1986 Suzuki Sp 125 Four Stroke on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Niall Mackenzie blog No.2

It was good to catch up with my old mate Daryl Beattie last weekend in Misano. Daryl was pushing Mick Doohan hard for the 500cc World Championship in 1995 until he high sided and broke his collar bone in Assen mid way through the year. He eventually finished runner up in the series but then some fairly big tumbles from his Lucky Strike Suzuki in 1996 brought his career to a premature end.

Surely more wins are on the cards for Seeley and the 2011 Gixer?

The amazing Alex Lowes is deservedly grabbing all the attention in the BSB paddock at the moment, but I believe last year’s top Superbike rookie, Alistair Seeley is doing an equally impressive job in the Supersport class. Although he looks ten years younger, thirty one year old Seeley  is riding one of only two 2011 600 GSXRs (fellow countryman Marty Nutt is on the other) in the class. Alistair has finished on the podium four times including a race win at the opening Brand Hatch round and currently lies second in the championship.  He also took victory on the Gixer in the only race run at the North West 200 last month and was looking like the runaway winner last Sunday at Thruxton until electrical gremlins struck after opening up a seven second lead.

Rainy BSB tests are nothing new

THE combination of bad weather in the UK and a European testing ban means that most BSB teams will now start the season with very little track time. This sounds like a disaster for the top teams but history has proved this isn’t necessarily true and it sometimes doesn’t matter how much pre season preparation has taken place.  Back in 2002 Sean Emmett won on the IFC Ducati at the opening Silverstone round after first riding it in unofficial practice the same weekend. Steve Hislop took the other win on Pauls Bird’s well sorted Ducati. More recently in 2009, Leon Camier took an untested new model R1 Yamaha to victory at the Brands Hatch opener after GSE took delivery of the bike just the week before. Sylvain Guintoli won the other race on a well developed, well tested Crescent Suzuki. You could argue if no one has had testing then it is a level playing field but you have to feel for riders moving up to the superbike class in the world’s toughest national series.  Tyco Suzuki’s PJ Jacobson is one such rider but having spent some time with him over the past few weeks he seems to be taking it all in his stride. It may be the confidence of youth or maybe the fact he has won in every other class he has entered in his short BSB career, but I suspect he fancies at least standing on the Superbike podium at Brands (He also does a bit of ice racing which is not dissimilar to the this year’s UK testing).  The testing ban was implemented with all the best cost cutting intentions and if it had been any other year in the past decade all would be well. The teams may be feeling frustrated but the fans should be excited. With so many unknowns, the 2013 BSB opener at Brands Hatch could be the best ever!