So usually, when you log onto our site, you see interviews up with the top riders in the paddock. This time we thought we’d show you things from a different perspective; from a top guy who is extremely important to the track but  handles things from the sidelines.

Julian Thomas is the Press Officer for World Superbikes and he does a fantastic job of it. He is always ready to help anybody out who needs it and he keeps the media organised and the weekend events running smoothly and we appreciate everything he does. So without further ado, we give you Julian!

What does your current role involve?

My current role involves that I am the Superbike World Championship Press Officer which means I’m responsible for the communications department for superbikes, supersport and superstock.

What do you do on an average day?

There is never an average day!! It depends if you’re talking about an average day at the race weekends or at the office because it’s two completely different jobs basically.

For our readers it would probably be the race weekends.

OK well the race weekends involve handling all the communications, press releases, behind the scenes with the TV work a well, running the press office for all the international media passes, updating the website.  A variety of different jobs basically.

What is your background?

What is my background? I graduated a long, long time ago in a degree which has nothing to do with what I’m doing now! Then from 1989 onwards, I lived in Italy and I managed to get involved with formula three racing and touring car racing as correspondent for autosport magazine. I’ve moved on since then and I did world rally championships as a press officer, I’ve already done this job before about ten years ago and then I did seven or eight years with Ducati. I left Ducati at the end of last year to do this job again.

So you got into it through moving to Italy but what made you move to Italy in the first place?

What made me move to Italy was my interest in languages. I used to teach English abroad so I moved away from England and got into it. I had a great time.

What’s the best and worst part of this job?

The best part of the job is seeing everybody such as media, journalists, organisers are happy with the way things are run which is my responsibility. It’s a great satisfaction to see that it’s appreciated and the communication’s appreciated by the people we send press releases to and I think it’s just trying to get the best organisation throughout the race weekend and that gives you the greatest satisfaction.

The worst is the opposite, it’s when things don’t go well and you have to really bang your head against a wall to sort things out. That causes quite a lot of stress and tension in a period that, as you know yourself, stress and tension is all over the place.

Can you go up from here?

Oooh I hope so!! We’d all like to go upwards, I haven’t really thought about it. I’ve been in Superbikes for a long, long time now, since 1994, so that’s fourteen years. I’m very happy in Superbikes but I think if the opportunity came to do something on a higher level then I would certainly consider it.

Something like Moto GP?

I had the opportunity to go to Moto GP with Ducati but I prefer to stay in Superbikes because it’s part of my background and me so I would prefer to stay in Superbikes than go to Moto GP for a variety of reasons.

Do you actually get any days off?

Yes I try to take a few days off otherwise you’d go nuts in this job! You know you take the days off when you’re back in the office. Obviously with the jobs that we do we’re away for sixteen or seventeen weekends a year. That's fourteen fourteen race weekends plus testing, so we don’t really get very much time to concentrate on relaxing.

What do you do on those days off?

Just chill out basically! Sleep, concentrate on my own personal affairs and get them up to scratch as well because when you go away for a race weekend or six or seven days or something like that you lose track of what’s happening back at home and if you have other things that you’re involved with then you have to get them back up to scratch.

Can we have one random fact about you please?

I don’t know! I suppose I can communicate in numerous languages, I think five. It’s not perfect for this job because it’s not absolutely necessary but it’s a great way to be appreciated in this job especially as we go around the world and to various countries so if you can communicate in those countries then that’s a good thing.

What languages are they?
Just the usual! English, obviously, Italian obviously because I lived in Italy for twenty-four years, German and Spanish.

Julian, thank you.

LB