An Invitation to Recall

August ‘22

By summer 2000, all the terror & chaos of the millennium bug (!?) had subsided, clearing the way for MotoGP at Donington Park. Rather than attract the crowds of over a hundred thousand UK race fans, that had regularly crammed into Brands Hatch for the World Superbike meeting, less than a fifth of that number attended the British GP that year. As the lone UK participant - Jeremy McWilliams was forced to conclude that he was racing and representing “Superbike Island”. He was right. Year after year, Superbike and Supersport race replicas were flying from showroom floors and onto the twisting back roads of the UK countryside. Popular gathering points resembled race paddocks on any given Sunday (pauses to sniff and blow nose).

Jezza had an amazing podium finish that day - riding a twin cylinder Aprilia to third place, just a second behind the youthful and irresistible force of Valentino Rossi, recording his first premium class win. The world had shifted a little on its axis and MotoGP was at the dawn of a new era of popularity. Like all patterns of parallel history, the trends, fads, movements, factions and sub-factions of motorcycling have ebbed and flowed over a century on two wheels. 

The Recall section is the home of Superbike Island nostalgia. A place for tall tales and affectionately looking back through a rose tinted visor. Untold stories will unfold, together with personal takes on moments both missed and remembered. Whilst it may never become clear why on earth I spaffed my hard earned cash on an XJ600 back in the day, there are definitely more intriguing discoveries to be made regarding my grandparent’s biking adventures in the 1930s or my uncle taking his family of four on holiday in fifties Scotland, in an Aeriel sidecar!

My grandmother pictured below, sits proudly astride a sleek AJS, keeping watch as the return journey begins…