MV AGUSTA MOUNTED TT STARS JOHNSTON AND HARRISON LEAD STRONG OKELLS BREWERY 350cc CLASSIC TT RACE ENTRY Spacer

A stellar line up has entered the Okells Brewery 350cc Race at this year's Classic TT presented by Bennetts and with the riders and machines, arguably, more evenly matched than any other race, it could prove to be the closest of the festival. The race, which was oversubscribed with a number of high quality entries, is scheduled to take place on Bank Holiday Monday 31st August.

Lee Johnston, last year's race winner heads the entry list with the Northern Irishman having romped to victory in record breaking style 12 months ago. The 26-year old shattered the lap and race records and returns on the Black Eagle Racing 350cc MV Agusta and few would bet against him serving up a repeat performance.

As usual, he'll start at number 13 and will head down Glencrutchery Road ten seconds behind his teammate Dean Harrison who could well prove to be his closest rival. The Bradford rider missed last year's race but he has shown in the past his aptitude for anything with two wheels and won the 2013 Formula Classic Race.

Honda-mounted riders form the bulk of the entry and a number of them will provide Johnston and Harrison with some stiff opposition, none more so than the Davies Motorsport pairing of William Dunlop (6) and Alan Oversby (4), the latter having taken a good runners-up spot to Johnston twelve months ago.

Michael Rutter (Ripley Land Racing) makes his debut in the class and gives the Japanese manufacturer another great chance of victory. Other contenders include Olie Linsdell (Flitwick Motorcycles/SMV Engineering), James Hillier and Alex Sinclair (CSC Racing), Jamie Coward (Ted Woof Racing) and Andy Lawson (Easy Air Conditioning). Chris McGahan, Nigel Moore, Phil McGurk, Paul Coward, Pete Boast and Chris Petty give Honda further strength in depth.

Like the 500cc class, Norton will be well to the fore with the Team Molnar Manx pairing of Cameron Donald (number eight) and Dan Cooper (number five) expected to be running at the head of the field while Keith Amor will have strong expectations on Tony Dunnell's machine, the Scot leading the field away at number one. Wattie Brown, Nick Jefferies and Gavin Lupton are just three more fancied Norton runners.

The father and son combination of Bill and Chris Swallow are likely to be in the mix on their respective Ripley Land Racing AJS and Fawcett Aermacchi machines as will Mark Herbertson on another AJS whilst the consistent Doug Snow is again on the entry list with his trusty 340cc Ducati.

Meanwhile, there are no less than 15 250cc machines in the field and all will be aiming to win the Phil Read Trophy awarded to the class winner. The T20 Suzuki's are the choice of many including Adrian Harrison, Tom Jackson, Jeff Ward, Maria Costello, Billy Cummins, Andy Wilson and Alan Bud Jackson but the Yamahas of Chris Moore and Dave Edwards and Pete Symes' Kawasaki will ensure they don't have it all their own way.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) have expressed disappointment at the findings of the latest long term review of drinking and driving data issued by the government this morning (6 August) which shows a stagnation in progress since 2010.

Drinking and driving data from 1979-2014 shows there were an estimated 8,320 drink-drive casualties in 2014 in Britain, up from 8,270 in 2013. This is the first increase in casualties since 2002 (1). More importantly drink-drive related deaths have remained unchanged since 2010.

Neil Greig, IAM director of policy and research, said: “While good progress has been made over the years, we are very concerned that we may have reached a plateau and are not making much progress in further reducing alcohol related crashes.

“The new government has a great opportunity to set the agenda right at the start of the new administration and top of their list should be a consultation on reducing the drink drive limit in England and Wales to align with Scotland and most of the rest of Europe.”

ENDS

Reference:

1

The IAM is the UK’s largest independent road safety charity, dedicated to improving standards and safety in driving and motorcycling. The commercial division of the IAM operates through its occupational driver training company IAM Drive & Survive. The IAM has more than 200 local volunteer groups and over 90,000 members in the UK and Ireland. It is best known for the advanced driving test and the advanced driving and motorcycling courses. Its policy and research division offers advice and expertise on road safety.

Indianapolis (USA), 9 August 2015 - An extremely demanding weekend for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini has just come to an end where they found a stubborn adversary in the American Indianapolis track. The characteristics of the Indy track penalised the RS-GP, especially in the second half of the race when tyre wear kept Alvaro Bautista from battling for a finish in a position that would have earned him championship points, where he had been hanging on, and it kept Stefan Bradl from holding onto the positions he had gained after a good start. The German rider also had to deal with pain in his recently operated right wrist, but he is leaving the United States with good sensations after his debut on the Aprilia.

At the start Alvaro Bautista was unable to find his way through to move up in position through the first turns, finding himself stuck in a thick group of riders. Bradl, on the other hand, got off the line well, even moving up to thirteenth position at the beginning of the race. However, both riders suffered a drop in grip which was particularly penalizing in right-handers. Alvaro finished his race in 18th place, whereas Bradl crossed the line in 20th.


ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Director)
“We had some difficulties with the rear tyre in a way that we had never experience before, especially on the right side, so much that both riders at a certain point were forced to slow down significantly. For Stefan the pain in his operated right wrist added to the problems, so both riders lost a bit of their edge toward the end of the race. The fundamental problem, which was closing out turns, has an impact on the grip and that is where we need to work. Thanks to Bradl’s comments, which add to the great job Alvaro is doing, we may have identified some new solutions that we’ll be testing in the next race at Brno."

FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)
“This was a difficult race in terms of the result which was certainly not the best, but I should point out that we did a good job with both riders throughout the weekend and this is important in view of the coming rounds. Alvaro rode a good race, but when the tyres began to wear he struggled a lot to maintain a good pace, whereas in the final phases of the race Bradl was feeling the pain in his injured right race and he crossed the finish line under a lot of stress.”

ALVARO BAUTISTA
“This was a really hard race. We had the same difficulties that had come up in practice. At the start I struggled because on the first turn I found myself stuck in a group of a lot of riders and wasn’t about to gain any positions. From there on I tried to set my pace and I was in the zone to be able to battle for fifteenth place and a points finish, but I had trouble keeping up with the others. This track posed some difficulty for us, especially when we started feeling the tyre war. In right-handers I was losing a lot of time. In any case, we finished the race and collected some more fundamental information for 2016. I’d like to thank the team for their hard work this weekend.”

STEFAN BRADL
“After spending three days on the track I expected to have problems with my right wrist today. Already this morning in the Warm Up session I started feeling some pain and after the midway point of the race I wasn’t able to control the bike as I would have liked at a lot of places on the track. In any case, we gave it our all and I consider this first weekend for me on the RS-GP as a positive one. I learned a lot about the bike and together with the team we made a lot of changes in the little time we had available, doing a good job. I wasn’t used to riding the entire race distance on this bike and if you add my injury to that obviously I wasn’t able to be as fast as I would have liked. For the moment we are satisfied anyway and we are looking forward to Brno where we’ll try to take a step forward.”

The Ulster Grand Prix in Northern Ireland drew to a close yesterday with Honda Racing’s Conor Cummins taking a second podium finish on his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP.

The final Superbike race of the day took place in wet weather conditions and saw the race reduced to four laps of the 7.4-mile Dundrod circuit. Cummins, 29, started the race from 11th and quickly moved up into the lead group. 

By the end of the second lap Cummins had slotted into second place and had started to close the gap on the race leader. A close finish across the line saw the ‘Ramsey rocket’ take second place, just behind race winner Peter Hickman.

Earlier in the day Cummins placed fifth in the first Superbike race. A strong start saw the Manxman running with the top six, but a red flag on the fifth lap saw the race stopped and results declared from the fourth lap. The race winner was Bruce Anstey with Padgetts Honda.  

Conor Cummins

I love the Ulster GP and this week has been great with two podium finishes, I think in the first Superbike race yesterday I had the pace to push for another podium finish but unfortunately the red flag came out and put pay to that. The Fireblade has been faultless all week and I have really enjoyed riding it round here for the first time, it suits the circuits fast flowing nature so well and I hope I’ll be back next year for another go!   

Neil Tuxworth   Overall it’s been a positive meeting for Honda Racing and Conor, we’ve had two-second place finishes and a solid fifth with the Fireblade. Conor was very strong in all races and I am sure would have finished higher in the first Superbike race, but due to the red flag the results were taken from the fourth lap. The second race was fantastic for Conor and he just lost out on the win by half a wheel, another lap and I am sure he could have taken the win.  

This year's Classic TT presented by Bennetts will have added poignancy as Bruce Anstey will ride in the Classic Racer Magazine Lap of Honour in a tribute to six-time TT winner Geoff Duke OBE. The bike will also be on show for all of the Classic TT weekend and Geoff's son, Peter Duke, will ride it at Festival of Jurby.

Anstey will ride a 1950 'Works' Norton owned by Mr Peter Bloore and restored in New Zealand by Ken McIntosh and McIntosh Racing, This is the only 1950 'works' Norton in original condition that exists in the world.

The Kiwi's 108.110mph lap in last year's Classic TT was achieved using a completely standard, original spec Manx Featherbed frame, which is essentially the production version of the 1950 McCandless design.

The name 'Featherbed' was coined by 1949 Senior TT winner Harold Daniel who is reported to have said: "It was so comfortable it was like riding on a featherbed." Duke described it as the "best handling motorcycle I ever rode." With a fine-handling Norton perfectly suited to his riding style and streamlined one-piece leathers, Duke and the Featherbed became the unbeatable combination.

The 'Featherbed' Norton was unique as it changed motorcycle racing from a 'horsepower' contest to a 'roadholding' contest. The entire chassis and suspension was designed and built, hands on, by Rex McCandless and his small team from Belfast with Artie Bell, McCandless' business partner and the winner of the 1948 Senior TT on a Works Norton. He was responsible for the testing and development of the prototype 'featherbed.'

The new frame and a small increase in power gave Norton a clean sweep in 1950 with a first race win at Blandford followed by a TT Junior/Senior 'Double' and first, second and third places as well as lap and race records in both classes. Duke graduated from being a new and junior member of the Norton 'Works' team to being the leader in a week after second place in the Junior TT behind Artie Bell, and then dominating the Senior TT including smashing the lap record, set by Harold Daniel in 1938.

The Norton Featherbed became a production motorcycle using McCandless' design and patents, for which in the early years the McCandless and Bell partnership were paid a £1 royalty for each machine sold. The Featherbed frame continued to be the standard by which all other machines were judged until the 1970s.

The only surviving 1950 'Works' Norton was rebuilt by McIntosh Racing in New Zealand using the only original 1950 'Works' frame found at Beaulieu Autojumble by the owner, Peter Bloore and his subsequent 30 year search for the missing parts.

Many of the original 1950 parts had seen further service in the later 'Works' bikes and were very difficult to acquire largely because the eight 1950 'Works' Norton's were all broken up at the end of 1950, the parts being used to build the updated 1951 team bikes. The only survivor in modified form was Eric Oliver's 1951 World Championship winning sidecar outfit, which was based on a 1950 'Works' 500.

As a result, the bike Anstey will ride took over 2000 hours labour to restore, as every part is special. No 'Manx Norton's' parts are the same as the 1950 'Works', although nearly every part forms the prototype for the production 'Featherbed Manx' which was made for the next 12 years, until 1963.

Bruce Anstey will lead the Lap of Honour away joined by Geoff's son Peter who will ride a replica of the 500cc Gilera he won three World Championships on in the 1950's.

David Cretney, the Isle of Man Government's political member with responsibility for Tourism and Motorsport said:

"Geoff Duke is undoubtedly one of the true TT icons and despite his multi world championship wins he will forever be remembered for his exploits on the Isle of Man - not least his remarkable achievements on the works Norton and the Gilera. It is entirely fitting that we pay tribute to Geoff and I am very grateful for the support that we have had from the bike's owner Peter Bloor, Ken McIntosh of McIntosh Racing and the Duke family in creating this tribute."