Wayne Gardner (No 1) on a 1999 Suzuki RGV500 XR8 and Simon Crafar (No 34), on a 1989 Cagiva V589, riding in the World GP Bike Legends demonstration
Simon Crafar (born 15 January 1969 in Waiouru) is a former Grand Prix and WSBK motorcycle road racer from New Zealand. His racing career started in 1981 aboard a Suzuki TM75 in a local Junior Motocross Championship before eventually moving onto road racing in 1985. He won Malaysia's Superbike championship in 1991. In 1993 he was racing for Harris in the 500cc World Championship before joining the Suzuki factory racing team in the 250 class for the latter part of the season. He did not enjoy this, feeling that he is too large for the bikes. Wayne Michael Gardner AM[ (born 11 October 1959 in Wollongong, New South Wales) is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and touring car racer. His most notable achievement was winning the 1987 500 cc Motorcycle World Championship, becoming the first Australian to win motorcycling's premier class. His success on the world motorcycle racing circuit earned him the nickname The Wollongong Whiz. Both Wayne's sons, Remy and Luca, are racing motorcycles as like their father. The Suzuki RG500 "Gamma" was a motorcycle built by Suzuki between 1985 and 1987 and inspired by the 1984 Suzuki RG500 "Gamma" Grand Prix motorcycle, capitalizing on Suzuki's seven consecutive constructors title wins in the 500 cc-class. The Gamma was powered by a two-stroke, rotary valve, twin crank, square four engine displacing 498 cubic centimeters. The power output was brake horsepower ( kW) at 9,500 RPM. The engine employed liquid-cooling by means of a front-mounted radiator with a thermostatic control. Suzuki employed an aluminum boxsection frame with castings for the headstock and rear swing arm for the Gamma. The front suspension had pre-load adjust and an anti-dive system called "POSI DAMP" to control the tendency of a motorcycle's nose to dive under braking. At the rear the full-floater suspension design used dual-swingarms. The motorcycle weighed 154 kg (340 lb) dry. The bike was also offered as a RG400 mainly for the Asian markets.
Size: 3102px × 2120px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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