Innehållsförteckning för July - August 2020 från Classic Racer

Feel the noise! // DATE: AUGUST 28, 1967 // LOCATION: OULTON PARK And smell the smell too! A field of (largely) two-stroke 250s fire up, with Phil Read quickest on the draw, already aboard the 250ccYamaha and heading off to chase another victory during the season in which he was four times a GP winner and top scored jointly with Mike Hailwood (Honda) for the 250cc world crown, Read losing out by virtue of Hailwood's five wins. Read was runner-up in the 125cc class, too, this time to team-mate Bill Ivy; but the Prince of Speed reaped his revenge the next season - with Honda and Hailwood both retired from the scene, he bested Little Bill in both 125 and 250cc classes. Joining Read on the grid at Oulton Park…

Australia'sTroy Corser marked the 20th anniversary staging of the UK's Goodwood Revival in 2018 by thundering to his debut victory in the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy event - the world's most prestigious historic motorcycle race, which that year catered for pre-1954 bikes up to 1000cc. Corser did so together with Austrian teammate Herbert Schwab aboard the oldest bike in the race, a supercharged 1929 500cc BMW R57 Kompressor boxer twin, owned and prepared by Herbert's father Paul Schwab. A retired Nissan dealer from near Salzburg, Paul's hobby for the past 50 years has been restoring, tuning and racing vintage BMWs. "Troy is an extremely nice guy, who's incredibly skilled as well as so cheerful, and good to have around;' said Paul. "How he rides the bike is just unbelievable -…

Doohan, Dirt Quake, Jonathan Rea and the state of Motor Cycle News. All come up as Dave Croxford works on the Expresso machine while simultaneously extolling the virtues ofTroy Corser's ride on a hand-change BMW at Goodwood a couple of years ago, as featured elsewhere in this issue. I've pulled Dave from the garage where, neglecting the Triumph car gearboxes he's been doing since the 1960s, he's had the back wheel out of his latest Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200, which Euro 4 emissions regulations have evidently made rather thirsty. Not something to be sniffed at, given the mileage he's just clocked. "Most years, the end of April to the end of July, we go to Portugal;' he said. "We'd stay longer but the prices treble after. Once you get off…

Three wins in four years at the Isle of Mann along with two one-make British Championship wins, earned Geoff Johnson the moniker 'Mr Production; and throughout the 1980s he was one of the UK's leading riders, first as a privateer and then with factory backing. Hailing from Richmond in NorthYorkshire, Johnson, born in September 1952, took up racing in 1974, his affair with the 37.73-mile Mountain Course starting two years later, with his Manx Grand Prix debut. It was an encouraging bow too, as he finished 11th in the Junior. A brace of retirements followed in 1977 but he was back in 1978, coming eighth in the Senior, then a glimpse of what lay ahead came in 1979 with second in the Senior, on a Lambert Yamaha. Continuing to compete…

HAPPY MEMORIES Dear CR Thank you for publishing the photo of Bryan Rust and I on the KGB Imp, in issue 201, it brought back many happy memories of Snetterton's Race of Aces in 1973. This was our first year racing with the Imp, which replaced the BSA that had a terminal engine failure at Estoril, Portugal in 1972 The outfits in hot pursuit were number two George O'Dell and Bill Boblison on a 750cc BSA, number three a 750cc Trident crewed by R Dutton and T Wright, 15 a 998cc Rhombus Imp ridden by L Langridge and L Evans and, finally, 11 Chris Nickells (who, like me, still competes in Belgium with the Belgium Classic Club) and his passenger Jim Widdas, on a 970cc Komnick. Alan Bedford, Sutton Bridge.…

Australian two-time World Superbike champion Troy Corser, 48, has been a regular contender for a rostrum finish at the Goodwood Revival ever since he first raced there eight years ago, after his final season in World Superbike with the BMW factory team in 2011. As a continuation of that, he's always raced BMWs in the Revival, but never as a genuine dry-weather victory hopeful. Here's his take on finally breaking his Goodwood duck. AC:Troy, was it hard work riding the 1929 BMW to victory at Goodwood against bikes that were 25 years younger, and considerably better behaved? TC: It was different, that's for sure! The BMW had lots of power, but obviously the hand gearshift was the hardest thing to get used to. It's actually on the right-hand side of…

Speed cameras were, thankfully, few and far between during most of Derek Powell's lifetime. Even so, he became quite well known to the local constabulary, and by his own admission, was a bit of a tearaway, on two wheels and four. On a couple of occasions, he simply out-sped his police pursuers. Born in Malaya in 1928, Derek lived most of his life in the New Forest/Christchurch area, growing up in the village of Sway, and it was there that he met his future wife Jean, their honeymoon 'happily coinciding' with the 1951 Clubman's TT, Derek's debut year. Writing in 2005, Derek noted: 'When I first started motorcycling I was a BSA fanatic. I loved the Gold Stars and travelled many miles to see them winning scrambles. I followed the…

Dictator General Francisco Franco ruled Spain with an iron fist in an iron glove from 1939 until his death in 1975. He had risen to power after the bloody Spanish Civil War, which his Republican side had won with the help of the Condor Legion of Hitler's Nazi Germany and the support of fascist Italy. It was with this regime as a political background that the motorcycle manufacturer Bultaco was established in 1958. The firm Bultaco came into being after the two founding fathers of the Spanish motorcycle manufacturer Montesa (established in 1945), Francisco Bulto and Pedro Permanyer, had very publicly fallen out over Montesa's participation in racing, with Permanyer wanting to withdraw all efforts, against Bulto's wishes.Consequently Bulto, who firmly believed in racing as a means of attracting positive…

To have been the first racing casualty flown to hospital in the Isle of Man TT helicopter could be considered a dubious claim to fame, but in Tony Godfrey's case it was well worth remembering. This first mercy flight unquestionably saved his life in 1963. Tony was seriously injured when he crashed during the second lap of the 250cc TT as he diced for the lead with his Yamaha team-mate Furnia ltoh and Honda rival Jim Redman. Having lapped at 95mph, a second behind ltoh but eight seconds ahead of Redman, Tony was travelling at well over 120mph when his twin cylinder works Yamaha suddenly locked its rear wheel as he dived into Milntown, near Ramsey. Doctors said he would have died from his injuries but for the helicopter getting…

For anyone who was obsessed with GP racing in the late 1980s and 1990s, like I was, then the traditional season-opening GP in Japan was one of intrigue, mainly as all the local Japanese hotshots would turn up and stick it to the regular GP riders. The Japanese lads were often on full factory bikes, YZRs and NSRs, even RGVs, as well as tricked up RS Honda and TZYamahas too. It was fascinating. But what I loved even more was the paint schemes - there was just something about them that ensured they looked different and stood out. The Cup Noodle Hondas being one such example; I think it was the fact it was noodles (remember, in the UK this was when a chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle was considered…

A career in a lap. Passing on the start straight behind the windshield of the 2011 Pramac Ducati, number 65 on the front fairing, the typical desmo sound coming out strong from the exhausts. Loris Capirossi on the seat, about 10 minutes before the end of the qualifying session. The 38-year-old Italian brakes for turn one, dives into the corner. He feels good, senses he can improve his lap time and gain some positions on the starting grid for tomorrow's race. What a track Assen is for him. In 2000, he came out as a hero when he raced with a broken hand and finished third riding a private 500cc Honda. In 1993, he had won his first race in the 250cc class. Three years before, during his dream rookie…