Phillip Island Classic: Racing
Australia is a long way to go to race when the opposition is several leagues better. Despite much crashing and losing Michael Neeves is buoyant…
‘The world speeds up when you are out of control’
Typical. You don’t have a racing crash for years and then two humdingers come along on consecutive days, and at the same corner. And both are caused by Yamaha TZ750S living up to their reputation as one of the most venomous racers ever constructed. I should have known…
It was all going so well. I got a pole and carried on with a win and a couple of thirds behind Craig Ditchburn and former Aussie superbike champ Marty Craggill on their TZ750S. After that, I’m afraid to say, it all went a bit squiffy.
The first get-off happened on the Saturday when Ditchburn highsided a couple of bikes ahead of me, halfway round the third gear Southern Loop (Turn 2). His Yamaha hit the Aussie tarmac, burst into flames and everyone behind scattered. I took to the grass and down I went, hard enough to set off my airbag. It doesn’t seem a particularly quick corner when you’re riding it, especially compared with the bumclenchers of Stoner, The Hayshed and the Melandri-tyre-smoking Turn 12. But, the world speeds up when you’re out of control.
Fast forward 24 hours and after a race-long battle with Craggill, I’m punted out of the lead on the last lap, this time on the entry to the Southern Loop, just after seeing the yellow nose of his Yamaha enter stage left. The collision flicks me up into the summer sky and slamdunks me on the tarmac, and on to my back. It also sets off my airbag’s second charge and destroys my lid. It’s such a whack I can taste the impact and see stars for the rest of the day, but once again my riding kit saves me from serious injury.
Despite the dramas, racing in Australia has been a great way to start 2020. It’s my fifth year at the Island Classic riding for the Carl Cox Motorsport squad, with teammates David Johnson (Katana), Dean Oughtred (EXUP and Honda CR750) and my brother Ben (GSX-R), who all put in stout rides over the weekend. Competing at one of the
world’s great circuits in the sunshine, while everyone back home is waiting for the sun to return is, as the Aussies say, ‘like being kissed on the dick by an angel’.
My weekend is a story of two halves: the Unlimited Open, where I have the pace to run at the front and the International Challenge where a top 10 is do-able. Well, I managed it in 2019. Both run to Aussie Period 5 rules, which means grids packed with big, brash early '80s superbikes and gnarly two-strokes, such as the TZ750 – bloody things. Some of the top bikes are rumoured to kick out as much as 195bhp.
The International Challenge is a match race between Australia (2019's winners), America and the UK, the winner taking the spoils after four races run over the course of the event. For the Aussies and US it’s a clanger of big names: Alex Phillis, Jed Metcher, Steve Martin, Cameron Donald, Beau Beaton, Aaron Morris, Shawn Giles, Josh Hayes, Larry Pegram, Michael Gilbert…the list goes on.
Team UK no longer have the likes of Mcwilliams, Hickman and Mcguinness in their ranks. Instead it’s hardy club racers on more modest machinery. My ex-jeremy Mcwilliams Harris Suzuki is a work of art, but it’s always a shock to ride these big old things compared with modern stuff. The throttle is stiff, twin-pot AP calipers are no match for the rapid approach to the walking pace Honda Corner and it shakes its hips, like Travolta at high speed, if you don’t sit right forward.
Ally forks, an Öhlins rear shock, K-tech fork internals, Dymag wheels and Pirelli Diablo Superbike slicks let the Harris steer, grip and corner like a modern racer. It does around 160mph at the end of the Gardner Straight, around ¡mph shy of the quickest bikes, but the 148bhp, 1230cc GSX1100 motor still gets your attention.
The Aussies win the 2020 International Challenge, followed by the Americans and the plucky Team Uk-ers. I’ll be back again for 2021… but I'm staying the hell away from those stinking Yamahas.