May - June 2019

Classic Racer

Where legends live on

Classic Racer1 min readAutomotive
#2 It's The Classic Racer Crossword!
The time is here once again, when we can all settle down and pit our wits against the heady combination of black and white boxes, steered only by the feverishly-clever mind of Classic Racer’s own Ben Rumbold. In short, whet your racing whistle with
Classic Racer6 min read
Readers Write
Dear CR Your correspondent Sylvain Jégo is hoping to identify the frame of the bike he’s just bought. It bears some similarity to a Jim Lee framed Yamaha TR2B I owned and raced back in 1974. The swinging arm looks like it might be chromed, or more li
Classic Racer2 min read
Flying Haggis Remembered In Style
This year’s Isle of Man ClassicTT will celebrate the career of the late Steve Hislop, one of the greatest British motorcycle racers of all time. Entitled ‘Back to the Future: The Hizzy Years’ the celebration takes place 30 years after Steve set the f
Classic Racer1 min readAutomotive
100th Tt Races Celebrated
Following the lead set by The Carole Nash International MotorCycle Show in April, the Jurby-based Isle of Man TT Museum will be marking the 100th Tourist Trophy Meeting during the 2019 TT. To celebrate the milestone, the team at the Isle of Man Motor
Classic Racer2 min read
Oliver’s Mount Tickets Now On Sale
Tickets are now available for the relaunched Barry Sheene Classic and the International Gold Cup at Scarborough’s famous Oliver’s Mount. Duke Marketing, operators of the iomtt.com website, will be managing and selling tickets in partnership with the
Classic Racer2 min read
Bollywood Comes To The Island
The Isle of Man is to be the location for a major Bollywood feature film co-produced by and starring actor John Abraham (left). Shooting on the as-yet untitled road racing film is due to begin in July, with Duke Video acting as technical consultants
Classic Racer1 min read
Dan Sayle Returns
Sulby’s Dan Sayle, who was seriously injured during last year’s Classic TT, is set to make a return to road racing at the Blackford’s Pre-TT Classic Road Races held on the Colas Billown Course on Friday, Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday, May 24-25 an
Classic Racer1 min readAutomotive
Classic Dirt Bike Show Success
Thousands of visitors descended on the Telford International Centre for the Classic Dirt Bike Show, sponsored by Hagon Shocks, in February, illustrating the strength of the classic off-road scene. The show was packed with off-road machines, private r
Classic Racer3 min readAutomotive
What’s It Like To Ride?
Where each successive version had felt like the powered-up progeny of the previous year, the world champion Honda had a character all of its own. Riding Kocinski’s RC45 first underlined this. To make this bike motor, I had to ride it like the four-st
Classic Racer8 min readAutomotive
Honda’s 1997 Rc45 Reinventing The Wheel
Honda knew it had to come up with a radical advance on current four-cylinder Superbike technology if it was to stand a chance of elbowing its way back to the top of the rostrum. It had been a three-year absence from the Superbike paddock – a long tim
Classic Racer2 min readAutomotive
Hard As Nails
We are back from our annual Daytona holiday, slightly jet-lagged and I wish I could still feel that warm Florida sunshine on my back, but what a great trip it turned out to be. However, this visit was one with a twist in the tale. Yes, we got all th
Classic Racer10 min read
I Created A Monster!
“Looking back now, I didn’t need to be as selfish, as outspoken and arrogant as I once was: I realise now that I created a monster!” Carl Fogarty: four-time World Superbike champion, three-time Isle of Man TT winner (and former lap record holder), 19
Classic Racer2 min readAutomotive
The Generation Game
With nearly 60 racing seasons between them, Bill (1954-67), Mick (1966-98) and Mick Boddice Junior (1989-2000) are up there with the Jeffries, Hanks and Rutters in terms of most successful racing dynasties. Bill had ACU ‘Stars’ in 1960 and 1962 and M
Classic Racer14 min read
Drifting WITH MICK
“I suppose my most memorable race was the Ulster GP, where I had a wheel-to-wheel battle with Jock Taylor. He was world champion at the time and he’d lead one lap and I’d lead the next – it just went backwards and forwards, a real good ride.Then, on
Classic Racer3 min readAutomotive
WE FEW, WE HAPPY FEW, WE BAND of BROTHERS...
Without a shadow of doubt, they were the ‘dream team’ of Machin and Saunders garage at West Barkwith, near Wragby, Lincolnshire – diminutive ace rider Steve Machin and his wife June; June’s brother and general engine man Dave Saunders; top engineer D
Classic Racer1 min read
What’s In A Name?
“The Road Racers is a very ordinary title”, explains Wallace. “My original idea was to call the film ‘The Race for Seconds’ and there was a subtitle I considered ‘For Champagne Read Guinness’ but that would never have worked because the guys never dr
Classic Racer2 min readAutomotive
On Two Wheels
Mick ran a successful race school at Darley Moor for many years – editor Carter being among its alumni – but there were competitive solo race rides too. He did the Formula TTs 1978-82, kicking off with a very respectable eleventh in the 1978 F3, but
Classic Racer10 min read
The Road Racers The Making Of A Classic
“Most people’s image of bike racing at that time was of Barry Sheene and all the glamour that surrounded him with the Brut adverts on TV,” says David Wallace. It was 1977. Sheene had won his second 500cc world title and enjoyed a playboy lifestyle mo
Classic Racer1 min read
The Road Racers II: A missed opportunity
In 2009, the first new road race to be staged in Northern Ireland for 50 years was held in Armoy as a tribute to the Armoy Armada. David Wallace almost made a film about the event that his original documentary helped to create but in the end it never
Classic Racer8 min readAutomotive
Jim Blomley Racing
To get under the skin of Two Wheel Classics, we sat down with owner Jim Blomley at his Warrington home and workshop for a quick interview. In between a move to new premises, we took the chance to question him about the past, present and future, while
Classic Racer3 min read
The Magic Mountain Of Oz Pt2
Greg Pretty sits inside the concrete wall at Bathurst’s GTX Bend, sipping reflectively on a steel tin of Carton Draught while he fiddles with the ring-pull clip. Moments earlier he had been on target to claim second place in the 500GP on the Yamaha-P
Classic Racer2 min readAutomotive
Mac Attack
Easter 1982: Big crowds and big bikes. The Arai 500, now in its fourth year, was the showcase and ultimate gruelling test of the latest and greatest Japanese four-cylinder road bikes. As well as an engine having to survive three hours at full throttl
Classic Racer2 min read
Whatever Happened To...? BOB ANDERSON
He started to get promising results in 1955 on an ex-Ted Davis G45 at Crystal Palace and Castle Combe and finished eighth in the Senior Manx GP. Riding Nortons in 1956 he won the 500cc North West 200, after race leader Bob McIntyre was flagged off on
Classic Racer2 min read
Twin Peaks
Bathurst mirrored major motorcycle trends throughout the Seventies and Eighties and nowhere is this more obvious than in the number of Ducati specials that raced on The Mountain in the mid-1980s. Battle of the Twins was becoming a worldwide alternati
Classic Racer1 min read
Eye Candy
All through the years, Bathurst has attracted some of the world’s most exotic motorcycles, both race and prototypes, plus some amazing specials. Perhaps the best example of lateral thinking was Greg Pretty’s chain-drive XS1100.Tuner Mal Pitman (who l
Classic Racer1 min readCrime & Violence
Bad Bathurst
Bathurst’s popularity for motorcyclists waned in the mid 1980s after years of riots. In response to big clashes on The Mountain in 1981, NSW police brought in the newly-formed Tactical Response Group the following year. Sadly, the situation didn’t im

Classic Racer

More Issues From Classic Racer