1985 will be forever remembered in motorcycle Grand Prix circles as being the year of the Spencer 250/500 historic double. Though it so nearly wasn’t… This was the moment that Freddie Spencer genuinely believed that
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It’s a Production – The TT class
The first races took place at the 1967 Diamond Jubilee TT as the ACU celebrated the occasion with the newly introduced format of racing. Held over three laps of the 37.73-mile Mountain Course, the race
Read moreFinding the formula, 750 style. Part 2
In the previous issue we told you the story of how the 750 class began and evolved into a class that drew big names, big races and big outcomes. Here’s the continuing story of the
Read moreRed Fox Grinta. A classic Ducati.
Controversy may have surrounded this magnificent-looking motorcycle at the end of last year’s Classic TT, but don’t let that cloud your judgement of this bike. Look at it. It’s immense. Redfox-Grinta is well known in classic
Read moreGeoff Duke the lost interview
Geoff Duke won six 350cc and 500cc world championships between 1951 and 1955 and six TT races between 1949 and 1955. He was racing’s first true superstar and household name, winning the Sportsman of the
Read moreWar of attrition
Right from the start of the race it was the two fast MVs that got away with seconds in hand over the chasing pack. Indeed, by the end of that first lap it was
Read moreThe Honda CR93 The privateer’s ultimate weapon (and my eventually successful search for one)
I swear that a butterfly landing on a leaf would have been heard by all. Then the starter’s flag dropped; there was the patter of feet and the spluttered cacophony of assorted two-stroke engines; but above
Read moreDave Simmonds (and Kawasaki’s ‘red tank racers’)
Perhaps you have to go further back to the charismatic ‘naked’ US Championship superbikes of Eddie Lawson, David Aldana and Wayne Rainey in the late 1970s and early Eighties or the World Championship winning
Read moreHarley’s 2-stroke star One Year Wonder
The chance to ride the one and only factory Harley-Davidson 500GP racer ever built came on a sunny summer’s day at Pirelli’s Vizzola test track, just half an hour from the lakeside Schiranna factory near
Read moreBarry Sheene’s first 500cc Grand Prix win
In 1971 he scored three GP wins on the ex-Stuart Graham 125 Suzuki at Spa, Belgium; Anderstorp, Sweden and Imatra, Finland. He’d even won the 50cc GP in Brno, Czechoslovakia, as guest rider for the
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