“You know, they are a race bike so far ahead of their time it wasn’t even funny.  I mean, here I am racing a bike that was designed and built way before I was born and it’s just so good.  It really must have been something back then!”

– Schwantz on the Manx Norton

By Michael Esdaile Main Pic: Andrew Bight. Other Pics: BD

HE CAME, he saw, he conquered.
Afterwards, there were no Roman Legions burying the dead, just a throng of smiling fans politely asking Suzuki Grand Prix star Kevin Schwantz for autographs.
He may have been retired from full time racing for 14 years, but the former works Suzuki racer showed he still has the fire that took him all the way to the top when he lined up at the 30th annual Pukekohe Classic Festival in New Zealand on February 6-8.
Racing a Manx Norton specially prepared by McIntosh Racing Developments, Schwantz quickly got to grips with the high speed Pukekohe circuit in practice, turning lap times not far off those of past winner Dave Cole.
Dave who?
Cole is a quiet, unassuming Kiwi racer who has three national Formula II Championships to his credit, on bikes as diverse as a Yamaha TZ250, Ducati 748 and Yamaha YZF600.  For the past several seasons he has concentrated on his motorcycle business, racing Ross Graham’s G50 Matchless in his spare time.
As well as his New Zealand Championships, Cole has won the Australian Classic racing crown three times, and in 2007 he raced wheel-to-wheel with 1987 World 500 Champion Wayne Gardner at Phillip Island, and won.
Schwantz knew Cole was the man to beat at Pukekohe and his enquiries also informed him that New Zealander Ken McIntosh builds some of the best Manx Nortons in the world.
For Pukekohe, McIntosh built the Suzuki star a big-bore, short-stroke 500cc Manx capable of revving to almost 9000 rpm – stratospheric limits in Classic racing.  And with a tank full of methanol, it was a formidable weapon.
Over two days of racing, Schwantz took the chequered flag five times from five starts, setting a new lap record for 500cc Classic bikes in his final encounter with Cole in the process.
But the long-legged Texan did not have things all his own way.  Cole made him work for his wins, but in the end, the superior top speed of the McIntosh Manx gave Schwantz an edge.  That did not stop the two engaging in titanic braking duels at the end of the long Pukekohe straight, and in one incident, they collided exiting the hairpin, Schwantz momentarily caught off-guard by the speed with which Cole recovered from running in too deep.
“We had a little bump, a little coming together off the hairpin one time,” Schwantz explained.  “He got in a little hotter than I did so I set up to drive past him on the inside on the exit but he came back quicker than I expected.  So we had a little nudge in the middle, no harm, no foul, nobody went down.  It’s fun racing and Dave’s a guy that rides well within his ability and he’s got decent equipment so he’s always a force to be reckoned with.”
Cole rated this race as more satisfying than his 2007 win over Wayne Gardner at Phillip Island.
“You get a bit of respect from Kevin,” the quiet Kiwi said, then added:  “but he definitely throws it around a bit.  He’s not scared of anything!”
Hardly were the words out of his mouth than Schwantz walked over, sweat running down his face, shook Cole by the hand, laughed at the hairpin incident and added: “good ride!”
Schwantz was joined at Pukekohe by his father Jim, who also rode another locally prepared Manx Norton.
“It’s not often we can do stuff like this together so that was great,” Schwantz said.
Jim Schwantz has his own Manx Norton at home in Texas and Kevin said he never understood the attraction.
“I kinda wondered what he was so enthralled with, with them, but now after riding one, you know, they are a race bike so far ahead of their time it wasn’t even funny.  I mean, here I am racing a bike that was designed and built way before I was born and it’s just so good.
It really must have been something back then!”
In addition to Kevin and Jim Schwantz, the Pukekohe Classic Festival was graced by the presence of former British Champion Dave Croxford, who demontsrated a rare water-cooled Cosworth Norton owned by New Yorker Jamie Waters, who also made the trip to New Zealand.  In addition to the Cosworth Norton, Waters had his air-cooled 750cc Commando-powered, Peter Williams designed monocoque Norton.
Another former star who made an appearance was Paul Smart, who raced his Imola 200 winning Ducati 750SS.
Even Team Roberts’ former chief technician Warren Willing dropped in to take a look.
But the man the Classic fans in New Zealand will be talking abut for years to come is Revvin’ Kevin Schwantz.

KR

Andrew Awesome on The Britten

By Big Dave

This year's Annual Old School Fest was held in very warm early February conditions at Pukekohe Park Raceway.

As usual a formidable contingent of motorcycles, representing a large slice of motor sports history, was in attendance.

The main drawcard was the appearance of Kevin Schwantz, who we're happy to report was not only gracious when accosted by a shaggy BD and video camera (hey it was a long weekend!), but turned in some great racing as Mike Esdaile reports.

Andrew Stroud was quite spectaular during his parade laps on the Britten and pulled some impressive stunts.

Stand up wheelies and rolling stoppies. The man has style.

It was great to hear the machine on song as well as drool over it in the pits. There are some bytes of just how good it sounds in our embedded video.

All in all It was another great weekend in the Classics tradition.

More details and results will be posted as soon as they are in. Check back shortly.

A selection from Andrew Bright's brilliant images will be in the print edition and there are a number BD specials in 'the darkroom' section of our site.

>> click here for more online pics.