Classic Racer takes you so close you can actually smell the Castrol R. With the world's finest archive, and an editorial team who live and breathe the sport, the only way you'll get closer will be to put on your leathers.
Racers love to get the full ‘gentleman’s set’ of pole position, race win and fastest lap, and Barry Sheene achieved just that at the Swedish Grand Prix of 1977… Barry put his Suzuki RG500 on pole position at the 2.497-mile Anderstorp circuit for the 28-lap race with a best time of 1m 40.28s ahead of his rivals Johnny Cecotto, Pat Hennen and Giacomo Agostini on the grid. Despite not getting the best of push starts, Barry would win the race from Cecotto by just under three seconds, with Baker in 3rd and Steve ‘Stavros’ Parrish in an excellent 4th place. Sheene’s best lap of 1m 39.80s would also be the fastest of the race. In his book ‘Leader of the Pack’ with Ian Beacham, Barry says: “It was another maximum…
It’s 1984 and the Transatlantic Trophy isn’t quite what it used to be… Thanks to issues with the circuits used in the previous events, Donington Park owner Tom Wheatcroft had to step in to use the Leicestershire track for all six races held over Easter Sunday and Monday in front of 85,000 fans. The American team would feature the top riders of the time, competing at home and abroad – although Wayne Rainey would crash in practice, and be ruled out of the races thanks to injury and Freddie Spencer would crash and break bones in both his feet. The team facing them was a mixed British/Commonwealth contingent, including Australian Wayne Gardner and Kiwi Graeme Crosby. Despite the Americans winning all the races, the British Commonwealth team would win on…
Fabrizio Pirovano was the original ‘pocket rocket’ and his all-action style, clambering all over his BYRDYamaha OW-01 in the early 1990s, was the stuff of legend. A rock-hard motocrosser, he was a national champion in that tough regime, before heading to the tarmac in 1986. Just two years later and he was fighting for the World Superbike championship, such was his adaptability. He was a real character in the mould of what the WSB series was aimed at: a talented privateer with a modicum of factory support. His 1988 FZ750 was emblazoned with a raft of small sponsors in a team managed by his sister. But his stature grew (even if he didn’t, he got the pocket rocket nickname for a reason) and his 10 race wins in WSB as…
A STICKY SUBJECT… Dear CR I had to chuckle at the front cover of Classic Racer last time out: the-then two-seasons-old ‘Kent Racing Combine’ (KRC) fluorescent orange stickers holding down Kevin Schwantz’s and Wayne Rainey’s racing numbers on the front of their works bikes, flown in from the USA… Ha ha! Way ahead of his time, I feel this was great recycling by Colin Dodd the chief KRC scrutineer, little did he know how many times these pictures would have been published! I mean, it would be like Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez’s Yamaha M1 and Honda RCV factory bikes adorned with BEMSEE stickers! Thinking back, I was watching or maybe marshalling that day, the racing was fantastic: Schwantz and Rainey fairing bashing from the off, lap-after-lap: I had never…
TEAM HATES! Dear CR Just wanted to say how much I giggled at the ‘Team-Hates’ feature in the last issue. I could almost hear some of the stars you featured say some of those words – especially Graeme ‘Croz’ Crosby: I can’t wait for the second part of this feature. I would love to hear more of this – maybe even getting a head -to - head with people who went through really tight title fights. I bet age has mellowed them, eh? My only thought to ‘Team Hates’ is whether you should have included Barry Sheene – wasn’t he a bloody nightmare with anyone he was plonked in a team with? I’m sure many of his former team-mates would agree, even if they (like the rest of us) miss…
Cookstown cool! The Cookstown 100 Irish road race celebrated its centenary on April 23. Many stars of the sport have graced the County Tyrone country roads circuit over the past 100 years, including Mike Hailwood, Joey Dunlop, Ralph Bryans and Franta Stastny. Fans were treated to a surprise when Guy Martin appeared unannounced in the paddock, ready to race his gun-metal grey 750cc BSA in the senior classic event on the morning of practice. It’s not uncommon for the retired TT star-turned TV-personality to show up at the Irish race meetings, but normally the fans are aware that the popular Lincolnshire man will be in attendance before the morning of the event. Martin managed to talk the organisers into classifying him as a newcomer as it had been five years…
