How to race 1½ bikes
Team Bike only intended to race a single Honda RC30 in this year’s Manx Classic Superbike race. Team boss Ian Martin explains how one and a half made it to the finish
We didn’t have any plans to race the Manx GP Classic Superbike race, but when the stars align you’ve got to make the most of it. French rider Lancelot Unissart did the Bol d’or Classic race with us in 2021, then Spa this year where we came second. He was already going to the Manx with a French team to race a 250 and 600, so when we were at Spa I asked if he’d like to ride our Honda RC30 in the Superbike race too; he nearly bit my hand off. It’s a one off – endurance racing is our thing – but I thought it’d be lovely to see and hear the RC30 on the Island. We took two bikes but were planning to switch their usual roles. The bike that we are going to race at the Classic Bol d’or would be the spare (called the T bike) for the Manx, while the one that’s usually the spare would be the Isle of Man race bike. We gave it a shakedown at the CRMC Festival at Donington, but when we tried to fire it up in the paddock on the Island it’d got an electrical fault, even though it’s a standard wiring loom.
Rather than faff around chasing an electrical fault we just switched the Maxton suspension with Isle of Man settings to the Bol d’or bike and ran with that, so that’s why it’s got the T on the number board in the pictures.
It did six practice laps and a four lap race and ran beautifully. I hardly touched it. During the first practice it clocked 150mph on Sulby straight, but was revving out at around 12,500rpm, so we went two teeth smaller on the rear and then it did 163mph at Sulby. The Classic Superbike race is on the Monday afternoon and the Senior race, for modern 600s, is in the morning. So Lance did a four lap race and finished 19th on the 600, then had a 45 minute break, then went out on the RC30 for four laps. Good job he’s fit.
I’d never been pit crew at the IOM before. You’re right beside the track and the noise and atmosphere is fantastic. The RC30 sounded wonderful when it came past – of course I’d fitted the loudest pipe we’ve got. The pit stop after two laps was uneventful, though it
seemed really slow using the Isle of Man re-fuelling rig compared with our endurance racing quick fillers.
Lance averaged 113mph and finished 16th which we were all happy with, and he was slightly faster on the 25-year-old RC30 than his new Honda CBR600RR in the Senior. At the prize giving the compère even commended him on how good it was to hear an RC30 being thrashed around the Island again.
During practice Dave Madsen-mygdal, who’s a local and a real Mountain Course veteran, blew up the gearbox on the Honda RC30 he’s had since new. We’d got the engine in the bike with the electrical fault doing nothing, so I pulled that out and let him use it.
Dave wasn’t altogether comfy using someone else’s engine, so he was only revving it to 11,000rpm but he still brought his bike home 23rd and we were really pleased to help him out. The race was won by Rob Hodson on a Kawasaki ZXR750.
Now we are about to load up the van with two bikes and head off to the Bol d’or Classic race. We hadn’t planned to race at the Bol this year either, because Stephane Mertens [Ian’s normal rider] was riding for another team, but when they pulled out and Stephane was available the stars aligned again. It’s the race’s 100th anniversary and 40 years since Team Bike made their debut at Paul Ricard.
I asked Pete Boast to ride at the Bol too, but he’s now indisposed (see p110) – get better soon Pete – so Gavin Bell, a former Manx GP winner and another RC30 owner will be riding. But I’ll tell you about that next time.
‘The RC30 sounded wonderful – I’d fitted the loudest pipe we’ve got’