25th September
Sorry about having no news for a long time. I returned to work last week on Tuesday even though I've been told to take another 2 weeks off!!! I did a practice last Thursday at Swindon to test my fitness for my shoulder. The practice went well (thanks to Martin Satchell for arranging the practice after the meeting) and I will ride at Oxford on Monday - my first meeting since 27th June after a long recovery from my badly dislocated right shoulder with all the ligaments and tendons badly damaged as well.
20th July
After a check up at the hospital last week I've been told to sit out for at least another 4 weeks and have been given another hospital appointment for mid-August. I am having physiotherapy and we'll see how that goes and what they say about when they think my shoulder will be strong enough to return. At the moment I am not allowed to work and can't even drive my car so I am getting pretty bored.
28th June
During my 3rd week of practice in 2nd half runs at Reading while I'm testing engines from my kind sponsor unfortunately I lost control coming out of the 4th bend after I picked up unexpected drive and thought I was in control to keep the front wheel down but lost it and went over the bike and landed on the ground very hard. I'd feared that I'd re-broken my old injury but luckily I had just badly dislocated my right shoulder. I'm very disappointed that I've picked up another injury and I can't tell you how long I'm out for until I get further info in two weeks time.
24th May
Bad news - I won't be able to return to racing this weekend due to my hand injury because I've got to keep my two fingers strapped together and I can't be sure I've got enough strength in my hand until the strapping is taken off at the end of the weekend. Hopefully I will be able to use my hand more next week and get fit for the following weekend (5th June). I was looking forward to this weekend but I'm worried about the strength in my hand and risking doing more harm than good coming back when I'm not 100% fit, especially if the track conditions are difficult.
17th May
I went to hospital on Monday and picked up further information about my hand. It is healing well and the doctor advised me to stay off racing until at least the end of this month. It depends on me getting back full movement in my hand before I make a decision on whether I'm fit to ride again for the next home meeting against Scunthorpe on the 29th May.
10th May
I'm out of racing for a while due to my hand injury. It turns out I did break it two weeks ago when I fell in Heat 15 against Stoke. Since then I haven't been able to grip the handlebar and control the clutch very well but while I was riding at Buxton I seemed to have more pain and stiffness problems with my left hand - it was very cold and felt numb. I fell again after having trouble controlling the bike and it just got worse so I talked to the medical staff and pulled out of the meeting. I'm not sure when I will be back. I've got another check up on Monday and I will try to inform you as soon as I can.
I also rode my first meeting in the Elite league last Saturday for the Swindon Robins at Eastbourne but it was a bit disappointing as I had a few problems with my bike and only managed to do 4 lap on my last ride!!!! But over all it was a good experience and quite enjoyable.
3rd May
I've now got major sponsorship of new bikes and engines for this season and I feel I will learn more things to help with my racing from my new sponsor who is Brian Woodcock. I'd like to say a big thank you for the help and I'm sure I will improve a lot this year.
I've also got sponsorship from ZX1 who supply me with grease, chain spray, engine oil treatment, etc. I'd also like to say thanks for their help.
26th April
I'm afraid I won't be able to ride at Weymouth on Thursday as my left hand is still badly swollen after my crash in Heat 15 last Sunday but I'm hoping to ride on Sunday 1st May if my hand improves.
29th March
As you may have noticed I've got a new sponsor to help me with my racing and I'm very grateful for their help. Look under Sponsors for details and here's the link for their website: www.bassettcleansing.co.uk
I still require more sponsorship to help with my racing so if you're interested go to Sponsorship on the left hand side for further details.
15th March
On Friday 11th March I had Press and Practice at King's Lynn for the Boston Barracuda Braves. It went well and I managed to test a new setup on my engine. I'm now really looking forward to the season starting.
On Sunday 13th March I went to the Swindon Robins Press and Practice Day. I rode the bike with the new engine setup and felt I was going even faster on the Swindon track than I did last year.
15th February
After the disappointment of the Swindon Sprockets dropping out of the Conference League in 2005 I have had to search for a new team place. There are also new rules for the Conference League which affect a number of riders and luckily my grade is just good enough to pick up interest for other team places.
I am now riding for Boston (at King's Lynn). I am really looking forward to the coming season and I want to go further and to improve even more.
I really need sponsors to help cover my expenses on travelling costs and bikes, which is going to be a bit hard for me to keep up with. If you're interested in helping me out to cover some parts or travelling costs I would be very grateful and you can e-mail me at sponsorship@nathanirwinracing.co.uk
24th January
After preparing the bikes for 2005 riding for the Swindon Sprockets, unfortunately the bad news is that the Swindon Sprockets won't be running this year. I'm very disappointed about it because I was really looking forward to riding at Swindon again and had done further work on the bikes to improve my riding on the Swindon track, but now I have to look for another team place which may be difficult because some other teams have dropped out of the Conference League as well. I will be very disappointed if I can't get a team place this season after a good first full season last year.