Classic Racer May/June 23 Preview

WHAT’SINSIDE

006 ARCHIVE

This issue we look back at Tony Rutter, George Fogarty and Phil McCallen – yes, it’s Isle of Man TT flash-back time.

012 NEVER A CROSS WORD

Our regular crossword is another mix of classic racing clues, and all with the carrot on a stick of the chance to win a Weise Stealth Hoodie worth £139.99. Go for it!

014 READERS WRITE

We welcome all feedback, good, bad or indifferent here at Classic Racer towers. It’s YOUR magazine so let us know what you think about CR’s content, and tell us what YOU want to see in YOUR magazine.

016 PADDOCK GOSSIP

What’s happening in the wild world of classic racing, with shows, products and events up-andcoming.

022 SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE

The best place to buy your favourite racing magazine is to do it this way – SUBSCRIBE! Not only do you get it delivered to your door BEFORE it hits the shelves, it’s cheaper too and you won’t need to venture out of your shed/garage…

Fred Pidcock looks back at the life and racing career of father and son Kiwis, Len and Geoff Perry.

028 SUZUKI KATANA P5 RACER

Alan Cathcart rides a very trick Katana, built for success in Australia’s P5 classic series.

040 DAVE STREET

A journeyman racer, BEMSEE champ turned ad man, bike dealer, fireman, actor and jive dancer.

046

Mick Ofield’s lovely artwork shows us the inner workings of this often dustbin-faired racer.

048 BREAKFAST WITH BOZ

Part two: Nigel Bosworth on THAT 1992 250cc championship, doing mega-bucks deals for Foggy and more!

054

Phil Aynsley’s lens looks at the bike that was doomed from the start, but one which would (eventually) win in the late 1980s at Daytona.

062 STEVE HISLOP

In part one of our look at the legendary Scottish racer, his biographer Stuart Barker examines Hizzy’s prowess as a pure roads-racer at the Isle of Man TT.

COVER IMAGE: Main cover images by Don Morley, Clive Challinor, Alan Cathcart, John Mockett and Mortons Archive. Thanks again this month to: Don Morley for the many images in various features. And the following: Alan Cathcart, Clive Challinor, Phil Aynsley, Mick

Dave Street, Nigel Bosworth, Bill Snelling/TT

Pics, Stuart Barker, Dave Purves, Jim Barker, Ben Rumbold and not forgetting our brilliant archivist Jane Skayman!

Ofield, Fred Pidcock,

Race

024 LEN & GEOFF PERRY

LINE ART: 1955 NSU SPORTMAX

ICONIC METAL: 1975 NORTON CHALLENGER

EDITOR Bertie Simmonds bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk

PUBLISHER Tim Hartley thartley@mortons.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

Don Morley, Stuart Barker, Clive Challinor, Mick Ofield, Ben Rumbold, Alan Cathcart, Fred Pidcock, Phil Aynsley, Bill Snelling, Steve Parrish, Brian Crichton.

PRODUCTION EDITOR Sarah Wilkinson

ART EDITOR Kelvin Clements

DESIGNER Michael Baumber

GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER Sue Keily

ADVERTISING Leon Currie 01507 529465 lcurrie@mortons.co.uk

SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Carl Smith

MARKETING MANAGER Charlotte Park

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Dan Savage

COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR

Nigel Hole

EDITORIAL ADDRESS Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR UK

WEBSITE www.classicracer.com

GENERAL QUERIES AND BACK ISSUES 01507 529529 24hr answerphone help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk

ARCHIVE ENQUIRIES Jane Skayman 01507 529423 jskayman@mortons.co.uk

070 HONDA BRITAIN

In the third and final part of this series, Stuart Barker talks to Barry Symmons who was a major part of the team during the 1980s.

076 FOGGY PETRONAS FP1

The bike that came too late… The three-cylinder world superbike that was out-gunned when the rules went to 1000cc in the early Noughties.

082 FRED CLARKE

The man behind the microphone and the voice of British motorcycle racing: part one of our Fred Clarke story.

088 GUEST COLUMN

Steve Parrish recalls how fate intervened and got him in front of millions of viewers on World of Sport in the mid-1970s.

090 BACK IN THE DAY

YOUR pictures and memories from bike racing days gone by!

092 NEXT ISSUE

Plenty in the next issue of Classic Racer, including part two of Steve Hislop’s story – the short circuit years and more from Fred Clarke. We also examine Kenny Roberts’1982 Yamaha 500, hear from Steve Parrish on his sponsorship from George Harrison, and the highs and lows of Gary ‘Slingham’Lingham’s career.

SUBSCRIPTION

Full subscription rates (but see page 22 for offer): (12 months 6 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £31.50. Export rates are also available – see page 22 for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value AddedTax.

DISTRIBUTION

Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London, EC1A 9PT.

USA SUBSCRIPTIONS

CLASSIC RACER (USPS:706-150) is published bi-monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK. For overseas subscription rates please visit www.classicmagazines.co.uk

Printed by Acorn Web Offset Ltd, Normanton, WestYorkshire © Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

CLASSIC RACER ARCHIVE

6ClassicRacer

Best seat in the house…

By George! We’re not quite sure how to take this photo, taken during the 1978 Senior TT. Coming around Signpost Corner is hardened road racer George Fogarty being confronted by a man with a camera, sat on the actual pavement taking snaps… We understand that the whole ‘health and safety’ thing hadn’t really kicked off by the late-1970s, but, while most spectators for the race were amassed up on the banks as per usual, one intrepid (we’d take a guess at amateur) photographer wanted to get a shot from a different angle.

George Fogarty of course, is famous for being father of TT winner and four-time World Superbike champion Carl, as well as being the man who (it could be argued) cost Barry Sheene the win at Silverstone in the 1979 500cc Grand Prix against Kenny Roberts. George baulked Sheene on the final lap of the circuit and the American would beat the Brit by threehundredths of a second. But let’s not forget that George was a handy enough road-racer as well, in his time, so much so that in 1977 he came 2nd to Joey Dunlop in the Jubilee TT and earned himself

a place as Mike Hailwood’s team-mate on the Ducati for the legendary Formula 1 race. For the Senior race, as seen here, he was Suzuki-mounted and would come home a creditable 4th in the race, behind winner Tom Herron and podium finishers Billy Guthrie and Chas Mortimer.

1983 would be George’s last TT and by 1984 George would also indulge in his last season of short-circuit racing, which would coincide with Carl’s first. At the same meeting together it was fitting that George would win his last ever race, while Carl would take 11th on his dad’s old Formula 2 Ducati. George would help out his son as much as he could in the youngster’s early career, one that would see young Carl win the 1985 Lightweight Newcomers Manx Grand Prix before taking three TT wins.

As to what happened to our photographer here, we’d love to know. Was he collared, cuffed and put in a Manx cell or did he just get some amazing shots?

● Want more Isle of Man TT content, both modern and historical? Then you need to look out for Island Racer 2023, which is on sale April 20.

Words: Bertie Simmonds Photograph: Mortons Archive

CLASSIC RACER ARCHIVE

Tony Rutter scooped his first of seven Isle of ManTT race wins 50 years ago.

Tony – who passed away in March 2020 – enjoyed a long career: three decades riding a wide range of different machines. Many felt Rutter was one of the most underrated riders of his generation.

Born in the West Midlands, Tony started racing aged just 20 and was soon heading to the Isle of ManTT in 1965 for the first time.The Island was to be the home of some of his biggest successes, the first coming with a podium alongside Giacomo Agostini in 1972 in the JuniorTT. He would snatch his first win on the course in 1973 in the same class with an average speed of 101.99mph. He would take his secondTT win in the same class in 1974, taking the Formula 2 win in 1981, the Senior 350ccTT win in 1982, a further Formula 2 win the same year, repeating this again in 1983 before his final Isle of Man victory in the 1985 Formula 2 event.

Tony would more importantly become Formula 2 world champion with Ducati in four successive seasons from 1981-1984 thanks in

part to those F2TT wins. He would also be a leading light at the North West 200, taking nine NW200 wins, the first of which came in 1973. He would famously also tie for a win at the event in 1977 with Ray McCullough – a dead heat! Rutter would also take five Ulster GP wins during his long career.

With a career spanning three decades, he would ride small and large capacity machines, two-strokes and four-strokes and on short circuits (he won the ACU British 350 title in 1971 and the 250 in 1973) and road circuits.

Sadly, a big crash at Montjuïc circuit just a month after his finalTT win in 1985 saw him badly injured, and while he made a comeback things were never the same. Tony raced on until 1991, mainly on the roads, by which time his son Michael – who would also go on to considerable short-circuit and roads success – was also racing.

This year Michael (tied withTony on seven wins) will take part inTT 2023 where his start tally should surpass that of his father.

Words: Bertie Simmonds Photograph: Mortons Archive

Tony Rutter

Seven-time TT winner

CLASSIC RACER ARCHIVE

Mad Mac!

Phillip McCallen 11 TT wins

Phillip McCallen had an all-action style – even when racing on the dangerous road circuits of the Isle of Man, the North West 200 and the Ulster Grand Prix.

With nicknames like ‘SuperMac’ and ‘The Portadown Flyer’ you knew he was going to be quick, but his style was all hunched over the front of the bike, with elbows well and truly out.

It’s not a surprise then that McCallen started out like many racers do – by going way too fast on the roads! He recalls: “It was 1984 when I realised I was doing some bloody stupid things on the road. Unfortunately that continued while I was racing: I hit a dry stone wall in a Ford Fiesta XR2 at 80mph and injured my leg!”

McCallen would go racing then, and he immediately scooped an unprecedented double win in the Lightweight Newcomers and Lightweight classes in 1988.The following year he went to theTT proper, coming home in 15th in the Formula 1 and 7th in the Ultra-Lightweight and 17th in the Senior. He became a professional racer in 1990 and would win a total of 11 TT races.

He just missed out on a first win in 1991, coming 2nd in the Junior and 3rd in the Senior races. His first TT win came in 1992, on a

Castrol Honda RC30 in the Formula 1 race, against such greats as Steve Hislop and Joey Dunlop – both of whom tipped McCallen for greatness.

Mainly linked with Honda through his decade-long road-racing career, he was also a front-runner in the British Supersport 600 series, as well as internationally in the 600cc Thunderbike class. Honda used him as a test rider in the development of the Honda CBR900RR FireBlade, a machine he would race to success in the reborn ProductionTT races in 1996 and 1997.

In 1996 he would take four race wins during race week – a feat which stood until Ian Hutchinson took five wins during 2010. In May 1998 he broke his back riding his Honda CBR600F atThruxton and switched toYamaha for 1999. He’d finish 3rd in the Production Race on aYZF-R1 and 7th in the Junior on an R6 – all this despite carrying more injuries, this time a torn shoulder blade muscle. This would be his lastTT.

Since then he’s devoted his time to building up a successful motorcycle business in Lisburn, near Belfast.

Want to read more about the fascinating history of the Isle of ManTT races?Then pick up a copy of Island Racer 2023, on sale April 20.

Words: Bertie Simmonds Photographs: Mortons Archive/FoTTofinders