Innholdsfortegnelse for March - April 2024 i Classic Racer

Giacomo Agostini – a legend and all-time most successful rider in Grand Prix history. Eight 500cc championships and seven 350cc championships: perhaps his astonishing record will never be surpassed? Critics will say that a number of his titles were against little in the way of opposition when on the dominant MV Agusta machines in both classes, but you can only beat the racers and machines that are there. Fifty years ago he made a brave move, from the Italian four-stroke race machines at MV Agusta to the new two-stroke 500cc machines fromYamaha. Perhaps the move was more about serving notice to MV. In 1973 Ago dutifully gave them another 350cc world title but lost out to team-mate Phil Read in the 500cc class, who was armed with the newer four-cylinder…

The launch at the 2023 EICMA Show of the Ducati Hypermotard 698 Mono street-bike, powered by the all-new Superquadro Mono engine, represents the introduction of the Italian manufacturer’s first single-cylinder customer model in exactly 30 years... since the Supermono road racer made its racetrack debut in 1993. More than three decades after it first appeared at the October 1992 Cologne Show, the Ducati Supermono doesn’t just remain the most sophisticated and innovative single-cylinder motorcycle yet conceived – even compared with the firm’s latest arrival – it’s also become the rarest and most collectible customer model of any built so far by the Bologna company, with just 67 bikes built in total and 30-year-old examples now changing hands for six-figure sums. The brainchild of former Ducati engineering guru Massimo Bordi, who…

When Suzuki Racing Promotions was set up in the autumn of 1981 to run Suzuki’s official Grand Prix effort, the Heron Suzuki GB team that had previously been the official GP squad was free to focus on domestic races, various internationals and the TT Formula 1 world championship. The team would, however, still field the occasional rider in select Grands Prix and would act as a springboard for mercurial talents like Kevin Schwantz. For the 1982 season, team coordinator Rex White went overboard and signed no fewer than five riders: Mick Grant, Keith Huewen (who had been loaned an RG500 Mk VII by Heron Suzuki in 1981 to run under his own steam), Paul Iddon, Mark Boughton and Roger Marshall. The riders shared a mixture of semi-factory Mk VII RG500s,…

As its name suggests, Cadwell Park evolved out of parkland and, because it follows the natural contours of that land, it provides a rollercoaster ride like no other circuit on Earth. Encompassing wide open spaces and heavily wooded areas, the jewel in Cadwell’s crown is the legendary Mountain section where race bikes spectacularly take to the air and threaten to buck out of control on landing. Because of the up-and-down nature of the track, Cadwell is known as the mini-Nürburgring. It’s also one of the oldest circuits in Britain. The land the circuit lies within originally belonged to Mansfield Wilkinson of Louth (the circuit is just five miles south of the Lincolnshire town) who bought it in 1927 with the intention of using it for shooting parties. But, after his…

SUPER SCOT IAN SIMPSON PART 2 ICONIC METAL 1955 DUCATI 125 BIALBERO SPIKE AND BARRY MIKE EDWARDS BUILDS A BUDGET CLASSIC RACER CALLED BARRY! SHEENE MACHINE BARRY’S MANX NORTON RACING CHEATS THEY DIDN’T, DID THEY? WHISTLING DIXIE DARREN DIXON *The next issue of Classic Racer is on sale on April 18. The editor reserves the right to move things about a bit, depending on space available to bring you the best motorcycle racing features from across many decades! So don’t moan at him if something isn’t in the mag – instead, why not get a subscription? Check out page 22. PLUS: ‘WHATEVER HAPPENED TO’ DENIS PARKINSON;YOUR RACE PICTURES FROM ‘BACK IN THE DAY’, AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! *…

ARCHIVE Anthony Gobert was an incredibly talented off-road and Tarmac racer, who should have become a world champion. “Without any doubt, Anthony Gobert was the biggest natural talent I ever saw ride during my career,” said Colin Edwards, two-time World Superbike champ and former MotoGP star. James Whitham also echoed this sentiment, saying: “When I followed him on track, when he was on his game I couldn’t follow him for more than two corners before throwing it into the trees. He was a very special talent on a bike.” Anthony Gobert was an off-road racer who came late to the Tarmac. By the time he’d come to road racing in the early 1990s, Gobert had already learned a great deal and had a wild, rear-wheel sliding style. He was teamed…

Rod Coleman came from good motorcycle racing stock, being the son of Percy ‘Cannonball’ Coleman, a successful Kiwi grasstrack racer who also found success in the USA on the asphalt. Also, Rod’s younger brother, Bob, was a successful racer himself in his native New Zealand, and in Australia. Born in 1926, Rod’s introduction to motorcycling came early, very early, as the family home was an apartment above his father’s business premises. His first solo ride came at nine-years-old on an Excelsior two-stroke, and by 15 he had graduated to a 1938 MSS Velocette. For the next eight years the Velo served as daily transport and an ‘all-purpose’ racer, campaigned in grasstrack races, beach races, hill climbs and road-races, although these were basically dirt/gravel tracks at the time. Rod Coleman attended…

After the Second World War, in May 1945, Czechoslovakia ended on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain and under communist control. Life was hard there and almost all was bad – bad government, bad jobs, bad education, bad medicine, bad food, bad apartments/houses and living conditions. However, communism could not put out the great enthusiasm for motorcycle racing. The Jawa factory was founded in 1929 and continued to manufacture motorcycles even after the Second World War. A great group of very talented engineers worked there, who were able to develop their own racing motorcycles very successfully indeed. Jawa’s best days came in 1961, when Frantisek Stastny finished second and his team-mate Gusta Havel third in the 350cc world championship. Stastny with Jawa was very successful during the 1960s and…

ARCHIVE “That is my bloody traction control mate…” Mick Doohan points to his right wrist, leaving the young journalist asking the question, a tad flustered. It was a relevant question: was Mick using all the various tech aids that the other HRC riders were rumoured to be using in the early 1990s? Apparently not: Shinichi Ito (who’d cracked 200mph at the Salzburgring) was running a Honda NSR with fuel-injection, but the HRC press officer said he was on carbs when he did it. Mick just wanted to use tried and tested parts on his NSR500. After all, he’d come such a long way and knew what worked. Mick’s career trajectory was meteoric: 18 months after riding a 250cc production bike, two top 500cc Grand Prix teams were after his signature…

“THIS PARTICULAR BIKE IS PROVINI’S 1964 SPANISH GP-WINNING MACHINE SENT TO THE US FOR DISPLAY AT THE DAYTONA MOTOR SHOW BY THE US IMPORTER COSMOPOLITAN MOTORS. IT STAYED IN THE US UNTIL IT WAS BOUGHT BY THE CURRENT OWNER AND EXPORTED TO SPAIN, AND IS QUITE DIFFERENT TO THE ORIGINAL BIKE THAT WAS RACED BY SILVIO GRASSETTI DURING 1962-63.”…

Dalbeattie, a small, sleepy town in Galloway, south-west Scotland, is better known for producing granite than top level sportsmen. But just outside the town lives one of the most underrated British riders of the last few decades. Ian Simpson isn’t big on self-promotion and never has been. He lives a quiet life riding trials and enduro bikes in the Galloway Hills, and also runs a motorcycle touring company, guiding clients around some of the best, and least-known, roads in Scotland. To all intents and purposes, he appears to be nothing more than a mad keen biker, just like the rest of us. It’s the silverware around the house that gives away his true identity. Three TT trophies and five separate cups marking each of his British Championship titles, stand sentinel…