RIGHT, SAID FRED
The text read: “nip round to my brother’s garage; he’s just about to fettle Fred Merkel’s Honda RC30 for Goodwood”. SMS messages like that tend to grab your attention.
Fellow villager, bike-mad enthusiast and occasional wind-up merchant Andy Kirkwood does like the odd bit of leg pulling now and again but this time he assured me he wasn’t setting me up.
Queue the raising of the roller shutter door by way of a roll on the drums and there it was, the real deal. If there’s one thing our classic world has yet to be able to replicate itone of the most significant in recent times. The frankly strange and curious colour scheme of the machine defines it as the very bike that won the inaugural World Superbike Series piloted by Fred Merkel (more on whom see page 34-on). Oscar Rumi sponsored the bike and ran the team and RC30 together, made history by winning the first two titles in 1988 and 1989.
