DOBLE DELIIG!
Scotland produced a wealth of motorcycle racing talent in the 1980s and 90s, from Donnie McLeod and Niall Mackenzie to Steve Hislop, Jim Moodie, Brian Morrison, Iain MacPherson, and Iain Duffus. But one of the greatest was Ian Simpson, the Dalbeattie rider who, 26 years ago this year, pulled off an astonishing feat: not only did he become the first man to win the British Superbike Championship on a Norton, he also won the Supersport 600 Championship in the same year on a Yamaha FZR600.
And yet it wasn't for show or for glory that ‘Simmo’ took on the epic challenge – it was merely to earn a wage: “I only did it because I wasn’t getting paid a penny by Norton and I knew I could make some money in the 600 championship with Avon Tyres and Yamaha,” says Simpson, now 50.
As well as being a five-time British champion, Simpson has also won three TT races, including a Formula 1/Senior double for the Honda Britain team in 1998. But at the dawn of the 1994 season, when he signed for the Duckhams Norton team, the then 24-year-old Scot had only won the British Supersport 600 Championship (1991) and the Supersport 400 Championship (1993) and had never won a Superbike race, never mind a title.
“In 1993 I had a Francis Neil-sponsored
