Huewen and his 1979 British title winning TZ750 at Mallory

Three-time British champion, former works Suzuki rider, and television broadcaster, Keith Huewen was one of many British racing legends at this year’s the 2024 Mallory Park Bike Bonanza.

Keith, who has an impressive depth of knowledge of the sport, was the roving commentator on Saturday afternoon and Sunday at the Bonanza but also brought along one of his original sponsors, Arne Fletcher, along with the Len Manchester Motorcycles Yamaha TZ750 he first campaigned in 1979.

The Bonanza featured a celebration of the Yamaha TZ750 launched in 1974 – a motorcycle that 50 years ago changed the face of motorcycle sport worldwide – and as Keith recalled, it was Arne’s Len Manchester TZ750 that brought him his first of three British road racing titles in ’79 (he also won the MCN Masters in 1983 riding a Suzuki GB RG500 Mk8 and in 1987 riding a Loctite Yamaha FZ750 in the burgeoning MCN Superstock series).

“I loved that thing,” he said of the TZ750. “When you are young and stupid you will ride anything to the limit but boy, that thing was loose. It only had 130bhp, which is no more than a modern 600, but the brakes were rubbish, as were the tyres so it was really edgy to ride.

“I remember riding around the outside of Kork Ballington at the Mallory Esses one time. Back in the paddock Kork said, ‘That thing is going to bite you soon….’ He was right. I was injured at Brands when I went under the barriers on the outside of Bottom Bend after trying ride around the outside of Roger Marshall. The bike followed me in but, luckily, I was skinny enough to go under the barrier. I still did my bottom four vertebrae. I ended up in Sidcup hospital two beds down from Steve Baker who also had an off at Brands that weekend!”

Keith recovered to clinch the ’79 ACU Solo British championship (beating the likes of Bob Smith, Roger Marshall and Ron Haslam to the title) but one of the standout racing memories of his season is from the Transatlantics. “You had to qualify for the final few places in the team back then and I made the cut, bumping, I think Roger Marshall. I’d been working on my van when I got called to go to the team presentation so my long hair was matted with grease and my Len Manchester tee-shirt was covered in oil stains.  I stood next to Barry Sheene who looked at me and said, ‘I’ve never heard of you…..’” Sheene would later become very aware of Keith when he became a highly competitive Suzuki GB teammate.

“The Mallory Transatlantics was also the first time I’d run a slick front tyre,” Keith added: “We chucked it in and I found you could push harder and harder. That ability to ‘feel’ what the bike is doing seemed to be inbred in me. There’s a great pic of me leading the field down Devil’s Elbow: Sheene, Baker, Mamola, Aldana etc. Devil’s Elbow in those days was made for men. No bus stop chicane before it to slow you down. It was so fast, with no run-off, an odd camber and a road that was dropping away from you all the time……”

In his second season on Arne’s Len Manchester TZ750, Keith was top scorer in a British team trounced by the Americans at the 1980 Transatlantics, promoting Motocourse to comment: “Huewen displayed bright talent during a dark weekend for the British.” He was also fourth in the 1980 Mallory Race of the Year (Suzuki’s Randy Mamola won from Sheene with Dave Potter third on a TZ750).

Keith’s first international race win, though, came at the 1980 North West 200 on the TZ750 – in his debut on the super-fast road course. “Same thing,” he recalled, “I was flat out. Blitzed the lap record (125.01mph), won the race, beating Noddy (Suzuki’s John Newbold) by a wheel. Funny enough, I never went back there again until I was working as a commentator.”

Mention of that North West victory also triggered memories of that TZ750 again. Keith said: “The TZ750 chassis was awful. We nearly wore through a radiator at the North West with the front tyre where the front end flexed so much under braking. Tyre degradation was horrendous. You’d have two or three laps then it was rubbish. You couldn’t change internal gearbox ratios, there were horizontally split crankcases and no cassette gearbox. It had carbs which you’d run as lean as you dare to keep them sharp but then there was the danger of seizing. I had a ‘weather station’ to check the air pressure so I could keep the carb jetting spot on.  But it was some bike. I used to work on it in the shed my dad’s house during the week and then go and race it with the best at weekends. The privateers dream bike.” 

*Keith Huewen hosts the OMG! MotoGP podcast on YouTube

Words courtesy Mallory Park. Images by Clive Challinor and superbike.co.uk