Brexit disrupting pre-season motorcycle racing plans

Brexit disrupting pre-season plans

Local motorcycle racers are facing delays to their racing season as a result of Brexit.

Both the Irish and British racing seasons are due to get underway on the weekend of June 25-27.

Former Irish Supersport Pro champion Emmet O’Grady will ride for the Dublin-based TAG Racing Team this season in the Superbike class.

With just three weeks to the season opener he is left without any meaningful testing on his new Honda Fireblade CBR1000 due to a delay in getting much needed suspension parts for the bike.

He rode the new machine at a private test session at Mondello Park in early May but sat out the championship’s two official test sessions later in the month as he awaited delivery of the new parts.

They are due to arrives from his supplier, the famous Padgett’s Motorcycles Race Team in Yorkshire.

“The first problem is that Customs have added a further €1000 to the cost of the parts,” O’Grady said. “And those parts will sit in the warehouse until its paid. The next problem is it is taking over a week for funds to transfer from my sponsor’s bank account to Padgett’s adding another time delay. Switching supplier is not an option either, I have built up a relationship with Padgett’s that goes back to my father’s time racing and they supply all the data I need. I won’t get that from a German or Frech supplier.”

Meanwhile Kevin Coyne is preparing for his second season in British Super Bikes.

The Farranfore-based racer will race in the National Superstock 600cc on a Kawasaki Ninja 636. That championship runs alongside the prestigious main series.

He is taking part in the official pre-season-test next Tuesday at Donington Park in Leicestershire.

Like O’Grady, he faces import and export issues but has found a work around that will, for the time being at least, solve the problem.

“We are ready to ship out on Sunday morning,” his father Mark explained, “The bike and all the equipment will stay out in the UK for the whole season. It is the only way we could do it, we are lucky, we have family over there.”