CCM ARCHIVES: Man tracks - Phillip Island by Michael Neeves
Muscling this beast of a GSX-R1100 around some of the fastest, most fierce corners in the world, against a bunch of hard-as-nails Aussies I’ve never seen before, let alone rubbed fairings with, has been an education.
For the past four days of free practice, qualifying and racing here at the International Island Classic at Philip Island I’ve ignored everything except trying to go as fast as I can, but now I’ve crossed the chequered flag for the final time I can finally relax, take it all in and embark on what could possibly be the slowest cool-down lap of all time, to savour the moment at this magnificent circuit.
It’s a dream come true to race at a track I’ve seen on TV the past 25 years, so rolling slowly down the short straight between the Southern Loop and Stoner Corner on perfect tarmac, trimmed with bright blue and white kerbs, I can at last get a good look at the sea to my right and the perfectly manicured grass to the left. A sea breeze takes the edge off the 36°c mid-summer January heat and the sweat of my last race.
The track feels strangely familiar. I’ve been here on two GSX-R launches in the past and recognise every grain of tarmac from the telly, but it feels a lot like two of my other favourite tracks: Donington and Jerez - wide, swoopy and inviting.
Adored by riders and fans alike, Philip Island is one of the world’s evocative circuits and littered with super-quick corners, named after double hard Aussie racers. There’s no feeling in the world like swooping through Doohan and Stoner Corners flat in fourth, or along the Gardner Straight, stretching the Gixer’s throttle cable to the stop. Then there’s the big dipper plunge from Lukey Heights to MG and the tyre-shredding Turn 12, one of the fastest kneedown lefts on the planet.
Philip Island has played host to some of the most iconic races of the modern era. Wayne Gardner won the first ever 500GP race here in ’89 and again a year later beating fellow Mick Doohan to the line by 0.8 second in a nail-biting race with Gardner’s Honda NSR500 faring hanging off after a couple of near crash highsides during the race.
Then there’s the time Anthony Gobert’s scored a David and Goliath-style wet WSB victory in 2000 on his Bimota SB8R. And what about Rossi’s 2003 win – overcoming a 10 second penalty for overtaking on a yellow flag?
This fast, flowing, anticlockwise ribbon of tarmac has always made for close racing. It rewards corner speed and skill over brute power. Brit Jeremy McWilliams lined-up in pole on his sweet-handling Kenny Roberts KR3 500cc two-stroke here in 2002 ahead of the Rossi and the new four-stroke MotoGP brigade. Superbikes, supersport, MotoGP and Moto2 all run similar lap times. But like all racetracks, they can bite. Carl Fogarty’s career came to a premature, arm-crushing end after colliding with Ducati privateer Robert Ulm at Turn 8 (Hayshed).
The International Island Classic isn’t just about the track, the warm weather, or the superstar riders in the International Challenge, it’s all about the bikes.
Classic racing is gaining in popularity and is bigger than ever. It gives us the chance to see the bikes we’ve grown up, with in race trim, being ridden to the limit and beyond. Here at Philip Island there’s everything from vintage machines to modern classics. Take a look around the pits and you’ll see everything from Manx Nortons, old Harleys, RGV250s, Suzuki XR69s, KZ1000Rs, CB1100Rs, ZX-7Rs, RC30s, TZ250s, FZR1000s, VF750s, FJ1200s and GPZ900s.
It’s a dream version of a UK club racing paddock with smiley, friendly faces, cool bikes and Australian heat. All year I’m trying to keep warm in my awning, but here you’re battling to stay cool and find the shade in the awning. The sun is fierce here, thanks to the depleted ozone down these parts. Must be all the hairspray I used I the 80s.
My classic ride for the weekend is a Suzuki GSX-R1100. It’s actually a GSX-R750J Slingshot (which is the first bike I ever raced back in ’88 at Brands Hatch…I broke my ankle in practice) chassis with an 1100 engine, run by Carl Cox Motorsport. We’re in the snappily titled ‘Pablo’s Motorcycle Tyres New Era Formula 1300 & Invitational P6 Open’ race – a support class to the International Challenge where the superstars hang out.
Carl Cox also sponsors the P&H Motorcycles 899 Panigales in the Ducati TriOptions cup in BSB and a sidecar team in New Zealand, who the bike-mad superstar DJ is also bringing to the TT this summer.
Our class gets four free practice sessions on the Thursday, two goes at qualifying on Friday and four races over the weekend. It’s a tightly-packed, but well organised program and races start one after the other in quick succession. There’s no warm-up lap and the only time to get heat into the tyres is the journey from the pitlane to lining up on the grid. But as a club racer from the UK, I’m better-prepared at going hard on cold tyres than my Aussie cousins.
As results go, it’s a dream weekend, racing against everything form a modded FJ1200, GPZ900, 851, 888, YB8 and other Gixers ridden by fellow club racers, as well as classic and Aussie supersport champions. We qualify fourth (on my birthday) and pick-up three thirds and a second in the races, earning us third overall for the weekend and a nice trophy.
The big Suzuki went far better than I’d ever hoped. Yes, it’s heavy, turns slowly, doesn’t stop that well and with its open carbs just gurgles rather than moves forward coming out of the slow Honda and MG hairpins. The rev counter never worked all weekend, either, so I wasn’t sure what rpm to dial in off the starts. I only figured out it had five gears, not six, after watching some on-board footage on the Saturday night…
But the 140bhp (we think) motor is packed with grunt and top end speed. Most importantly the Suzuki loves fast corners and is stable along the main straight. Honda hairpin is the only time you need to brake hard, but lots of back brake and engine braking helps to get you stopped, anyway.
After racing a BMW for the past five seasons and being used to an on-board lap timer, gear position indicator, a quick-shifter, traction control and lose to 200 perfectly delivered bhp, I thought the Suzuki would be like going back to the dark ages. But I never missed any of that stuff. It shows that a bike’s a bike: two wheels, an engine and somewhere to sit. With the Ohlins fork internals and rear shock fitted and modern uber sticky and stable Pirelli slicks, there’s not the gulf between old an new superbikes as you’d expect.
The only moment I had was the butt-clenching time I almost ran off the kerb on to the grass coming on to the straight, but that’s more pilot error than anything.
But I didn’t have a clue how the big Suzuki would go before I arrived. The last time I rode a 750 Slingshot it was tank-slapping bitch of a thing with no ground clearance, but would its bigger engine make it worse?
Our Thursday practice day was a write-off. The old GSX-R, which was bought as ready-prepped racer, but with no known history, kept blowing fuses and eventually the wiring loom caught fire over Lukey Heights. I never did more than two laps without it breaking down and I got two lifts back to the paddock on the back of trailer and pushed it back in twice. As nice as it is racing in mid-summer Aussie heat, it’s not so good pushing a 190kg motorcycle uphill in leathers….
We also made a mistake with the rear wheel. Our 7/11 has been built with a 5.5” rim, perfect for the super-sticky 180/60 x 17 Pirelli Superbike slicks to slip on. But we started practice on spare GSX-R1100 wheels, which are 4.5” and took a 160-section back in the day. It was only after seeing the size of my chicken strips at the end of the day and experiencing huge wobbles out of the corners and down the Gardner Straight, did we figure out we’d been trying to squeeze such a wide tyre on to a skinny wheel.
But with the help of my mechanics for the weekend: Mick and Bob and the help of the Dynoverks team and TT Motorcycles, we replaced the minimal wiring loom, fitted the right rear wheel and settled into a perfect race weekend.
By Friday qualifying and with the help of the Carl Cox Motorsport team, Dynoverks, TT Motorcycles and mechanics Bob and Mick the GSX-R1100 was a different beast thanks to a newly built wiring loom and the correct size 5.5” rear wheel to take the super-sticky Pirelli WSB slicks (we’d been running a 4.5” rim).
From that second row qualifying through to the podiums and finally my pinch-myself-I’m-dreaming cool-down lap, the weekend has been one to remember. Even if I wasn’t racing, just being in the paddock see all these amazing old bikes and racing superstars would be incredible. But to get the chance to race it as well was one of the best things I’ve ever done.