July - August 2022

Classic Racer

Where legends live on

Classic Racer1 min read
Classic Racer
Bertie Simmonds bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk Tim Hartley thartley@mortons.co.uk Don Morley, Stuart Barker, Clive Challinor, Mick Ofield, Alan Cathcart, Fred Pidcock, Phil Aynsley, Graham Lawlor, Pete Morris, Ben McCook, Mark McCloskey, Philippe de Lespina
Classic Racer2 min read
Winning Formula!
It’s 1984 and the Transatlantic Trophy isn’t quite what it used to be… Thanks to issues with the circuits used in the previous events, Donington Park owner Tom Wheatcroft had to step in to use the Leicestershire track for all six races held over East
Classic Racer5 min read
Readers Write
Dear CR I had to chuckle at the front cover of Classic Racer last time out: the-then two-seasons-old ‘Kent Racing Combine’ (KRC) fluorescent orange stickers holding down Kevin Schwantz’s and Wayne Rainey’s racing numbers on the front of their works
Classic Racer2 min read
Fantastic Fabrizio!
Fabrizio Pirovano was the original ‘pocket rocket’ and his all-action style, clambering all over his BYRDYamaha OW-01 in the early 1990s, was the stuff of legend. A rock-hard motocrosser, he was a national champion in that tough regime, before headin
Classic Racer1 min read
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... if you’ve an event coming up, a motorcycle you own, or just want to let us know about something you find interesting in Classic Racer’s world. ■
Classic Racer2 min read
Start Letter
Dear CR Just wanted to say how much I giggled at the ‘Team-Hates’ feature in the last issue. I could almost hear some of the stars you featured say some of those words – especially Graeme ‘Croz’ Crosby: I can’t wait for the second part of this featu
Classic Racer6 min read
Paddock Gossip
The Cookstown 100 Irish road race celebrated its centenary on April 23. Many stars of the sport have graced the County Tyrone country roads circuit over the past 100 years, including Mike Hailwood, Joey Dunlop, Ralph Bryans and Franta Stastny. Fans
Classic Racer2 min read
Shop Corner
This excellent book by Raymond Ainscoe and Amedeo Perrone charts the career of the late, great Umberto Masetti, Italy’s first 500cc world champion. In more than 40 pages, this lavishly illustrated and limited-edition book (only 200 printed) tells the
Classic Racer5 min read
Whatever Happened To? ROY FRANCIS
On July 10, 1999, Brands Hatch played host to the final running of the Bill Ivy Memorial Meeting, with the Bill IvyTrophy being awarded for the final time before being ‘retired’. Many people helped to make that star-studded tribute/celebration happen
Classic Racer1 min read
Ducati 888 Superbike
Engine: Water-cooled DOHC 90-degree V-twin four-stroke with four valves per cylinder, desmodromic valve operation and toothed belt camshaft drive Dimensions: 94 x 64 mm Capacity: 888cc Output: 134bhp at 11,200 rpm Compression ratio: 12.2:1 Fuel/
Classic Racer12 min read
Police Bike!
Thirty years ago in 1992, Ducati made it a hat-trick of World Superbike crowns for the Italian manufacturer, thanks to its reigning champion Doug Polen successfully defending his title on his Ducati 888 run by the Police-sponsored factory race team –
Classic Racer3 min read
1992 WORLD SUPERBIKE RULES: Loaded Dice?
In 1992, with the World Superbike Championship celebrating its fifth anniversary, there was a widespread feeling among all teams and manufacturers that it was time to take stock of the previous half-decade of world-level four-stroke racing. No motorc
Classic Racer12 min read
New Lease Of Life...
Despite winning the first two of Grand Prix road racing’s 350cc World Championships ever staged in 1949-50, courtesy of Freddie Frith and Bob Foster, the Velocette KTT Mark VIII was a two-wheeled anachronism that ended up being much more than the sum
Classic Racer4 min read
Iconic Metal 1966 Greeves Silverstone
Some motorcycle companies ‘march to a different drum’ – Greeves was one of those! In 1941 Bert Greeves teamed up with disabled Derry Cobb to make three-wheel vehicles for the disabled under the name Invacar (invalid carriages was the name given to th
Classic Racer1 min read
Duke Velocette 350
Engine: Air-cooled SOHC single-cylinder dry sump four-stroke with bevel gear camshaft drive Dimensions: 74 x 81mm Capacity: 348cc Output: 34bhp at 7000rpm Carburation: 1 x 1 5/32in. [29.36mm] Amal 10 TT Ignition: Lucas magneto Compression ratio:
Classic Racer8 min read
Shooting Starr!
It’s quite a road that leads from comprehensive school and technical college in Coventry, England, during the late 1950s and early 60s, through to making motorcycle films in, of all places, Hollywood – I mean, just ask Peter Starr! “If I ever wanted
Classic Racer10 min read
Sheene ‘77
Elvis died, the Queen celebrated her silver jubilee, the Sex Pistols were causing anarchy in the UK, the first Star Wars film was released, and Evel Knievel attempted to jump over a tank full of live sharks. 1977 was a good year, and it was made even
Classic Racer1 min read
Bhr/vmcc At Mallory Park
The first rounds of the British Historic Racing/Vintage Motor Cycle Club season took place at Mallory Park recently. April 9/10 should have seen rounds one and two at the Leicestershire circuit but tragedy struck when the meeting on day two was aband
Classic Racer1 min read
Buy ‘Take It To The Limit’
Taking it to the Limit is available for just £45 from www.mor tonsbooks.co.uk and comes with a FREE DVD showing clips from many of Starr’s most popular films. Author, Peter Starr, has signed 50 copies so order yours today to guarantee your signed cop
Classic Racer2 min read
Back In The Day
COLIN LOGUE SAYS: “Back in the 1980/90s I worked part-time for a racing magazine. During that time I took hundreds of photos, most of them action shots. However, one of my favourites is the one of Joey Dunlop walking through the crowd at a North West
Classic Racer10 min read
The fighting Irish!
Taking part in the 1989 Macau Grand Prix was completely different to anything Eddie Laycock could have ever imagined… MikeTrimby had arranged the invite whilst all flights, freight and hotels were paid for by the organisers.The humidity was almost o
Classic Racer1 min read
Welsh Wizards!
It’s a long journey to Pembrey for many members but well worth it when you get there with its wide variety of corners, curves and straights, and for spectators there are some excellent views to be had from the grassy banking. Easter holiday weather i
Classic Racer10 min read
Team-hates! Part Two
It's a rule of thumb in racing that you have to beat your team-mate. And to beat him (or her) you must employ every method at your disposal…After all, all is fair in love, war and motorcycle racing, right? It makes sense to have two riders in a team:
Classic Racer2 min read
Delectable Derbi!
I am an avid reader of Classic Racer which I receive every other month in sunny California. I would like to share my story of the early involvement in 50 and 125cc racing by the Derbi-Rabasa motorcycle company of Mollet del Valles, from 1960 through
Classic Racer2 min read
Sheene’s Set
Racers love to get the full ‘gentleman’s set’ of pole position, race win and fastest lap, and Barry Sheene achieved just that at the Swedish Grand Prix of 1977… Barry put his Suzuki RG500 on pole position at the 2.497-mile Anderstorp circuit for the

Classic Racer

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