Haydon 'excited and nervous' about first race.

With just three weeks of preparation remaining until his first race on the all-new Foggy FP1, James Haydon took a few moments to reflect on the team's recent testing and the challenging, but exciting, task ahead of him this season.

"Testing in Australia was excellent and we made big steps forward particularly with engine and mapping work. It's a great track and we had really good fun as well," recalled the Brit. "We're also closer to where we wanted to be in terms of performance, highlighting that the team's incredible hard work has paid off. Testing in Malaysia was also a great experience, but it's a shame our progress was limited due to not having the exact tyres we needed."

Working for the third weekend in a row, Haydon attended the Road Racing and Superbike show at Alexandra Palace in London last weekend, where he made an appearance for an hour long autograph signing session on the Foggy Petronas Racing merchandise stand.

"The show at Ally Pally really demonstrated to me just how much support the team has and that fans are not just behind the team but also me personally," James said. "I have to say that the strength of the support actually surprised me - pleasantly, but it is fantastic.

"I also took part in a Q&A on the main stage with Steve Parrish and then judged the final of the grid girl babes competition. It was an arduous task really, looking at all those attractive women, but somebody had to do it!" he joked.

With just a few weeks until the first race of the year and with the official test in Valencia the week before, Haydon is busy training for the imminent season with mountain biking, motocross and weights training.

"I'm both excited and nervy about this season which is the same every year, but more so for the 2003 season as I've had a year off from racing," he explained. "We could have done with a bit more testing time but we have accomplished an amazing amount in the time we have had and, made more progress than I originally thought possible in such a relatively short space of time. Roll on the first race in Valencia - I can't wait."