Winter is behind us, despite what the weather may suggest, and like a bear I emerge crusty-eyed and irritable from hibernation; I stretch my back, uncork my backside and prepare for the season ahead… I speak of course about the coming Formula One season rather than hunting season or whatever it is bears do between…
I was on a mission. I was obsessed and I had just one target in mind. I was at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the event’s 20th anniversary, and the only thing that would make the day a success was if I met, spoke with and shook the hand of Sir Stirling Moss. I…
In the build-up to the final Grand Prix of the year in Abu Dhabi little over a week ago, a live interview aired on Hungarian television in which an interviewee said: “I look forward to seeing what happens between those two [Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg} over the next few years”. Hungarian television is rarely…
For fifteen years I have faithfully followed Formula One. I have loved it and embraced it as a large part of my life, only once having felt let down by it, in 2005, by the farcical Grand Prix at Indianapolis. That incident wasn’t entirely the sport’s doing – Michelin had supplied tyres to the majority…
I don’t really do book reviews, largely because I don’t really ‘do’ books. As keen as I am to write, I read comparatively little. I pick up my monthly copy of Motor Sport and then spend two months reading a page at a time; I have a back-log building up on my desk. When I…
Step forth and judge me, for I am a hypocrite. Only recently was I guilty of passing a book shop and questioning the thought process of the vast crowd gathered outside, waiting impatiently to get the latest biography or cook book signed by the author. I couldn’t quite see the point; a two-second meeting with…
A major part of the appeal of British motor racing stems from the venues that its national championships visit; nowhere in the world has such a plethora of tracks that offer the most extreme of challenges. Just a few weeks ago the British Superbike championship and its roster of support packages attended Thruxton, the ultra…
With seven races complete and just five to go, the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship is beginning its run to the finish line of 2015. Along for the ride is Wilks Racing Kawasaki, the family-run team forging their way in the championship for the first time as a fully-fledged independent outfit. For the Wilks family…
It was the 14th of July, 1979, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and Alan Jones’ Williams FW07 had spluttered to a halt 30-laps shy of a seemingly assured first Grand Prix victory. Jones had started from pole-position, thanks largely to mighty strides with the improvement of the Williams’ ‘ground effect’ aerodynamics; almost overnight, Williams…
If you were to stand at the top of Bray Hill, perhaps where High View Road faces the St Ninian’s High School green, and fired a bullet toward the base of the hill, where Stoney and Tromode Road meet, you’d be branded a lunatic and likely jailed. Sit, however, astride a 200-horsepower Superbike – Kawasaki,…
Some time ago, I dared to ponder in writing whether Formula One had ‘outgrown’ Monaco. To date it has been about the most read thing I have yet to write, not because it was any good, mind, but rather because I had been brash enough to question the principality’s place on the Grand Prix calendar;…
It’s no secret that motorcycle racing is a difficult sport in which to succeed. You can put in more effort than you ever thought possible; you could possess all the talent, determination and passion in the world, but it’s worth nothing if luck isn’t on your side. What’s more, a seemingly innocuous slip at a moist Oulton…
Brands Hatch can be an unforgiveable place; even in its short ‘Indy’ format, the circuit’s seemingly endless curves and undulations make it one of the most infamously challenging tracks in the country. Equally as challenging is the lung-bustingly steep hill facing many of the British Superbike’s support race community… “There’s good news and bad news”,…
For the majority of families across the UK the run up to Easter consists of resisting the temptation to gorge on chocolate, counting down to a long weekend and placing bets on what the Bank Holiday weather will feature, downpours or sunburn. For the Wilks family however, it was somewhat different, for Easter weekend 2015…
Ironic, isn’t it? The man blamed for crippling Formula One with his devastating dominance just 18 months ago is now credited with breathing new life to the formula, using the very same arsenal that damn near brought the sport to its knees; unanswerable speed, supreme skill and sublime victory. Sebastian Vettel’s victory at Sepang was…
VENN MOTOR SPORT 