Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2021 i Classic Racer

// YEAR: 1986 // LOCATION: SURFER’S PARADISE INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY In the mid-1980s Mick Doohan’s race career was raising a few eyebrows.The young Aussie hooked up with Jon MacGillvray who owned a Yamaha RZV500 that he ended up putting Mick on.The two would become firm friends and Jon would later become Mick’s manager. In 1985 they had a great idea: paint the bike in camouflage, make Mick ride in leathers with camo overalls on (‘I’d puff up like the Michelin man,’ he’d say) and erect a military-style tent where the team could hang out and enjoy some beers with a barbecue –Team Camo was born! A year later the camo was gone and instead the team got some backing and became ‘GaythorneYamaha’, now complete with an RZ250 where they would enter…

Franco Bourne took the 2020 Honda British Talent Cup and in doing so also takes the Dave Simmonds trophy. It was a dramatic end to the season with former points leader Eddie O’Shea getting wiped out on the first lap in the final round, but Bourne took the double at Brands Hatch to take the title in style. The Dave Simmonds Trophy has been presented to the winner of the MotoStar championship for the last three years, recognising Dave’s 1969 125cc World Championship. CRMC 2021 CRMC chairman Gordon Russell has announced the planned 2021 calendar and it looks like this. April 17/18 – Castle Combe May 8/9 – Mallory Park June 12/13 – Pembrey July 3/4 – Cadwell Park July 31/Aug 1 – Donington Park Classic Festival September 4/5 –…

This 2020-spec Yamaha YZF-R1 sports the famous white, pink and blue colours of the late, great Fabrizio Pirovano’s 1993 Yamaha YZF750 SP and was raffled in aid of his family’s chosen charity. The special ‘Piro replica’ is a completely unique bike created by Yamaha Motor Europe and it was auctioned off late in 2020 in aid of Fondazione Oncologia Niguarda Onlus. The 1998 World Supersport champion died in 2016 after a brave battle with cancer. The lucky winner had two choices: either have the bike delivered in race trim, exactly as it was for the Estoril tribute lap (where Piro won on the YZF in 1993) or in fully road legal trim with the Piro Replica bodywork, the Akrapovič race exhaust and the Pirelli slick shod wheels supplied as a…

Those nine days between September 19-27, 1999, stand firm in the memory. We lost dad on day one of those nine days, mum on day seven and buried them on day nine. Life, for that period of time looked desolate. It truly didn’t seem like a life worth living anymore. Luckily for both myself and my elder brother Lee, we had the Chrysalis Racing family and the racing family in general to depend on. We were inundated with messages of support, phone calls and comfort. One friend even visited with a week’s food shopping which was and still is such a fine gesture under the circumstances. None of us had really eaten and there was no food in the house. But probably the most crucial phone call for our immediate…

The Yamaha R6 Cup was the highest profile one-make race series since the glory days of theYamaha Pro-Am Challenge in the early 1980s. Held for five years between 2003 and 2008, it was responsible for breeding a whole new generation of racing talent, including MotoGP winner Cal Crutchlow, British Superbike Champion Tommy Hill, British Supersport Champion Billy McConnell, and current British Superbike contender, Tommy Bridewell. The series was the brainchild of former TT winner and 500cc Grand Prix star Rob McElnea who was, at the time, running the Virgin Yamaha team in the British Superbike Championship. “Me and Andy Smith from Yamaha were having a beer and we just came up with the idea based on the old Pro-Am series and then just added things to it,” McElnea explains. “Yamaha…

// DATE: APRIL 19, 1976 // LOCATION: OULTON PARK Now here’s an evocative image of the John Player-backedTransatlanticTrophy series from the Easter weekend of 1976. It was the traditional clash between the Americans (and sometimes the odd Canadian or two) versus the Brits, and the events had been held since 1971. In that first year the riders were on Triumph/BSA three-cylinder machines and the British riders – including a certain Paul Smart – won by 183 points to 137.The American team would not have an overall series win until 1975, when the USA’s line-up was a formidable one, featuring Dave Aldana, Steve Baker, Kenny Roberts (who made his debut in front of a British crowd at the 1974 event), Gene Romero and Pat Hennen.The British team included PercyTait, StanleyWoods and…

Brilliant issue! Dear CR I always look forward to reading Classic Racer, but my goodness how I enjoyed the November/ December issue. There were a number of articles to which I could closely relate. The 250cc Mondial: I always lusted after this bike after seeing Provini win the 1957 TT but never realised that there were two versions of the cam drive. Having been lucky enough to own an RC30 the article about Steve Ward and his exploits/ achievements on one obviously rang bells and then ‘Hated Hailwood.’ I still remember riding at BEMSEE’s Trophy Day at Silverstone in 1958 when – into the paddock – comes this big Comma transporter with ‘Ecurie Sportive’ emblazoned on it. There were at least four bikes inside and with a ‘professional’ mechanic, Jim…

Former racer and now politician Christian Estrosi has been on the front-line of what France has called an ‘Islamist terrorist attack.’ Estrosi raced at the highest level in world championships, taking a best of 4th in the 1978 500cc French Grand Prix, repeating this feat the following year at the Spanish 500cc Grand Prix. Following retirement he got into politics and is the current mayor of Nice. On October 29 three people were killed outside a church in Nice by stabbing. Estrosi called it a terrorist attack, saying that the suspect shouted the words: ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest).…

THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW REMAINING ORIGINAL FACTORY 500/4S, RATHER THAN A MODERN REPLICA. ONLY 15 WERE CONSTRUCTED DURING THE DECADE PLUS THE BIKES COMPETED. IT WAS RETIRED IN 1957 WHEN GILERA (ALONG WITH MOTO GUZZI AND MONDIAL) QUIT GP RACING – ONLY TO SEE ACTION AGAIN WHEN THE ‘PRIVATE’ SCUDERIA DUKE TEAM FORMED IN 1963.…

Sheene used a Harris-framed XR45 in his final GP season in 1984 but rode this one with its factory Suzuki frame in domestic races. He took his last ever race win on it at the Scarborough Gold Cup in 1984. “It’s an ex-Randy Mamola factory GP bike from 1983,” says owner Steve Wheatman ofTeam Classic Suzuki. “When Barry retired, the bike went into the private collection of Suzuki team boss Peter Agg. It was later sold to George Beale and I bought two Sheene bikes from Peter about 10 or 15 years ago – an XR35 and this one.This bike has been ridden by Barry’s son Freddie but hadn’t been fired up for seven years until this year when we got it running for the Sheene Classic at Scarborough. We…

// DATE: FEBRUARY 24, 2003 // LOCATION: CROFT After 30 years away,Triumph returned to British racing with a full-on tilt at the 2003 British Supersport championship. Triumph teamed up with Jack Valentine, formerly of V&M Racing and the resulting ‘Triumph Valmoto’ team was a mix of youth and experience. At the helm was Jack who had a wealth of experience in drag racing, British Supersport and Superbike as well as successes at the Isle of Man TT and other road-race events. Riders were teak-tough Scot and former Supersport champ Jim Moodie and youngster Craig Jones, who later lost his life following a crash at Brands Hatch in 2008. V&M Racing was formed back in 1982 between Jack and the late, great, Steve Mellor. When Jack stopped drag racing with V&M…

Just like the Classic Dirt Bike Show, The Bristol Classic MotorCycle Show – traditionally a season curtain-raiser for us classic fans – is (for one year only) switching to a new summer date to try and beat the Covid-19 pandemic. Usually held in February at the Royal Bath & West Showground in Somerset, the 2021 event will be at the same venue but switch weekends, being held on July 24/25. Given the continued uncertainty over the pandemic during the winter, and the immediate future of events with indoor content, organiser Mortons Media Group believes the best way to ensure that the South West’s biggest and best classic bike show can go ahead is to run it later in the year. Sadly, Mortons has reluctantly taken the decision to cancel the…

Andrea Locatelli’s dominant victory in the 2020 World Supersport championship on the Bardahl Evan Bros team’s Yamaha YZF-R6, marks the 20th anniversary of the juniorYamaha sportbike’s debut world title victory in 2000, in the hands of the German Alpha Technik team rider, Jörg Teuchert. That was the first of eight world titles – so far – secured by YZF-R6 riders, ever since the 1999 debut of a bike which, like its R1 big brother the previous year in the Ultrasports category, tore up the 600 Supersport design rulebook. Straight off the drawing board the newYamaha was immediately established as the class benchmark for this ultra-competitive, best-selling category, quite a feat for a model derived from a volume-production sportbike, competing in such a closely fought series as the World Supersport Championship.…

“The Pro-Am series was mental and we got up to stuff that you’d never get away with in any other racing class,” says, Niall Mackenzie. “We used to dab each other’s front brakes going along the straights, pull on the pillion grab rail of the rider in front to get a tow, and even hold our own front forks to make a more aerodynamic shape on the bike. In fact – anything to gain another one-mile-an-hour on our rivals: it was brilliant fun and helped by the fact that no one took it too seriously.” Mackenzie is, of course, speaking of the one-makeYamaha Pro-Am series which ran on British circuits from 1981 to 1984.There have been plenty of one-make championships over the years, from theTriumph SpeedTriple Challenge, The Honda CB500…

After July’s successful return to racing at Cadwell Park, CRMC members and fans were champing at the bit in anticipation of their second 2020 round at Darley Moor. With the spectre of coronavirus a constant threat, it came as a great relief when the considerable efforts of both the CRMC and Darley circuit management came to fruition and the meeting was granted permission to go ahead. A big entry of competitors in every class (even the parades had reserves), ensured that the 38-race programme produced two days of great racing, and a strong turnout of race-starved spectators were on hand to enjoy the action. CRMC 2021 dates Castle Combe April 17/18 Mallory Park May 8/9 Pembrey June 12/13 Cadwell Park July 3/4 Donington Park Classic Festival July 31/Aug 1 Anglesey…

It began when I was daydreaming at school.To while away the boredom I would draw pictures of a motorbike on the covers of my exercise books. It was always the same bike with the same number 7 and the same DAF and Men Only logos. I couldn’t have told you what model it was; to me it was just Barry Sheene’s Suzuki race bike. Now I know it’s a factory Suzuki XR45 and that it’s incorrect to call any factory Suzuki racer an RG500: only the customer bikes are RG500s – factory bikes always begin with XR. And the reason I know this is because I’m kicking down through the race-shift gearbox and twisting the throttle wide open on that very bike I drew so often on my school books:…

This is the factory Suzuki XR84 (also known as an RGV500) as used by Kevin Schwantz in 1994 when he was the reigning world champion – hence the number 1 plate instead of the famous 34. Schwantz won with the bike in Japan and Great Britain and took further podiums in Spain, Austria, Germany and Italy before retiring in 1995. “I bought the bike in Japan approximately seven years ago,” says owner, Steve Wheatman. “I flew it to the UK and had it restored, having to manufacturer the gearbox, pistons, bearings and seals. We also replaced the carbon discs with steel ones to be practical. Since its restoration, Kevin Schwantz has ridden the bike at events in the UK and Europe as well as at Suzuka in Japan: the only…