SKIP RACER
IF YOU WANT TO be competitive in Historic Racing, a BMW twin is probably not the first bike on your wish list. Built by meticulous Germans as dependable touring bikes they’re not renowned for either handling or power, neither are they lightweight or compact, so really, there’s not much going for them as a race bike. That of course, is the fun of it; taking the most unlikely bike and turning it into a race winner.
That’s just what John Downs along with friend and tuner Jim Cray of Cray Engineering in England has done. After several years racing a Norton twin in the UK’s Classic Racing Motorcycle Club, John was looking to upgrade to a more competitive ride. “The Norton was an original 1964 Atlas engine in a featherbed frame,” says John, “ it was good for a top ten finish and the occasional podium, I even won a couple of races, usually in the wet, but at that time the Rob North triples were really the thing to have unless you went for a re-engineered Norton which were just starting to come out. People like Steve Maney were just bringing their strengthened Norton crankcases and barrels which is what limited the Norton’s power output, but mine was
