Niall Mackenzie
For years our best man in grand prix racing, he then came home to show them who was boss in the British Superbike Championship. After siring two British champs intaylor and Tarran Mackenzie, this is Niall in his own words.
Written in the Scot’s own words, he takes us back in time to his roots, upbringing and run-ins with the law, as well as how he got into both biking and racing. You’ll also learn about his best-ever sponsorship deal (free drinks from a local nightclub) as well as how he hung about with the greatest 500cc Grand Prix riders of his generation, while keeping them honest out on track. Quite simply, he's a legend!
MACKENZIE ON… Growing up and breaking the law!
My dad Neil was an engineer and born in Inverness. He went off on a boat to India, was a tea planter and married out there and had three kids. The marriage broke down but he had a major result when we came back home as he was in his late 50s when he met my mum Amelia who was in her 30s – it was a massive talking point in the village, apparently! I was conceived when he was aged 60!
Dad had bikes when he was younger and he loved cars, he wasn’t hard on me but disciplined, so I knew where the limit was. Sadly my dad had a heart condition and he passed away when I was 13. Mum brought me up right, had a secretarial job, but after dad passed away I had a bit more scope to do things and was perhaps a bit wilder than I should have been.
I had the odd incident or two with the police: I learned to drive young and not legally, but I was always the ‘nominated driver’. One incident stands out. My mate’s parents went out to work and didn’t come back ‘til late so we’d borrow their car – a Fiat 127. Of a lunchtime we’d drive around with four of us in it, put it back, then we’d get cocky and pop back to school to give mates a lift home. Pretty soon the cops were warned…
So, one evening we’d pulled up, discussing where to go and – suddenly – there are the blue lights behind us. I floored the throttle, lost the police enough to be able to pull over and make a run for it. I was up front with Shanksy – my best mate and son of the owners of the car – with pals Stoney and Bunny in the back. Sadly, we’d left the child locks on their doors, so Bunny and Stoney were trapped. It didn’t take long for them to fess up and we were all nabbed and I got a hiding from my mum. From then I tried to behave. Stoney and Bunny would later reappear at Phillip Island in 1989 out of the blue and I sorted them out some passes and T-shirts – I hadn’t seen them in 10 years!
There was never any drug stuff in my past – just Bacardi and coke! But other liquids were useful, like red diesel. Now, for us Scots it was a major investment to get down to even the nearest English circuits. Jim Moodie was king at liberating some diesel: he used a big pump to get a ‘refill’ for his big van. Me? Well, I would often fill my tray at the cafeteria at motorway services and cunningly bypass the girl on the till. Often it was a three course meal so I was fed for the whole weekend if I could get away with it: no CCTV back then…
MACKENZIE ON… Getting into bikes…
Me and a mate dragged a Raleigh Wisp off a tip, we got this thing going and – after a push bike – I couldn’t believe you could finally have something that took you places under its own power and you didn’t have to pedal. After that I had a Honda C90.
The Pines was the local pub and that’s where you gathered on your 50cc mopeds, Puch Maxis, FS-1ES (I had one by this time, no kicker, bump start, mole grips to shift gears). Next door was a chippie of the same name, but we called it Black Annie’s. She wasn’t black, but she wasn’t massively into hygiene and would spit in the fat to see if it
was hot enough to plunge the chips in… I later crashed through the chippy’s front door on my mate’s DT175 trying to wheelie it. As I headed for the door, someone opened it. Annie wasn’t happy…
I also had a TL125, but it was when the Yamaha RD350LC appeared that I realised that I really needed that bike. It was a bike that would make my career, really.
MACKENZIE ON… Getting into racing….
Jimmy Rae’s boys Alistair and Stewart helped get me into racing. We were school mates and they eventually had TZ250S and TZ350S and all I wanted to do was push the bikes places for them and warm them up and generally help out for a free meal. The Raes liked their pure race bikes, but when I got a 350LC I decided to take the plunge when they told me to try and go for the Scottish 500cc Production title in 1981. They put my bike in their van and at Knockhill I was actually passing people – I figured they were all having a bad day!
Things gathered momentum: Carnaby was my first race and then my first win came at Knockhill in my second meeting and third ever race. I would sometimes find myself up against people like Charlie Corner and Curt Langan – amazing production riders!
Soon I was hooked and wanted to race all the time, meanwhile my bike was always in the Raes’ van… understandably we soon parted ways and I had to fend for myself, but we’re still pals.
At some production races I would actually ride there on my LC and prep it when I arrived. You’d cut some blue plastic circles and put one over the head-light, two over the grab rails, take the rear foot-pegs off and put them
“ARMSTRONG BUILT THE BIKE AROUND ME, REALLY. IT WAS NEVER THE FASTEST BUT IT SUITED MY STYLE. RIDING FOR THEM PUT ME IN THE SHOP WINDOW FOR THE LIKES OF SKOAL BANDIT SUZUKI AND MY ROUTE INTO 500CC GPS.”
MACKENZIE ON… Fitness regimes….
Over the years I did become known for my fitness, but it was a strange start. I figured as every athlete sweated a lot – if you sweat, you’re getting fit! So, at the start of my career, I’d sit in my Bedford CF van with my overalls on, my parka on top and drive to Cadwell – in the summer – with the heating up full!the end result wasn’t a fine physical specimen, but rather headaches and dehydration…
The next daft idea was my ‘power-toweight’ ratio in my Grand Prix forays of 1985. I was 10.5 stone, but realised if I was a stone lighter… so, Slimfast was the answer! I had it for lunch and tea and cereal for breakfast.the weight indeed came off, so that at Kyalami in 1985 I was well under 10 stone but was feeling rough, was taken by Chas Mortimer to Dr Claudio Costa who found a shadow on my lungs: pneumonia! Antibiotics and a decent diet sorted me.
When Mick Doohan got into GPS in 1989 he saw me running around the track and asked me why I did it. I knew a bit about fitness then so told him and he took it to a whole new level. I couldn’t get close to him as he’d train with triathletes. It’s the norm now. I’d train hard: even on Christmas Day as I’d heard Daleythompson the decathlete talk about it. I soon became paranoid thinking ‘I bet someone else is doing this today,’ so I’d eventually traintwice on Christmas Day.the two boys do it now, because I make them… on the front peg brackets and take the centrestand off. I was lucky as my LC was quick as standard and I was second in that 500cc proddie series…a title I would win in 1982.
I guess my big break was 1983 when the Pro-am World Cup came to Donington later that year: us lot against the GP lads like Alan Carter, Martin Wimmer, Steve Parrish, Rob Mcelnea, Christian Sarron… It was on TV, it rained and I won it in front of a full international paddock. I was second overall in that year’s Pro-am. That made an impact.
From there I did my first Grand Prix in 1984 on an Armstrong 250 at Silverstone (I was last) as well as doing national championships. That year I won the Circuit Promoters’ 350cc Championship but it was a step-up to compete against the best in the world, clearly.
My first GP at Silverstone left me demoralised but it also really motivated me. I was taking this seriously. So I begged Armstrong that I could go to the next GP in Sweden and didn’t qualify all that well (2024th or something) and was a DNF… still, I had a good relationship with Armstrong and they remembered me as I had basically taken a motor from a bike of theirs I’d bought with my own money which had blown up to go and complain! They remembered me and gave me a chance. By now I was a professional racer as I’d quit my job with the electricity board.
1985 saw me win the British 250cc title and the Circuit Promoters 350cc title and started to make my mark in the 250GP series, with 10th at Anderstorp. A year later and I was improving still further and still riding for Armstrong – more for food on a Sunday, but racing was costing me nothing, so I was lucky and Armstrong built the bike around me really: it wasn’t the fastest, but it suited me and was really rideable so by the end of 1986 I was British 250cc champ again.
MACKENZIE ON… Getting into 500cc GPS…
At the end of 1985 Skoal Bandit Suzuki asked about next season and 500cc Grands Prix. I’d signed for Armstrong and they wouldn’t let me go, so Suzuki hired ‘ Angry Ant’ Paul ‘Loopy’ Lewis. I stayed in contact and visited the team asking if I could get a bike for the 500cc British GP. I qualified on the second row and finished seventh and ended the 250 race in 10th. In 500s Ron Haslam ( a bit of a hero of mine) was just behind me – so I figured he was having a bad day. Maybe he was, but it was also indicative of how far I’d come in such a short period of time.
The carbon-fibre framed square-four Suzuki was really good and better than people thought: even if Lewis was moaning about it. After Silverstone, I finished seventh in Sweden then at Misano I put this ‘uncompetitive’ Suzuki third on the grid, after being on pole for a while, eventually taking
eighth in the race. People then began knocking on the door and I soon signed a letter of intent for Suzuki for a two-year deal, but it wasn’t water tight. Honda then shipped me to Japan and I tested the retiring Freddie Spencer’s NSR500 at Suzuka and that was it, I was signed in about two weeks.
Expanding on that and looking back, it’s like I’m telling a story about someone else! Erv Kanemoto got me a ticket to Japan and I’m there on these NSR500S. I clicked straight away with Suzuka. I loved the track and it’s still one of my favourites.
So it’s the end of the season and Tadahiko Taira the Yamaha man had the lap record at Suzuka. I had a few sessions, almost highsided once and broke the lap record, so they gave me a contract!
After winter testing which went well, I got pole at Suzuka the first race of the 1987 season and, looking back, maybe it wasn’t so good to go quite so well so soon as it built up expectation. I was third with a couple of corners to go and fell off – that’s when reality hit. The Japanese show very little emotion – which is fine by me – but there was literally NO emotion when I got back to the garage and I had zero communication with them. It was strange and a bit devastating, so I had a word with myself as – up until then – I felt I could do no wrong.
Amends were made by Jerez and the next round where I finished fourth behind Ron. I wasn’t happy, but at least the Japanese were talking to me again! Racing had been fun up until this point – now I realised it was a serious business. I was being paid well to get results… I got my first podium (third) in Austria and finished fifth overall that year.
That winter I went to California to Kenny
Roberts’ ranch and learned more about fitness, training and sliding the bike. Once more I was pretty much the quickest in winter tests and even won the winter Suzuka race against the locals. Come the first race I messed up qualifying but came through to finish fourth: with Kevin Schwantz winning. Round two at Laguna Seca (just like Knockhill, honest) and I got a third after leading it. I was third overall for a while that year but the Honda had issues – chocolate Honda brake discs, the calipers themselves would spread and failing cranks. Wayne Gardner that year blamed the bike for losing his title but I liked it – it was like a big 250…
By the end of that year 1988 the atmosphere changed for me – there was a shift and that shift was Eddie Lawson coming across from Yamaha. He’d fallen out with Giacomo Agostini and was coming to Honda.
Gardner was a former champ, so he was staying, and some hot new property called Mick Doohan was also on the books. Basically I was never told I was not riding for Honda in 1989, but instead I was given a watch at the airport, which I later learned was their way of saying ‘goodbye!’ So I’m in this hotel
room and looking at this watch, wondering what had happened when Ago rang my hotel room. He asked what I was doing for 1989, and asked me to ride for him. I had no idea I’d been sacked, but Ago did!
It was a good feeling to have impressed Ago and I went to Switzerland to meet the Marlboro people. I knew Freddie was my team-mate when I saw some negatives in a dark room and it was Spencer in a Marlboro top! Ago told me not to breathe a word…
1989 was a good year with a great British round at Donington. I qualified second row, set off and was chipping away and took the lead: I thought it was game on, but four laps from the end the front tucked a little, so I had to nurse it home. I finished fourth but close to third so was allowed on the podium. The Michelin tyre man took some of the responsibility as he reckoned he should have insisted I tried another front tyre…
With Ago losing the Marlboro millions to Kenny Roberts, I had to go fund my own 250 effort for 1990, with Chas Mortimer running things. Yamaha gave us a couple of 250s, I paid the mechanics’ wages and it was a good little team. Of course I wanted to be paid six-figure sums to race, but this showed how hungry I was spending my own money.
Things changed after the Laguna Seca round when I was drafted in to replace Kevin Magee who was injured on his Lucky Strike Suzuki. I thought I’d burned my bridges with Suzuki at the end of 1986 when I went with Honda…
What came out of that was my best season, with fourth overall despite missing the first two rounds. Schwantz made that bike look good. He did an amazing job and I was one of his more successful team-mates – but no one could do stuff with the RGV that Kevin could.
I thought I’d done enough to secure a contract with Lucky Strike Suzuki for 1991, but Didier de Radiguès was in the frame. We tested (Kevin, Didier and me) and I was behind Kevin – but then radio silence. Seems Didier was mates with the boss of Lucky Strike in Europe and that ‘branch’ of the fag firm was going to cough up (ahem) some cash. I later learned that never happened…
MACKENZIE ON… Money and sponsorship…
When did money and racing come together for me? Well, in my very early racing days at Carnaby you got a certificate and a little trophy, but for the Knockhill win it was £100… I was earning perhaps £70-80 a week back then. It made me think…
What about sponsorship? I had some good friends and family and local businesses helped – like this nightclub outside of Denny called Whispers. It was a bit rough and ready. I put the club’s name on the side of my van in return for free Bacardis to the tune of £500 per year! Whenever we went there, I never told my mates I had credit, but I did try and stand my round but my friends would go: ‘ Oh no Nniall, we know how dedicated you are to yyour racing – keep it in your pocket!’ I’d go out with a fiver and come back with it… I bet that £500 is still behind the bar, somewhere…
In my first 500cc Grand Prix year of 11987 I was paid a good wage, but had no idea what I was worth. Suzuki offered something like £70,000 in 1986 for me to ride for them in 87.Then Honda/hrc came to talk (Cagiva were asking me too!). HRC said: “Whatever Suzuki pay we will add another £30,000.” £100,000 in 1987! It’s all long gone now on those twwo kids of mine… It’s the end of 1987 and I wwas fifth overall in my first year in 500cc GGPS. I’m in Whispers talking to my mates aand Honda want to keep me for 1988.The half-drunken talk is: ‘Can you ask for more money? Ask HRC for another £100,000!’ I did and HRC coughed up. Maybe I could have asked for more? 40% went back to the taxman of course…
MACKENZIE ON… A God racing the GODS!
I’m sat with Eddie Lawson, Randy Mamola and Wayne Gardner. I’d not travelled much and I’m in their esteemed company and feeling out of my depth. They asked how I got into racing and I didn’t know what to say, I mean, these guys started off dirt-tracking when so young. So I said I worked for the electricity board and lost my job so I had to go racing.
“How did you lose your job?” one of them asked. So I said I was working as a labourer at this lady’s house and a mate and I tried all her clothes on and got caught by the gaffer and I got sacked. All a lie… why did I say that? I wanted to be interesting in front of these people, I think… but we soon became friends.
Sometimes I think I respected them too much to beat them regularly, or they were my heroes, but I was always ready to come home and beat the best in Britain – be it Carl Fogarty, Steve Hislop or James Whitham. You’re a product of your upbringing so I was growing up in the little village where – if you didn’t work at the paper mill your life would be a mess. Meanwhile from the age of six or seven they’re out there racing. It was a different world, that’s all changed now.
I was always more of a 250-style rider (in fact Honda asked me if I wanted to race their GP 250 for 1988). In 250s it was all about
braking later and later… 0n the 500 I would catch Lawson on the brakes, I’d almost hit him. Then he’d slide, pick the bike up and disappear – taking twice the distance out of me that I’d taken on him with the brakes.
MACKENZIE ON… Coming back home to BSB…
After getting back into 500s with Yamaha Motor France in 1991 and 1992 for a full season, it was the time of being the best privateer in 500s with Bob Mclean’s team.
We had some great results with a highlight of third at Donington in front of Foggy’s Cagiva. For 1995 I was on the Docshop Aprilia in 250cc GPS but the bike was nowhere near what they said it was going to be.
By the end of 1995, I’d been dragging Jan and the two kids around the world for a while but I wasn’t ready to stop racing. I wanted one more good year out of racing and with Robert Fearnall putting together the revitalised British Superbike Championship for 1996 it seemed as if that was a possibility. It actually turned into three championships!
Some of the glitz still wasn’t there in BSB though. For a start Rob Mcelnea was still using Steve Parrish’s old converted horsebox as a transporter! Yamaha paid my wages as I know Rob wouldn’t have. I thought James Whitham was tight but it seems Humberside
had him beat! I got on great with Whitham and still do, but I was at a chat show with Whit the year before (1995) and we were talking on stage about WSB and GPS and he said about me: “Lucky there are two big championships because otherwise he wouldn’t have a job in the other one!”
That fired me up and I thought: ‘If we race against each other mate, you’re having a portion!’ Of course James had come back from his cancer battle, so he wasn’t scared either.
We went to Donington’s final round equal on points but he’d won 10 races to my five. I won the first race with Sean Emmett ahead of Whit in third. So for race two I followed James home to take the first of my three back-to-back titles.
Interestingly I never seemed to be able to start well in 1996 and Jim Moodie had an idea why, he said: ‘You’ve got the same bloody tyre warmers I had back in 1994 they have ‘JM’ on them! They’re too old!’ Rob was that tight…
MACKENZIE ON… The brutal 500s…
Those bikes were fast and special: they could be quite docile low down, but the difficult bit was hitting that fine limit. All of us were caught out by the power delivery at some point. Think about it: Schwantz’s career ended with a wrist injury, we know what happened to Rainey, Gardner had enough at 32, Doohan couldn’t ride any more after his 1999 crash. I was lucky to walk away in one piece: maybe I didn’t try hard enough? But I wouldn’t change things for the world.
The last 500 I rode was 120kilos and 170bhp. I remember the 1988 Honda NSR500 was plain daft: on the Yamahas and older Hondas by 13,000rpm the power was long gone, but that year’s works Honda revved to 14,500rpm, no wonder they had crank issues. Today you have 250bhp but the spread of power is linear and safe and you’ve got electronics. And yet still it’s the best riders at the front.