Archive time

Just the two for you in this issue, because we’re introducing a new crossword competition and for now we’re putting it where Archive 3 would be. But what a couple of images we have for you this time. One of them is taken in a hotel’s cheap meeting room. Yes, really.

YEAR: 1996 // LOCATION: The Hilton Hotel, junction 24 on the M1. The hotel that’s actually on the junction/ roundabout.

Minutes after the reveal for the official Honda WSB team-up of Aaron Slight (bike number 3) and Carl Fogarty (bloke starring daggers into the back of Slighty's head) there was much, what you might call tension, in the room. Slighty was to win one race this year – the first outing in Germany – but his excellent consistency in a brutal championship meant that he finished a superb runner-up to Troy Corser. Foggy, already looking like he’s up for a proper scrap, won four races this season (one more win than Aaron had managed in

three seasons on the RC45), but could only manage fourth overall by the year’s end. What was doubly annoying for Carl was that the following year he switched to Ducati and came runner-up... to John Kocinski who replaced him on the RC45 saddle. Still, that was all to come. At the exact moment this photograph was taken, it was all about the friendly launch of a pair of team-mates who were all about working together and putting Honda’s needs first. Yeah, right...