Classic Racer

Classic Racer takes you so close you can actually smell the Castrol R. With the world's finest archive, and an editorial team who live and breathe the sport, the only way you'll get closer will be to put on your leathers.

Classic Racer

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Whatever happened to! ENRICO LORENZETTI • Quiet, methodical, technically-minded and very loyal, Enrico Lorenzetti’s main race career lasted until his beloved Moto Guzzi factory pulled out of racing.

BIG MAC! • Rob McElnea is a TT winner, a former factory 500cc Grand Prix rider, a podium finisher in World Superbikes, a British Superbike champion, and a hugely successful team boss. In the first of our three-part series, ‘Big Mac’ tells us about his early years of racing.

GRAZZI MILLE! • Noale had just gotten into the big-bore sports-bike game with the RSV1000 Mille, which they then decided to go World Superbike racing with. But then they needed a big-name ‘winning’ rider to make it all work. Enter Troy Corser...

1988 RUMI HONDA VFR750R RC30

Rock, Stock and smokin’ barrels • Superstock hit the British racing scene like a meteor 40 years ago. And one man was right in the middle of it: legendary bike journalist Roland Brown. He tells the short-lived story of the class.

1970 HARLEY-DAVIDSON XR750 TT • The Harley-Davidson XR-750 dirt-track race machine can lay claim to being one of the most successful motorcycle race bikes ever made, and the XRTT road-racing version would carve its own niche in race history. While the bike did suffer from some issues – fragile gearboxes and low power output – the pure road-racing model would also be ridden by some of the greats, names such as Cal Rayborn and Mert Lawwill. Rayborn would famously win three of the six 1972 Transatlantic Match races on an XRTT.

JOEY’S BEST! • It’s been 25 years since Joey Dunlop’s greatest triumph at the TT. Not only did he win a Formula 1 race for the first time in 12 years, but he also scored a hat-track at the age of 48, and left younger rivals shaking their heads in disbelief.

MORE TRIUMPHS! • In the final part of our series, Jack Valentine talks us through his years with ValMoto Triumph, the Foggy Petronas team, Crescent Suzuki and winning a final British title with Leon Haslam.

A NEW TERM! • Classic Racer friends Tony and Claire Greenslade run Gibson/Allspeed exhausts in Essex. After a successful 2024 racing season it’s all about the kick-off once more! What could go wrong?

Fred Clarke • In his regular column for Classic Racer, Fred Clarke – for more than 50 years the voice of British motorcycle racing – takes us back in time for some (often fun) recollections!

BARRY THE BEAST UNLEASHED! • Mike ‘Spike’ Edwards – with help from his friends – has turned a humble and hum-drum commuter machine into a fire-breathing race bike. And all in honour and in memory of the bike’s previous owner: Barry Owen.

Back in the Day • Welcome to ‘Back in the Day’. We want to see all your old photographs from way-back-when. They could be of you racing, or perhaps you meeting your racing idol – or maybe just snaps you’ve taken at a race event from yesteryear: do be mindful of copyright! Send them to: BSimmonds@mortons.co.uk