School’s Out For Summer – sang Alice Cooper. After the events of the Sepang round of the Superbike World Championship in Malaysia at the weekend the riders and crews will start a well-earned break that lasts until the middle of September.

I started my ‘holiday’ straight after Laguna Seca when I headed south to Los Angeles to see my son compete in the Special Olympics World Games. It meant that on the weekend I was battling a 15 hour time difference to see the races and do what work I needed to do. It brought home the difficulty the organisers of any major championship must have to broadcast and publicise all the events in their series when it spans the globe.

Personally I was heading to bed before 10pm and setting the alarm for a few hours later to get up and follow the races on my laptop, having another nap and then getting up again to edit and send picture selections for my clients that had been emailed to me from the track.

It is a really strange experience when you suddenly get off the train you have been riding and it steams away from the platform without you.

One thing that is apparent when you work within the Championship and know the personalities that travel ‘on the train’ with you, is how many get off when it leaves Europe. At each European race there is always a buzz of news and gossip, little web stories from one journalist that sets the others scurrying for an alternative angle.

Read the rest in the new OTOR HERE