Northampton based Steve Wheatman's Team Classic Suzuki has confirmed Michael Dunlop and Lee Johnston on GSXR XR69 Suzuki's, and Maria Costello on the Harris F1 Suzuki in this year's Motorsport Merchandise Formula 1 TT Race on Monday 25th August.

The team will be looking to emulate their success in last year's inaugural event when Michael Dunlop and Conor Cummins took the first two places in the F1 Race. Team Classic Suzuki will also feature heavily in the two parade laps organised for this year's Isle of Man Classic TT Races presented by Bennetts.

As well as their three race bikes, and a number of prestigious parade machines, the team will have a prominent display of Classic Suzuki GP bikes and memorabilia in the paddock.

The team is one of the foremost attractions on the international classic motorcycle scene with its vast collection of authentic Suzuki Grand Prix racers from the 1970's, 80's and 90's.

This year the team has contributed eight machines to the Joey Dunlop Road Racing Legend - The Rivals - Parade lap sponsored by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. These include a factory Suzuki XR23 from 1979, identical to Tom Herron's that will be ridden by Steve Parrish, 500cc Suzuki RG500 MK10 for Steve Cull, an ex Will Hartog RG500 500cc Mk5 from 1980 that Brian Reid will ride while Jamie Hamilton will parade the TT winning ex Norman Brown 1982 RG500 Mk7.

Riders reunited with their bikes include Mick Grant who will ride his 1981 TT winning 500cc Factory Suzuki XR34, Graeme Crosby who is reunited with his 1980 F1 World Championship winning XR69 and Rob McElnea who will parade his old TT winning Suzuki XR41 from 1984, which will be the first time that Rob has ridden the bike since his 1984 victory.

In the Classic Racer Magazine Lap of Honour on Monday 25th August, Phil Read will make an appearance on the 1976 RG500 Mk1 500cc 'Life ' Suzuki he rode in GP's in his final GP year while Masuru Iwasaki will parade the 1975 500cc Factory Suzuki XR14 that Barry Sheene won his first 500cc Grand Prix on in 1975, a race which represented the first win for the Suzuki 500cc Square 4. Brian Reid, Rob McElnea and Graeme Crosby will ride the same machines as they appear on in the 'Rivals' parade.

@ THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM-FRIDAY 31st October

World champion, BBC TV presenter, practical joker & prankster Steve Parrish will be appearing live on stage at the National Motorcycle Museum on the evening of Friday 31/10/14.

Kicking off the National Motorcycle Museum’s 30th anniversary weekend fans will be able to learn about the life and times of Steve Parrish (Stavros) who will provide a colorful, humorous and at times daring portrayal of his career. As an added bonus everyone booking a ticket will receive free entry to the National Motorcycle Museum collection on the day of the show!

Steve Parrish raced at the highest level of motorcycle sport, with his best finish coming in the 1977 500cc Grand Prix season, as team mate to that year’s champion Barry Sheene. Barry, who met Steve in 1975 is quoted as saying “if he was to set up his bike as well as his victims and had put as much effort into the bike as he did the intricate pranks he pulled on people he would certainly of been a world champion.”

Steve then dabbled with sports car racing before moving to truck racing “because it was less painful than riding bikes” where he won 5 European truck racing titles. Steve was the BBC commentator for Moto GP and is now a pundit for BTs coverage of the sport. He has been commentating since 1988, but he is equally famous in the world of motorsport for his pranks which is the real reason for this show.

With a life full of scrapes, near misses and funnies, including riding Barry Sheen’s bike to qualifying for the world champion, filling rooms of sports personalities with live frogs, and jumping hire cars from second floor car parks in Daytona onto the beach! The list is endless and all will be revealed in a non-stop show, bringing smiles to the audience’s faces. Steve flies his own 4 seat aircraft, plays golf badly, shoots clays, hosts track days and even has an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

Joining Steve on stage and leading the proceedings will be Steve’s daughter Frankie, who has lived with her father’s antics and the embarrassment’s that it brings.

Make a weekend of it!

In addition to free Museum entry those joining Steve for this fantastically funny evening will also have the opportunity to enjoy all the attractions that the Museum’s 30th Anniversary day on Saturday 01/11/14 has to offer-look out for more details very soon.

FURTHER DETAILS

M.A.D Tour NMM Show Date-Friday 31/10/14
M.A.D Tour NMM Show Time- 19.30 (Museum open from 08.30)
Catering & Bar-Hot meals/snacks & full bar facilities will be available.

HOW TO BOOK-
Tickets £20
By Phone: Call the National Motorcycle on (0121) 7042784
Online: Book on-line www.thenmmshop.co.uk

We hope you are having a good summer so far, we were in Dublin last weekend and missed the worst of the weather, thank goodness we didn’t have an event.

We were last out on two successive weekends at the end of July, firstly on Sunday 20th July at Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales and the following weekend at Capesthorne Hall near Macclesfield. We had the usual excellent turn out of cars and bikes at Bodelwyddan with Steve Elnor being awarded car of the show for his superb Jaguar XK140, Malcolm Halliwell bike of the show for his Laverda Jota and The Cavalier and Chevette club being awarded best club stand for an excellent display appropriately enough on Vauxhall/Opel day. The following weekend we were at Capesthorne Hall near Macclesfield with Richard Perry being awarded bike of the show for his 1939 Vincent, car of the show was Tony Darkes with his VW type 1 van. A big thanks to Nigel Hughes who coordinated a superb display from the association of Singer Car Clubs who took pride of place in front of the house with participants coming from all over the UK and even as far afield as the Netherlands. There are some photos of some of this outstanding display can be found on the strip to your right.

Moving towards the end of August we have three events over the bank holiday weekend, Capesthorne Hall on 24th August followed by Thoresby Park on Monday 25th. If you are unlucky you will see me going at great speed between the two venues on Sunday night followed by a long line of rusty old transit vans filled with autojumblers doing both events. The event at Thoresby was simply outstanding in May with a fantastic turn out of trade, vehicles and public so we are hoping for decent weather and a similar turn out. If you haven’t visited this event you are missing a treat and one well worth travelling some distance to attend. Capesthorne should be good too with the Mercedes Benz club taking pride of place in front of the house. Autojumble stalls are free at Capesthorne on the Sunday so why not take the chance to clear your garage but don’t forget there is no Saturday set up?

We will be at Blenheim Palace on both days over the weekend with classic car day on Sunday and a more general Festival of Transport on Monday with classic cars, bikes, Mini’s, VW’s, customs, Americans etc. Autojumblers can trade at Blenheim Palace on both days but just pay for one day with set up from 2pm on Saturday.

More news about our last two all out door shows of the year at Cholmondeley and Hoghton Tower to follow but for now we look forward to seeing you over the bank holiday weekend.

Andrew Greenwood

www.classicshows.org

BikeSafe is partnering with Kawasaki to offer a bespoke off-road skills course, which will help improve road riding.

The BikeSafe Off Road Skills Course will be delivered by Kawasaki Off Road Experience trainers, who include Mick Extance - former Paris-Dakar competitor and motocross champion Lee Dunham. The course will be offered initially in 5 UK locations, with extra ones added in time.

In addition to the usual fun guaranteed in taking part in an off-road experience day, the BikeSafe Off-Road Skills Course will cover areas such as:

· Fine brake and clutch control

· Riding on slippery surfaces

· Body positioning

· Ascent and descent control

National BikeSafe Coordinator Glen Dennis explained:

“Off-road riding offers lots of opportunities to control a machine in conditions you generally hope to avoid on public highways. We believe skills learned off-road are invaluable for road riders and will enhance a road rider’s ability to deal with unexpected road conditions”.

The course is available to those who hold a full motorcycle licence and includes hire of the bike, plus any safety equipment. It costs £200 for a full day’s tuition and riding, with a 10% discount for people who have done a BikeSafe assessment. Riders will receive an accreditation certificate signed by Kawasaki and Bikesafe upon successful completion of the one day course.

Mark Spiller, Marketing Manager for Kawasaki Motors UK commented, “We are very happy to work alongside BikeSafe on this forward thinking and important initiative. At Kawasaki we are passionate about both off-roading and road safety and this combines the fun of dirt riding with practical safety benefits for road riders”.

You can find out more from the BikeSafe Kawasaki Off-Road Skills Course website: www.kawasaki-bikesafe.co.uk

See the video

Check out BT Sport programme "MotoGP Tonight", Tuesday 12th August, 'live' on air at 8pm to 9pm with Craig Doyle and Iwan Thomas looking back at all the highlights from Indianapolis with former motorcycle road racer Jamie Witham, plus a preview of this weekends Round 11 action at Brno, ahead of the forthcoming Round 12 at Silverstone, together with invited guests (and the bikes) from Ace Cafe London!

www.btsport.com

www.ace-cafe-london.com