Just few days before the Suzuka 4 hours race, SynergyForce Moriwaki Club got in action today, Thursday, when both of their riders finally made it to Japan. Avalon Biddle had extremely short time to prepare herself for the tough challenge after the team received on Monday information that Melissa Paris was not able to join her last year´s teammate Shelina Moreda due to her health problems.
“It was such a big honour to be invited to race in Suzuka for the Moriwaki team. Last year I followed Shelina and Melissa doing brilliant job over here and I was just thinking that perhaps one day it would be great to do the same. I just couldn´t ever imagine that it would happen this soon”, Biddle laughs.
Biddle has no previous experience of endurance nor at the Suzuka circuit. On Thursday she got her first chance to get to know the bike and to see the track. However, today, Suzuka was suffering of heavy rains which has caused the track being slippery. Biddle was one of the riders who crashed during the session.
“The bike felt good and the Suzuka seems to be really fun track. I feel sorry for crashing and causing extra work for the team but they are doing such a great job.”
The team decided to dedicate the whole session for Biddle so she could get to know the circuit. Shelina Moreda was supporting her new teammate from the pit box.
“Avalon was improving her lap times the whole time and I am happy she got the crashing part done early on”, the American laughed. “I am proud of her for pushing the limits when she was learning the track. She is ok and the bike can be fixed”.
Despite the sudden changes in the team the Synergy Force Moriwaki Club is looking forward to have a great race also this year. Last year the team exceeded all the expectations when finishing on their first race 28th out of 69 teams making history being the first team to finish the race with two female pilots.
Avalon Biddle is known to the FIM Women in Motorcycling Commission from their Road Racing training camps and was therefore chosen to replace Paris.
“We are happy to have one of our riders again on board. All Shelina, Melissa and Avalon know each other from our first camp so that has also made the teamwork easier. This is again a great example of how important it is to organize training camps so we know the riders and their level through out the camps”, says commission director Nita Korhonen.
As an extra surprise, Mr Hiroshi Soda, President of Mobilityland, which includes the Suzuka and Motegi Twin ring circuits, met Shelina, Avalon and Nita, after the practice session and wished them a lot of success for their race.