Watz Racing

2006.06.27

Assen became a succés... Now we are back home from The Netherlands where we have spent the midsummer weekend. We got away from Sweden quite late Tuesday evening beacuse before we could go Fredrik had to weld under the bus. The night before he had discovered that the frame that holds everything on the bus was broken on both sides, and that was the explanation why these last trips has been a bit like going on ice or something like that. But after several hours working on the bus we could get going. We got all the way to Denmark before we had to make a quick stop for about three hours beacuse the bus decided to not charge the battery anymore. So after some bad words and some cable fixing we was on our way again. We arrived to Assen a little bit later then expected due to all this trouble with our bus, and we also had to go a bit slower on the highway then we usually does just so the frame would hold together - Freddie just fixed it so it would go this trip.

A lot of people had arrived to the circuit when we got there, and as this is the only European Championship race that goes together with the GP, there are lot of teams in the EC paddock that is not so big area. When we have gotten our place for the weekend the usual procedure with unpacking the bus and get the tent up started. We also find the time to go the scrutineering in the evening so that was done. Freddie also took a walk to "his ladies" at the IRTA office and picked up some passes for the GP paddock. We have  a lot of friends who works in the GP, and as always it is so nice to meet them all again. And also if you need some help you have to go to the GP paddock, beacuse there is where they all are, like Ohlins and our helmet support for example.

Due to the fact that the GP boys should have their time at the track, this weekend i always a lot about waiting. On Thursday we had a sleeping morning you could say beacuse our first practice didn´t started until four in the afternoon. The first practice went ok, Fredrik has not been riding so much this year as the other guys, and when the training was over he was third rider in the list, 1/2 second after Alvaro Molina who was fastest. Pretty good for the first round out on the circuit. And to this year they have also been changing the track at Assen, so it was a new circuit for everybody. Freddie didn´t like the new section so much, he said it was just like any other circuit now and the new section was just a waiting ride - it was not technical or difficult at all. But still Assen is very special, but some of the magic of the circuit is now gone, but perhaps it is good for the future. A lot of riders in the GP and also in the EC thought the same, but they still like the circuit of course. 18.45 on Thursday evening there was time for the first qualification for this weekend. Fredrik were out all session and the bike worked well. Endede the session at third place in the list, 1/2 second behind Molina again. But he didn´t think the lap times were so fast yet, so he thought he would be able to improve some more without any problem. In the evening there was some work on the bike, and also we had to see if we could find any pistons. The pistons we are using are not able to find anywhere in Europe at the moment, and the company that makes them are not able to deliver any until middle of august, so there we have a big problem. New pistons we could not find any in the paddock´s so we had to use some old, already used ones and then cross our fingers that it should work all weekend.

Friday (and midsummer day in Sweden) we also had a sleeping morning. Our one and only practice for the day wouldn´t start until around five o´clock in the afternoon, this would be the last qualification. But it´s quite ok to just take it a bit easy during the day and watch the GP riders out on their sessions. This weekend also the Sidecar World Championship was invited so there was a lot to see. The last qualification went really good, and the bike was so fast. Freddie improved his lap time from yesterday with almost one second, to 1.44.78, which was more than enough to take pole position with. Molina in second place was 1/2 second behind, and also Fredrik was the only rider during the whole weekend that was riding 44-times. In the evening we had to do some more mechanical work on the bike, beacuse the pistons was not in so good condition, so the search for some more pistons started all over again. Our good friend Norman Rank was a huge help when we were trying to find some pistons. There was no new ones as we said before, so once again we had to use some old ones, but we hoped that they would make it thru the race. Beacuse it was midsummer day in Sweden we invited some friends over to come and eat a lot of good food with us - and we had a great evening, as we usually has when we are in the paddock, and we got to bed quite late...

Saturday and race day - and this was the only day during the weekend that we did not have a sleeping morning. Our warm up practice started at 08.00 in the morning, which seemed a little bit wrong when we raced last of all classes that day. Our race should start at 16.45. Already at seven o´clock in the morning there were a lot of people in the paddock and around the circuit and during the following hours there only got more and more people in the area. I don´t knw the exct number of spectators but more than 100 000 I think it was anyway. In Europe road racing is very popular and the Dutch people love it. A lot of them arrive to Assen already on Tuesday and don´t go home before Sunday, so around the circuit and in the village it´s a lot of people and party all week. Fredrik is very popular in The Netherlands, and especially at Assen as he has won there before, so many people comes and visit us and talk for a while and want Freddie to sign their photos that they have taken, some of them from years back - we think it is so nice when it is like this and we appreciate it a lot. The day we spent most of it checking the GP races, and also we were very happy about the weather that was great, not to warm and not to cold so it was perfect. We also checked out the Sidecar race just before it was our turn to go out on the grid, and our friend from Sweden, Billy Gallros, took his sidecar to 11:th place in the race - nice work!

Time for race then - Fredrik started from pole position as you know, got away from the grid quite good, were 3:rd or 4:th rider in the first corner (not so easy to see from the pit lane), on the second lap he passed the start and finish line on fourth place, on third lap he passed as third. On lap five of eighteen was he on second place right after Molina who had made a good start, on the next lap he passed him and he was first. Held that position until I think it was around seven laps to go in the race then the bike started to go a little slower, maybe it was the pistons that didn´t wanted to work anymore, and due to this Alvaro could overtake him. Freddie lost him at first but on the last laps he took in on him again but unforteanaly when they should overtake some much slower riders, Alvaro ha good luck with them and Freddie not so good luck so Alvaro could get a small gap between them and that he held over the finish line, but Freddie was just behind him so the gap was not so big. Third place in the race was taken by the Dutch rider Hans Smees.

We are very happy about second place, and it felt really good to see Freddie get up on the podium at Assen again. A lot of people were impressed by Fredrik and his driving and a lot of them could not belive that it is a Yamaha that we are riding on. Yamaha is the mark that has a rumour that it is the slowest brand in the 250cc class, and maybe that is right but not everything depends on the bike. You need to have a rider that can rides it also. And we have spent many, many hours in our workshop changing the enigine and the chassi after our own heads and that seems to work, when the bike is in good condition it is quite fast. Of course you always would like to be at the top of the podium, but we are happy for Molina as he is riding the whole Championship, and after this race there is not so much gap in the total standings. Think that all these three riders at the podium were very happy and satisfied, and then it is like it should be!

A little strange thing happend after the race (or maybe it is normal procedure I don´t know), beacuse we got an technical inspection right after the race beacuse they would like to check that our bike really was an 250cc and that everything was correct with it. The technical inspectors were very sad that they had to do this, especially when we do not have any mechanics, so Freddie had to do all work by himself. Also the technical inspectors said that they know that our bike is ok but they had to do this anyway. And of course our bike is ok with the regulations for 250cc and also our petrol is made after all the regulations, so nothing was wrong of course. No harm that we had to do this just after the prizegiving ceremony, and we just think it was quite funny to prove to everybody that think that only the Aprilia is good and fast enough to make good races and lap times on. We have another brand on our bike and still we can do good races!

After the race and the technical inspection we took it quite easy to pack everything together, and when we had said goodbye and thank´s to everybody we started our journey home. And we didn´t have to stop not for ones on the way home to fix something on the bus, it worked all the way home so still there are some life in it. But now we have to change the broken frame on it before we go anywhere with it, beacuse Fredrik just fixed it so it would be ok for this trip.

What next race for us will be we don´t know yet. We take part in the races we have time to and can afford and then we´ll see how far that gets us. A huge Thank you to you all that are around and help and support us - we are so thankful to you all. A special Thank You for this weekend is there some people who should have - our dear friend Henk-Jan from The Netherlands who we meet for the first time this weekend, but we have spoken to him many times for several years, and now we finally got the chance to meet him in person and it was very nice, our crazy German friend Norman Rank for all help over the weekend with everything, our long known friend from Finland, Hannu Mottonen, for his advices and help and we were so glad to meet him again, it was a long time ago. I am sure there are many more who would recieve a special Thank´s, but the memory is not so good at the moment, but you all know who you are and a huge Thank You to you all. Also it was very nice to meet Sandra and everybody else at the Assen circuit again, it was a long time ago, and we always feel so welcome when we come there.

We´ll keep in touch, and as soon as we know what our mext step will be we´ll of course let You know.

Thank´s for this time and we wish you all a great summer! / Watz Racing

2006.06.19

This weekend to come we have something called midsummer here in Sweden, and this means that you get together with your friends and family to eat and drink and just have fun. But we have not a problem with where we should spend the weekend - we do as we have done for several years now, go to The Netherlands and to the legendary circuit of Assen, and there we will take part in the European Championship. And as it should be it´s only the 250cc EC that is taking part as the same time as the GP who also race there this weekend.

If everything goes the way we planned we should be leaving Sweden tomorrow, tuesday, we just have to put the bike and also the bus together, and the fairings is not quite ready yet and also there is some other small things that still needs to be fixed. But stranger things have sorted out before, so we are confident it should be the same this time, and if the schedule is correct we are leaving tomorrow afternoon (with the bus that finally has new tires on it) and goes straight to Fredrik´s favourite track.

2004 he won the European Championship there, and he like the track very much and feel comfortable to ride the 250cc around. So we are going to do our best and then we´ll see how far it gets us. To this year the circuit is a little bit modified, so there is a new track for everyone, but hopefully it wont take so long to learn the new section.

A little report will come up here after the weekend, and if you are close to Assen this weekend please come and visit us.

Have a great summer week / Watz Racing

2006.05.30

This weekends second race in the Swedish Championship is over... And when the weekend started Freddie said that he only should drive his own race against the clock and then we´ll see if someone keep up with me - and none of the other riders did during the whole weekend so Fredrik was absolutely the fastest 250cc rider at our hometrack. But we can start from the beginning otherwise this report will be very short! We didn´t go out to the circuit until thursday evening, we thought we didn´t have to stress so much beacuse we can almost see the circuit from our workshop so it is not so far. Friday there where 2 free trainings, but it rained all day so we skipped both of the sessions and instead Fredrik went to work in the morning, and the afternoon and evening he and our father spent going back and forward between the track and our workshop to help a lot of other riders with different problems.

On saturday the qualification started, two sessions over the day, and this day it was not raining. During the first qualification Freddie was the fastest rider, and this he managed to do quite easy even that something happend with the bike in the middle of the session. When we after the training searched for the problem we didn´t find anything special but something was not quite ok. Fredrik did some small changes and then out on the last session for the day. The bike worked a little better but not perfect, but he managed to improve his lap time from before, and when the practice was over he had pole position with around 1 1/2 second to the next rider in the list. During the evening same procedure as on friday, Freddie drove back and forward to our workshop all evening to help other teams and riders with everything from welding to fix cylinders and so on. But anyway Fredrik and Magnus had some time to check our bike, but why it didn´t work ok we think are that we only have old, not so good parts in it at the moment, beacuse we do not have the financials jst now to buy new crankshaft and cylinders. But the bike worked ok so for this race it had to go with these old parts - and it did!

During the night between saturday and sunday it rained a lot, but in the morning it was dry and the sun was up so it seemed like it should be a nice day without rain. On the warm up practice in the morning Freddie was again the fastest rider, so even that we have not been riding so much this year he is in good shape. During the day a lot of friends came out to the track - superb to have a huge crowd of supporters around the circuit - they are great! Time for start and Fredrik made a good one and was first in the first corner (like you always should aim for of course) and then he started to build up a gap to the others. After four or five laps he had a gap to second rider at about four seconds, and he improved it for every lap. But the bike started to go worse and worse so he had to slow down a bit so it not would break down completely. On lap seven or eight a rider crashed out and the race was stopped. Nothing with him and he were up almost directly, so after 20 minutes they backed one lap and the riders prepared for a new start. This time Fredrik didn´t make such a good start, into the first corner he was third but out of it he was first again, and then he started the procedure to race against the clock. But our bike didn´t work so good and it got worse for every lap so he didn´t manage to get down to the lap times that he wanted, but anyway, the bike didn´t break down and over the finish line Fredrik was 6 seconds before Andreas Martensson who came second in the race.

Nice to get to the top of the podium again, we have not been out so much this year yet and the last race at Anderstorp didn´t go so well as you all know. Now we are going to check the bike and see what have happend to it, and somehow we have to fix so we can get some new parts. But as always everything works out one way or the other so hopefully this will to.

A big Thank you to you all who are supporting and helping us so we can do the one thing we like the most...

Now we don´t know what will happends next but we have some different things going on, and as soon as we know we will of course update here.

Have a great week and stay cool / Watz Racing

2006.05.02

Well, now the first race in the Swedish Championship 2006 is over - and it became a very wet event, but as we were at Anderstorp we are used to that ít´s raining there - and no change for this time, it rained a lot. We were quite late leaving Linkoping in friday afternoon, after fixing the last things on the bike, searching for the parts to the tent and also we had to take away two of the four rear wheels on the bus beacuse we didn´t had tires enough. When we finally came out on the highway we discovered that it was not so good idea to only have two rear wheels, it was like driving on ice or something like that all the time, just sliding, but we made it to the circuit anyway.

Saturday and first qualification -  Freddie went out on the track but only after a few laps he came in again and said that he couldn´t ride, it was sliding to much all the time. After a quick change of rear tire he went out again and this time it was much better, but after two laps the qualification time was over so the lap times was not so good. When we later on checked the tire that we changed we discovered that it was flat, so there was the explanation why it was sliding so much.On the last qualification later that day the riders only got some laps before it started to rain, most of them went into the pit area and just waited to see if the rain would stop. But Fredrik didn´t think the surface was so wet so he went out on the rest of the practice, and he was the only rider who improved his lap times from the session before. He ended up at 6:th place on the grid when the training was over. When the rain started it didn´t stop anymore, it rained all evening and night so the evening we spent mostly in the tent with some friends.

Sunday morning and the rain had not given up, and it went on like that all day so it was not so hard to decide which tires we should use. When the race started Freddie´s bike would not start so out on the long straight he was around position 20 or something. After the first lap he was up on 6:th place, and on the second lap he was about to overtake the rider who was in 3:rd place but then he crashed in the corner out on the start and finish line, to bad but nothing to do about it, just to get up look forward.

After we had packed all wet things in the bus we started the trip back home, and that turned out to be a very interesting trip... We discussed when we got closer to our hometown if we should take the first exit off the highway, beacuse we had not so much  diesel in the bus and maybe it would not last all the way to our workshop. But.... it maybe is enough said Freddie and passed the exit. Some more metres and our friend Milan came up behind and when he passed us he pointed at the back of our bus - Shit, we thought, now he had seemed a bad tire, and he had, beacuse just some seconds later one of the rear tire exploded - and this was the interesting part of the trip - to try and stop a 3 1/2 ton bus in 120 km/h with only two instead of four wheels on the back, where one of the tires were really flat was not so easy. It was very closed that we crashed, but we are both quite happy that we didn´t get that experience. After Freddie finally had stopped the bus 1000 metres from the exit!! we made the quickest change of tire in the history, and 10 min later we were on our way again and made it all way to the workshop without anything more happend. Now I think we really need to buy new tires for the bus before we go anywhere else...

So, this was our weekend in Anderstorp... Rain and flat tires has dominated you can say. Now we´ll wait and see what the next race for us will be, it depends as always on the financials, but when we know we of course update this site with the information.

Have a great week and soon the summer will be here we hope / Watz Racing

2006.04.26

Now we are back on track again as we finally have got some of the stuff back from the break in. Still there is not all, but maybe it will show up in the future. But now we have got some things together and we can at least starting to update this site again. A special Thank´s to our dear friend Henk-Jan, who has updated the guestbook during this time with reports and results from different races.

Since last time we have just worked, like everybody else. We have also put together our Yamaha, but for the moment with old parts. We have a new crankcase, but still we do not have a new crankshaft, so until we get one we use the old parts instead. But it seems to work quite fine with that also, we have been out to our hometrack on two trainings and the bike worked really good. And Freddie thought it was nice getting back on his own bike again. What will happend in the future we are not clear on yet, but maybe we will take part in the first race in the Swedish Championship at Anderstorp this weekend to come. If we go there it will mostly be for training, Freddie needs some laps on the bike and as you know - Race is the best practice.

Have a nice weekend, and if we are going to Anderstorp we update with a report after the weekend / Watz Racing

2006.04.01

At this moment and some time forward there will not be any updates on this site, and this is due to that some days ago we had 

a break in at the company, and the jerks took our computers and lot´s of other stuff, so now we don´t have anything to write 

the updates on. But as soon as we got everything together again we will continue update this site of course. Please write in the

guestbook if you have any news or just would like to send us a message, we will try and answer there when we have the time

and a computer.

Stay cool... Watz Racing

2006.03.14

Soon a new season is starting.... Well, for the riders who compete in the Superbike / SS600 World Championship it has already started, they have been racing in two different countries until now. But Moto GP is kicking off not this weekend to come but the weekend after in Spain at Jerez de la Frontera. How the GP 2006 will turn out nobody knows, but it´s going to be less riders and teams on both Moto GP and the 250cc class, and that seems to be depending on short of money for many of the teams... too bad, but this how reality looks like 2006.

The European Championship start the season in Italy at Vallelunga Circuit just outside of Roma as usual. This will happend the first weekend in April. This year there will be only 6 races in the European Ch - and that is very bad, but over the last years the Championship has not been so good, and that´s a shame beacuse we need a Championship with high standard that riders are fighting for to be a part in. But now the season has been confirmed so probably there will not be any changes for this year. After that weekend we will know who the riders and teams are that will take part in the Championship this year.

Otherwise it´s quite like it has been all winter here at Watz Racing, we just working and see what´s happening... Take care

2006.01.06

Hi and welcome to a little new web site as You may see. Beacuse when it´s now a new year we thought that our web site also should get some new look, mostly small changes but anyway it´s something. Well, as we said - new year and that means new challenges and experiences. We have managed to go thru christmas and new year, and we have been off from work for some days now and then, which is welcome beacuse otherwise we always work - and it´s nice to do something else ones in a while besides work. The scenario in the workshop is pretty much the same as it was before - there are some bikes in the corners, and soon it will be time to put them together and check all parts and see what is missing. What will happend for Watz Racing to the season that is not so far away we still don´t have any information about - but we work on different solutions and something I think we will come up with. As soon as we know what we are going to do - we of course let You all know!

Otherwise it seems quite calm for most of the people involved in this with racing - some gossip you of course hear thru the winter, but what´s thru and what´s not I think we will discover when the season start and the people are back out on the circuits. But it seems like many of the Swedish 250cc Teams has coming down with something called "Aprilia illness", a lot of 250cc Aprilia´s is coming over the border - fun, as more riders it will come the better it is, and what kind of mark they ride on is not the important thing. So it seems like at least among the Swedish riders there will be some new faces, and some other riders leaves but will turn up in the paddock anyway in other constellations, and also it seems like there will be a lot of big motohomes making there way into the paddock - it´s the new trend it looks like, but we are not hooking up on that trend - we will keep our old bus - it works good for us, and if we don´t use it in racing we can have it when we drive garbage from the company in the springtime...

Have a plesent january, and we let you know what is happening in the future. Take care of yourself out there / Watz Racing

To read reports from season 2005..... Go here