Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128626
Jeremv McWilliams He's in an expa ns ive mood, which mig ht be some th ing of a relief, be cause he has something of a rep utation fo r b eing spiky . To b e fa ir, he t ends to .re s e rve that for th e factor y bo sses wh o have o ve rlooked him for the ye a rs it has ta ken him to pr ov e th at he's not jus t th e United Kingdom 's to p ride r. He spea ks with practiced ease o n the to pic of his age. Th is too is not s ur prisi ng , for it's a m a tt er he h as ha d to a ddress re pea te dly even be for e he got the wor ks ride with Aprili a th is ye ar , a longside Te t suya Ha rada a ride tha t ha s seen him get th e best res ults of anyone out of th e 500cc V-tw in, s ha d ing his own new teammate with two visits to th e rostrum in the first part of the 2000 season a lone, incl ud ing a ge nuine ly brilliant effort to lead th e Brit ish GP before . finishing a close a nd fighting thi rd . "Look at [Ma rce llino l Lucchi. He 's 43 , a nd he 's still really fas t. What about Mic k Dooh an? He 'd still be racing now if not for the crash la st yea r, a nd he 's the s ame age a s me [in fact , just a ye a r yo unger) ," McWilliam s s a id . "T here a re plenty of riders who have don e really well over th e 30 mark - Wayne Ra iney , Kev in Schwantz , Mic k Do ohan. I c e rta in ly don't see m y age as a reason to qu it, as long as I'm st ill e njoyi ng wh at I'm doin g. " Ther e 's a nothe r aspect that he is a nxious to po int o ut. "I on ly started ra ci ng when I was 24. I have only been do ing it for 12 yea rs, a nd I've o nly been in GP racing since 19 93. If I'd ha ve sta rte d when I was 15 , like some of today's riders , it m ight be differ ent. But for m y age, I've no t had a long career." Why did the Ulsterma n leave it so late to start? (Ulster, to those who might be confused, is anoth er na m e for Northern Ireland , th e part of th e country that is a tt a ch ed to En gl a nd as part of the Unite d King do m , as opposed to the indepe nde nt county of E ire tha t m ake s up the bu lk o f th e cou nt ry) . T he answer ha s a lot to do with the love of road ra c ing in tha t pa rt of the world - th e sort o f road racing like the Isle of Man Tf', tak ing pla ce o n public roads . "The opportun ity to ra ce nev er rea lly arose be fo re t ha t ," McWilliams said. "I knew people wh o we nt roa d raci ng, and I had some friends who we re killed doing it. I never wa nted to do that. But I'd always had bikes , and after a whi le it became logical to go raci ng because it was getti ng a b it mad o n the roa ds. " He and a group of frie nds started to go to a local short circuit ne ar Belfast, where he lives to this day . Th e tra ck was ca lled , a p propria te ly enough , Nutts Corner. "We 'd lift t he fence and go in o n a Su nda y, for a bit of fun." As is so often the way, his talent started to show pretty qu ic kly against the amateurish enthusiasm of his companions. "Peo ple started to talk in the p ub afterwards, a nd they said I s ho uld go racing . So I did that, funding a ll the ra cing myself - I never had a s ponsor until I ha d al ready won two production championsh ips and an open -class 350 title ." Bit b y b it, he got b e tte r and bec a me b e tt e r kn own , un til he wa s c hosen in 1993 to replace his re ti rin g co m pa tr iot Ed d ie La ycoc k in th e p rivate 500cc team run by Ulster en thus iast Joe Millar. "Until then I did n't g ive up my day jo b. I worked in clos e d -ci rc uit TV, a nd when I quit to jo in Team Millar I wa s a section su pervisor." > rie s - but I don't kno w wh y it should ," McWilliams sa id. "For one thing . I'm old e r and more experien c ed - and you can see that I don 't give up easily. Now I also ha ve the e xperie nc e to ride a ro und pro blems. But I can gauge how fas t I feel - how fast my reactions are - how fit I fee l. All that is still intact. " I was talking to McWilliams in his large motorhome in Germany - newly a cq uired to go with his equally new ly acqu ired status as a works rider. B y MI CHA EL S COTT P HOTOS BY G OLD [, G OO SE h in , wiry, a nd - yes, it must be said - loo k ing T yo unge r th an the 36 yea rs that ma ke hi m the o ldest man in the 500 cc Grand Prix class , indee d in a ny of th e GP classes, J er emy McWilliams scratches his sha rp chin. "My age might go against me with certa in fac to - 38 AU GUST 1 6 , 2 000' eye I e n e vv s