Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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wrong meeting and nobody has checked my pass. After the briefing, the jokes and paddock camaraderie begin to fade. Goodwood suddenly echoes to the thunder of pre-1955 motor- cycles running without baffles, ex- actly as nature intended. The mood changes. The tweed caps come off, the post-war finery is peeled away, and the visors click shut. SOMEHOW, I RIDE AROUND THE TT LEGEND The starting procedure is wonder- fully simple. We roll out of the paddock and complete a lap of attire. We knew we didn't have the power to live with the Vincents or the multi-cylinder machinery. Our real fight was with the single- cylinder Manx Nortons, which produce roughly the same 45 to 50 horsepower as our Matchless. The riders' briefing before race one is another pinch-me mo- ment. I look around the room and see legends such as former 250 GP winner Jeremy McWilliams and Bayliss sitting alongside some exceptionally quick classic- racing specialists. It's a privilege just to be among them, although I can't help feeling slightly out of place, like I've wandered into the international career after his near-fatal crash in 1962. The Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy is only one of 14 races, with cars dating back to the 1930s also pounding around the circuit. Consequently, the surface can acquire a slimy cocktail of oil, fuel and rainwater. Now add narrow classic tires, irreplaceable motorcycles and a grid full of teak-tough riders who have built careers by refusing to back off, and you get the picture. Practice at Goodwood is unlike a conventional practice session. You get 30 minutes, one bike and two riders. Our plan was simple: My teammate Stuart would go first. He's the classic expert and knows the Matchless so intimately he can tell if it's one or two horsepower down simply by listening to it and feeling how it pulls. No lap- top, no data engineer, no frantic tapping at a keyboard. Just de- cades of experience and a highly calibrated backside. After a few laps, he'd hand over to me—my job being to put the hammer down and qualify us somewhere inside the top 15. Then Stuart would jump back on for the final four or five laps, finishing with a plug chop so we could check the fueling back in the paddock. By the end of Friday, we had qualified 14th and were feel- ing confident and looking good, although the latter was mainly down to the tailoring of our period A few laps to go and fourth is sealed, but Goodwood had a surprise for Chad and Stuart. P102 RIDE REVIEW I GOODWOOD REVIVAL 2026