With Paul Denning moving to Moto GP it has allowed Mark as a member of the Rizla team to go along and work at Moto GP too, something he has always wanted to do. So what is it really like? "Moto GP, I find it a very harsh environment because you've got head phone on 24 hours a day as the noise is unbelievable you can't hear anyone speak. But the work load is no different to what we are doing here, you know.
"We do everything 110% and they do it 110%, they've got a bigger budget than us, they employ more people, and from the outside they look a little more organised than us in some areas, but they're not. They just have more people they have bigger budgets they can employ four people per bike where I've got three of us for two bikes, that's the difference really."
The one thing that is different is paddock life, it's not so laid back in the GP paddock as Mark says: "I actually prefer the paddock life in the British paddock to be honest with you. The GP paddock is a bit... it's all confidential, you can't walk into someone's garage and have a cup of tea, where as here I can go next door, well maybe not next door," he laughs, as Honda are located next door at
Croft.
Last season Mark was chassis technician to Yukio Kagayama who has quite a grasp on English swear words which he may well have picked up from his technician. "It wasn't from me. He was swearing at me I wasn't swearing at him!I maybe enhanced it a little bit! I text him after every race and tell him either he rode well or he rode sh*te, and after last weekend I'm afraid he got a bad one!"
Looking on the plus side JR is back and as Mark says, "It's looking good so we'll see how we go."
