With Christmas and the attendant festivities to intervene, it won’t be long before it’s time to head southwards in the direction of Phillip Island for my favourite meeting of the year, the International Island Classic. 2019 will be the 25th anniversary of the meet, founded by a group of local enthusiasts all those years ago and refined by the late Ken Wootton into an international event that is renowned all over the world.
There’s no need for me to extol the event as you all know my passion for it well. It is a “must see” event, not just for the racing but for the static displays, the bikes and, most of all, the personalities.
This morning I thought I’d try to condense what is known so far about the entries for the International Challenge from each nation competing. To start with, the event has taken on a much sharper appearance for 2018 with the competing teams nominating some very strong line-ups.
Firstly, the bad news; there will be no Team Ireland in 2018. Wrangles over money have scuppered Team Green, more’s the pity. A garrulous and likeable lot on a rag-tag collection of machinery, they arrived in 2016 and shot into 3rd place overall to everyone’s surprise. They repeated the dose in 2017 and, as well as bring great racers, they also were the most popular team in the paddock. It won’t quite be the same without them.
The three big national teams have all strengthened their line-ups and they look (substantially) like this.
Team Australia.
Troy Corser
Steve Martin
Shaun Giles
Beau Beaton
Cam Donald
Alex Phillis
Dave Johnson
Paul Byrne (ex-Team Ireland)
Ken Watson (R)
Team Captains must nominate from the selected roster after practice and qualifying with only 5 riders from each nation going on to represent their country in the 4-race match race series. On paper the Aussie team is very strong, relying on depth and experience rather than big names (though having a two-times WSBK champion in the team can’t hurt). No Jed Metcher this time and no Chas Hern, both serious omissions in my opinion. Paul Byrne is an Aussie resident and will be a big asset to the team.
Team GB goes into 2018 as the defending champions and will be trying to make it four in a row. The composition of the team has changed considerably with the unavailability of some of its previous stars. No McGuinnes, Cummings, Farquhar to start with. However, McWilliams is there for the 8th year and he heads an all-star team. They are still entitled to favouritism.
Jeremy McWilliams
Dan Linfoot
Lee Johnson
Michael Rutter
Glen Richards
Michael Neeves
Craig Ditchburn
Derek Brown.
The USA team shows signs of being a serious contender in 2018. Big changes have taken place there with team boss, Dave Crussell, making some alterations in team direction. He has hired two-times WSBK champion and ex-MotoGp star, Colin Edwards to lead the team and, despite Edwards being the most laid-back of characters, he will be deadly serious in his approach to the Classic. Backing him up will be some ex-AMA regulars who are also battle-hardened, Jake Zemke, Jason Pridmore and the returning Barrett Long. Dave will also ride and will be team captain. I’m very disappointed to note that the vastly experienced Pat Mooney has been left out of the team, I feel that this decision may yet prove to be a bad one. The full team has not been announced as yet but there may yet be a few “bolters” to further bolster the stars and stripes outfit (fingers crossed for Jorge Guerrero). No Joe Weir for 2018 and no word at this stage on Ralph Hudson.
Colin Eadwards
Dave Crussell
Jake Zemke
Jason Pridmore
Barrett Long
tba (watch this space)
Team NZ have made no announcements yet but I expect that their team will be made up of a similar roster to previous years. Of all the national teams, the Kiwis have steered a different path, treating the Classic as another historic meeting and fronting with a team made up of true post-classic bikes. While this is laudable in the extreme, it pretty much disqualifies them from being contenders in the big game.
As more information and changes come to hand I will attempt to keep you abreast of them. My Media Credentials application has gone in so, hopefully, I will be able to not only be there to see the fun but also bring you the inside “skinny” as well.
As noted above, watch this space.