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.
ARCHIVE The weather… always ready to play havoc with people’s plans, upsetting the apple cart and – sometimes – producing a sporting result no one was expecting. As is often the case with the Isle of Man races, the weather played a major part in the 1974 TT and the various events during race week. In that year, the Formula 750 race was considered ‘the main event’ and it even replaced the blue riband Senior race as the last race of the week. If the fire-breathing 750s were supposed to walk it and put on a show, no one told the other bikes and riders. Around the TT course the smaller Yamaha twin-cylinder machines were making up time on all but the big straights in the often tricky conditions. In…
ARCHIVE Eddie Lawson is one of the greatest riders of the ‘modern’ era of motorcycle racing. He came from the same California ‘crucible’ of dirt-track riding as Wayne Rainey in the 1970s – but was a few years ahead. He moved intoTarmac racing in 1979 and became a double AMA Superbike champ in 1981 and 1982, and 250cc champ in 1980 and 1981. By 1983 he would move into 500cc Grands Prix as Kenny Roberts’ team-mate, just as the three-time champ was in his final season battling the young Freddie Spencer.There was no fairytale and Spencer took the title. Then, four decades ago, Eddie took his first world title – and in some style. ‘Steady’ Eddie they called him – but steady was surely fast. Spencer may have won five…
ARCHIVE It’s three decades since Carl Fogarty became World Superbike champion for the first time. What followed from the nail-biting last-round championship win in 1994 was Carl’s domination on the Ducati V-twin, with three more titles coming in 1995, 1998 and 1999. Foggy would go on to break records for wins in the class, which were only recently beaten by six-time WSB champ Jonathan Rea. Fogarty’s championship win was made all the more remarkable thanks to injury and big changes to his Ducati team. Coming off the back of a successful 1993 where he was runner-up to Scott Russell on the Kawasaki ZXR750, the sensible move may have been keeping things the same. Instead, Ducati brought out a replacement for the 888 – the 916 racer – and replaced his…
WIN Launched in 1980, S100 has become Germany’s number one motorcycle care brand, collecting well over 100 awards along the way. We’re giving away a selection of their most popular cleaning products for your bike, helmet and riding kit. Find out more at www.thekeycollection.co.uk Across 1: The first Italian to win the 500cc World Championship after the retirement of Giacomo Agostini, and he did it on an RG500. (5,11)8: Pre-Repsol HRC sponsor when they enjoyed plenty of late 20th century success. (8)9: First name of an Aussie who raced for seven different manufacturers in WSB, winning the title for two of them. (4)10: The sort of conditions that demand a treaded tyre. (3)12: The kind of equipment you need if you’re fed up of spinning spanners manually. (5,5)13: How’s your…
Classic Racer, Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs, LN9 6JR. CRletters@mortons.co.uk facebook.com/ClassicRacerMag/ If you want to get in touch… Then please do. We read every letter, email and comment sent to us and we enjoy hearing from you whether it’s about an event coming up, a motorcycle you own or you just want to let us know about something you find interesting in CR’s world. IF I’D WANTED SHOULDER PADS… Dear CR Right, first of all (before I tell you all off) I have to say I love the magazine and look forward to it every couple of months. In fact, I’d rather like it to be monthly – but that’s just me, can’t get enough of the two-wheeled nostalgia. That said, I feel the last issue…
The Rutters honoured! The life and TT racing achievements of the Rutter family will be honoured at the 2024 Isle of Man TT Races, with a celebratory parade lap and the naming of a corner of the TT Mountain Course as ‘Rutters’. This year sees Michael Rutter mark three decades since his TT debut and almost 60 years since that of his late father, Tony. With seven race victories apiece and a total of 38 podiums and 170 TT race starts between them, the father and son duo’s achievements will be immortalised as the section formerly known as ‘Glen Helen 1’ is renamed in their collective honour. The Rutter Legacy Lap will see respects paid to Tony by Michael, riding one of his father’s original Ducatis, and a Yamaha TZ350…
