Corser to race at Goodwood Revival

A superb line-up of legendary motorcycle racers, led by former world champions Kevin Schwantz, Freddie Spencer and Aussie Troy Corser, will take part in the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy at the Goodwood Revival from September 11-13.

Schwantz, who made his Revival debut last year on the ex-Geoff Duke Featherbed Norton, will ride a 1961 Manx Norton 500 with Rodney O’Connor.

Fellow American Spencer will also be Norton-mounted, riding a 1962 model with entrant Julian Ide.

Corser, whose world superbike crowns came in 1996 and 2005, will have a rare BMW Kaczor R50S at his disposal alongside co-rider Sebastian Gutsch.

Former GP racers Steve Parrish and Jeremy McWilliams both return for 2015 with Parrish, Sheene’s close friend and team-mate during his 1977 500cc title-winning season, riding a 1962 Matchless G50 and McWilliams – twice a Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy winner – on a 1961 Norton.

Isle of Man TT winners Mick Grant and Gary Johnson are reunited on the 1964 MV Agusta 500/3 on which they won at Goodwood in 2013, while another TT winner, Charlie Williams, has a 1962 Norton at his disposal.

Two more TT victors, Ian Simpson and Michael Rutter, also return. Rutter will ride a 1962 Manx Norton with Simpson on a 1966 Hansen Honda CR450. Fellow road-racing favourites Maria Costello and Keith Amor will be attempting to upstage them on, respectively, a BMW RS54 and a Norton.

British Superbike race winners James Whitham and Steve Plater will share a Matchless G50 while three more former front-runners from the championship, James Haydon, Aussie Glen Richards and Steve Brogan have, respectively, Matchless, MV Agusta and Norton machinery to power their ambitions during the weekend.

Derek Crutchlow, father of MotoGP star Cal Crutchlow, and himself a former world endurance racer, will make his Revival debut on a Norton, as will Taylor Mackenzie, son of three-time British Superbike Champion Niall; the latter on a bike entered by GP winner Chas Mortimer.

The Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy, which is this year for 500cc Grand Prix motorcycles during the 1960-1966 era, comprises one race on Saturday and one on Sunday, with a mandatory mid-race rider change in the pits for each bike and overall results decided on the aggregate finishing times of both races.

Previous winners include former 500cc world champion Wayne Gardner, Sheene himself (when the race was known as the Lennox Cup), Grant, Rutter and McWilliams.