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Schwantz and Mackenzie on the Nurburgring box

A 500GP bike never fails to stop me in my tracks and that’s exactly what happened when I spotted this Schwantz example from the early nineties, proudly displayed on the Arai stand at the recent Motorcyclelive show.  On loan from Crescent Suzuki and accompanied by a rostrum publicity shot from the 1990 German GP at the Nurburgring, I felt the urge to write a few words on that special weekend. I started the year running my own 250 GP team with fairly standard TZ Yamahas but was drafted in as Kevin Schwantz’s team mate after Kevin Magee suffered a serious head injury at the second Grand Prix in Laguna Seca.  With no testing and some major Spanish food poisoning I finished 8th at the next round in Jerez then followed that up with a 5th place in Misano. Next up was the Nurburgring and after qualifying on the second row of the grid, my crew chief Geoff Crust informed me he had a premonition of a race day rostrum finish. He also told me I better make it come true as he was already looking forward to a few post race celebratory refreshments. While I hoped Crusty was the new mystic meg, the truth was I would have been more than happy to buy the beers if I made it to the flag inside the top five. I had an outside chance of catching one major scalp as Wayne Rainey was riding with a nasty hand injury but I suspected adrenalin would see him through the day. I also followed Mick Doohan a fair bit in practice but he was beginning to find his feet on the Rothmans Honda so was going to be another problem.  When the lights went out Schwantz and Rainey went straight to the front I while I hung in behind Doohan and Pier Francesco Chilli, and then it happened. Coming out of the bottom right hand hairpin, Doohan and Chilli simultaneously high sided in one of the most spectacular crashes of the season. I never liked seeing any fellow riders crash but I made the most of this early race gift and rode my 160bhp/115kg RGV hard to the flag, claiming my first podium of the season.  We partied hard (win or lose we always did) that night and I went on to have my best ever season finishing fourth overall in the championship. After the last round in Australia, I finished second to Kevin at Sugo in Japan then won in Malaysia at another international race that KS didn’t attend. I also tested at Eastern Creek for the following season but then was flicked from the team for reasons that still remain a mystery. Hey Ho!       

First Laps of the 2015 Suzuki MotoGP Racer

Suzuki put its new prototype race bike through its first test laps alongside other MotoGP racers in preparation for its impending return to racing in the 2015 season. Test rider Nobuatsu Aoki, who had been playing a key role in the racebike’s development, took the new Suzuki 1000cc Inline-Four prototype out for a few shakedown laps before handing things over to Randy de Puniet who completed the bulk of the testing at Spain’s Catalunya circuit. After a day of testing, de Puniet put up the eighth-best lap time, clocking in at 1:42.676, just 0.772 seconds behind Yamaha‘s Jorge Lorenzo who had the top lap time among all participants. It’s important to note however that Repsol Honda and series leader Dani Pedrosa did not participate in this test.

Yoshimura GSX1250FA EEC Approved Slip-On End-Can

JAPANESE TUNING house Yoshimura has released a series of EEC-approved Slip-On exhausts suitable for the Suzuki Bandit GSF1250SA and the new fully-faired Suzuki GSX1250FA.At over 3kgs lighter than the OE Suzuki item, each Yoshimura Slip-On comes with the pipe work to mount to the standard front section plus all parts (including muffler clamp) required for installation. The EEC-approved silencer features two dB-killer baffles, one in the link pipe, one in the can and when both are removed power and torque are increased over stock, claim Yoshimura. With full EEC silencing both torque and power curves are identical to the standard output, but a dB-Killer in the link-pipe when used with an open exhaust gives solid gains, the company say.Part Number/Sleeve Type/Weight/RRP including VAT1A0-177-5L50 (Stainless Steel)    3.4kg  £597.751A0-177-5L80 (Titanium)              3.2kg  £666.731A0-177-5L81B (Titan Blue)*       3.2kg  £747.191A0-177-5L20 (Metal Magic)        3.4kg  £689.72For more information on this or any other Yoshimura product contact 01782 569800 or visit www.phoenixnw.co.uk to find your nearest dealer.