Fifteen year-old racer Jake Gagne is competing in Europe this year in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup. He's filing reports for SuperbikePlanet.com this season about his adventures. Gagne, who is racing in the Netherlands this weekend and was sixth in practice at Assen on Thursday, tells us about his previous race at Mugello.

Three weeks after Jerez, the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup headed out for the next round at Mugello, Italy. After Jerez, I wasn't super happy with how it went so I was really looking forward to Mugello and having a better weekend. Mugello always looked like a nice track and I was excited to get out there.

He's a serious young man, folks. Especially when they lose his luggage! image by red bull/gepa

My father, Marc Gagne, and I headed to LAX from our hometown of Ramona, California, on Tuesday morning. My Dad was able to come with me to Mugello and I was happy to have him there. We had about a 10 hour flight from LA to Paris, France. I was able to sleep for quite a bit of the flight so it didn't make the flight feel as long.

We only had a one hour layover in Paris to catch the flight from Paris to Florence, Italy. The Paris airport is pretty huge so we had to pretty much run to try and catch the flight, and luckily we just made it right before they quit boarding. The second flight to Florence wasn't bad, only bout an hour and a half, so I was relieved to finally get there.

The week didn't start off the best, because the airline lost my luggage. I was pretty mad because it had everything in it -- like, you know, my gear. And all my clothes.

We talked to the airline people and they said it should be delivered to the hotel the next morning. Once we got that situation worked out, we were picked up by Pole Position Travel from the airport. It was only about a 30 minute drive to the hotel and it was nice to finally get there and get some sleep.

The next morning, Dad and I got some breakfast and met up with some of the other Rookies staying at the same hotel. We all decided to catch a taxi down to the city center and walk around for a little and check it out. It was a cool city and there was some pretty cool sites to see. We grabbed some lunch and after checkin' it out for a few hours we headed back to the hotel to get ready to head to the track that afternoon.

Jake was draped on his butt like a proverbial cheap suit. image by red bull/gepa

Once everyone was ready to head to the track we made our way to Mugello. The drive from the hotel to the track was mostly on a super windy, hilly road and it made some of the kids a little carsick.

We dropped down into the hills towards the entrance to the track and I couldn't believe the facility -- it was huge and was just an amazing looking place. We met some of the other Rookies once we got there and had dinner. Then we went back to the hotel and got rested up to get ready to ride the next day. It's days like that one that really make me feel fortunate. I know it's a real honor to get picked to race in the Red Bull Rookies Cup at these cool tracks around the world against some of the fastest kids in the world.

We got to the track early Friday morning to get ready for practice at about noon. The Rookies were the first session out on track for the weekend but the track looked good and I was pretty hyped to get out on the track. I got out there and within a few laps I felt pretty comfortable with the bike. By the end of the session I was pretty comfortable with the track also. After the session I was pretty happy with how it went. The track was super nice, and really, really fast. It was also pretty bumpy but I thought it went well and I was 13th. That's pretty okay for my first time on the track. There's no point in trying to be a hero before you even learn the circuit and possibly suffer a setback. Besides, the Rookies had two qualifying sessions later in the day so I was excited for that.

We went out for the first qualifying and I dropped a couple seconds right off the bat. Throughout the session, I could see on my pit board that I was in the top 10 and on the last couple laps I pushed and was able to finish the first qualifying in ninth place.

Jake said Mugello was beautiful and he had a good time in Italy. image by red bull/gepa

I talked to the suspension technician and made a few changes to the rear end and I was confident I could drop a little more time.

We only had about 45 minutes in between the the qualifying sessions so I stayed out on pitlane and I talked to Kevin Schwantz a bit about the track. Before I knew it, it was time to hit the circuit again. I enjoy talking with Kevin and he's helped me quite a lot.

Throughout the second qualifying, I was still running in the top 10. Towards the middle of the session, my tires started to go away just a bit, as is to be expected. On my last lap, I pushed for a good lap. Everything was going well and I thought I would post a pretty fast time. But in the last corner I got stuck behind two other riders and I lost about three tenths on the last split.

It still ended up being my fastest lap though! I ended up eighth, so I was happy to be on the second row for the race. I felt like we have been making progress since our first test and that's the goal -- keep moving forward.

My Dad and I went back to the hotel after dinner and got a good night's rest to get ready for the next day. We got to the track pretty early but our race wasn't until around four o'clock in te afternoon. We got to watch practice and qualifying all day before the race. After waiting all day, the Rookies finally got geared up and went out for the race on our KTM RC 125s.

Starting from the second row, I got off to a pretty good start and was around fifth or sixth into the first corner. By the end of the first lap I was in 4th! I was feeling good on the bike and everything was going well.

Throughout the race there was a lot of over-aggressive passes and that allowed two riders to get away at the front. Some of it didn't make sense to me but that's how it goes sometimes. Red Bull Rookies Cup is a very competitive series and it can be pretty brutal in the pack.

I made one mistake and I dropped down to eighth. When I could see the front two getting away, I decided I needed to push to try to get to the front of the group and still have a shot at the front duo. With about seven laps to go, I was able to finally get through the group again and I made it into third place. Once I got into third, I charged to try to get a little gap on the pack behind me so I could avoid some of the craziness I talked about earlier.

Eventually Gagne make it back to the front of his pack and took off after the leaders. image by red bull/gepa

Two laps after I got into third spot, I pulled a little gap on the pack behind me and I was trying to catch the two riders out front. But with five laps to go in the final corner, I lost the rear and went down. I was really bummed because I was pretty confident it could of been a podium.

All in all, I was happy about how the weekend went. We made some big improvements from Jerez, where I was ninth. Aside from the crash, everything was pretty good so I'm really looking forward to Assen and getting a solid result.

The night after the race, we all just hung out and had some hot chocolate (which was really just a melted Hershey's bar over here), and talked about the week. It's cool getting to make friends with kids from all over the world and thanks again go to Red Bull for this opportunity. The next day a bunch of the Rookies went back to the track to watch the 125, 250, and MotoGP races.

Rain was a threat all day and it turned out staying dry for the 125 race, which was pretty exciting. After the 125 race it started raining for the 250 race. The 250 race was crazy with Simoncelli and Bautista battling it out so that one was fun to watch. For the MotoGP race, it was wet in the beginning but was drying out so they had to switch bike during the race like they did at Le Mans. All the races were fun to watch and it was a cool day. A little after the races were all ove, we left but there was a ton of traffic leaving the circuit. We sat in line for like an hour just to get a mile out of the track. Eventually we got back to the hotel and I had to pack and get ready to fly home the next morning. Dad and I finally got back home after hours of travel and it felt good to sleep in my own bed.

Until Assen, I'm just gonna be riding and training as hard as possible to try to get ready for the next round. Can't wait!