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[Perruqueporte]

This event may be of interest to those of you who followed motorcycle racing in days of yore……..please see below.

 

It is the fourth such “Audience with…” that I have organised in recent years, and should be very good fun.  Paul Smart is a delightful and very interesting man, and his racing career spanned various distinct eras - from four-stroke single cylinder grand prix machinery to the two-stroke multis, and from club racing to superbikes.  Many believe that his win at Imola in 1972 really did represent a pivotal moment in racing history, in that it showed for the first time that a carefully developed production-based machine in the right hands could achieve or better the lap times set by the fastest grand prix machines of the day.

 

I appreciate that Eynsford (which is near Brands Hatch) is a very long way to travel for most, but there may be one or two of you who would be irritated not to have been told about this.

 

Christopher Wigdor

President, Greenwich Motor & Motorcycle Club

 

CALLING ALL MOTORCYCLE RACING FANS……..

 

AN AUDIENCE WITH MOTORCYCLE RACING LEGEND PAUL SMART, THE MAN WHO PUT DUCATI ON THE MODERN MAP

 

The Greenwich Motor and Motorcycle Club is delighted to announce “An audience with….” legendary motorcycle racer Paul Smart, at the Riverside Club, Eynsford, near Brands Hatch on Wednesday evening 14^th January, 2015 (Riverside, Eynsford, Dartford DA4 0AE).  Doors open at 7.30pm with the main event starting at 8.15pm.  The price of entry is a £2 raffle ticket, and all proceeds from the raffle will be split equally between the childrens cancer charity CLIC Sargent and the Riverside Club itself.  There will also be a separate collection during the evening for CLIC Sargent (Paul Smart’s chosen charity, which was also supported by his brother-in-law and fellow racer, the late Barry Sheene).

 

Paul Smart needs little introduction to motorcycle racing fans.  During the 1960s and ‘70s he competed successfully in the UK, Europe and the USA at national, international, Superbike and Grand Prix events, with numerous wins and places to his credit.  The win that granted Paul immortality, certainly for Italian fans and Ducati enthusiasts, was at the Imola 200 race in 1972 where, on a Ducati 750 which was in effect a modified production motorcycle, he beat the world’s best grand prix racers including the reigning world champion Giacomo Agostini on the MV Agusta.  That win laid the foundation for all of Ducati’s subsequent racing successes by riders with names like Carl Fogarty, James Toseland, Troy Bayliss, Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi.  Paul still owns the Imola-winning machine – presented to him by Ducati in recognition of his achievement – and to this day he is fêted by the world’s “Ducatisti” (as the firm’s fans are known).

 

 “An Audience with Paul Smart” on 14^th January, will combine an interview on-stage with questions from the audience.  Those who were not around during the period will learn if it ”Really was like that in the ‘60s and ‘70s”!

 

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The Greenwich Motor & Motorcycle Club was a founder club of the Brands Racing Committee and the Kent Racing Combine, which ran most of the motorcycle road racing at Brands Hatch from the 1950s to the 1990s.