Mark Coverdale
Mark Coverdale is an independent sponsor of Motorcycle Road Racing with Team ILR. They have enjoyed a very successful 2022 season with wins at the Northwest 200 and the Manx Grand Prix and we took the opportunity to ask how he got into sponsoring and why he does it.
How did you get started with bikes?
My dad had a bike, a Honda Cub C50 and as a small boy in the 60’s I was a regular passenger. Dad was safety conscious and as he put on his cork and leather helmet and big leather gauntlets he insisted that I had my anorak hood up and was wearing my mittens when we went for a ride. We lived in Hillingdon at the time and he was an air traffic controller commuting to West Drayton. At family gatherings he would have everyone in stitches as he told very funny stories of all the near misses, scrapes and collisions he’d had on his bike. My Dad was my hero capable of anything in my eyes and it wasn’t until much later I realised what an absolutely terrible driver, and probably rider he was, and how lucky we had been not getting seriously hurt riding his Cub. I however remember the bike as a friendly and happy part of my life.
By the time we moved to Cambridgeshire in 1974 the Honda was long gone and my father had bought a green Reliant Regal Van. That time in the mid 1970s in rural England everyone had a moped at sixteen and from fourteen, our faces were glued against the showroom windows of motorcycle shops working out which bike we would get.
Our dream bikes were the Japanese Yamaha FSIE, Suzuki AP50, Honda SS50 or the exotic Italian Malagutis, Fantics and Garellis. We also knew in our hearts if we weren’t careful and didn’t get some cash together we may be destined to end up with a step-thru!
Bikes suddenly became my obsession and now this interest was piqued there was a an urgency to start raising some money. Paper rounds, collecting football pools, Saturday jobs, fruit picking and holiday jobs became paramount. To get a taste of bikes, me and my mates would club together getting hold of knackered old bikes and scooters to thrash round the fields.
When sixteen hit despite all the fund raising and perusing of hundreds of brochures, my first bike was a Batavus Compact; a tiny step-thru. The Batavus wasn’t like a normal step-thru, it had tiny wheels and looked as though it could be packed into a suitcase. More gadget than Motorcycle. The kind of bike suitable for Noddy or a clown. Not my first choice by any stretch of the imagination but it was so inoffensive looking that it was the only one permitted by my worried parents. My birthday is at the start of the year and the 1977 winter was very cold indeed. Lots of ice, sleet and snow. I was on my bike from the first minute of my birthday and afterwards out all the time. Not surprisingly I was falling off all over the place and after a month my father enquired the cause. Obviously it was the weather, lack of proper training and a sixteen year old’s over enthusiasm, but quick as you like I said it was the small wheels on the little Batavus and if I had had a sports moped, as I had wanted, I would have been
safe as houses. He fell for it and I traded the Yellow Batavus for a Yellow SS50 5-Speed. My father insisted it had to be a Honda in memory of his C50.
My life changed and so did the weather I went everywhere with my chest flat to the tank, clocking up hundreds of miles each weekend and surprisingly never fell off the thing. In the Spring I heard about a local motorcycle club the “Fen Moto Club” who were meeting at the Three Horseshoes pub in Wistow and plucked up the courage to go. I must have looked a very nervous child, however one of the senior members came up to me asked if I would let him have a go on my bike. In no time he was bombing up and down the village on it and trying to pop wheelies to everyone’s amusement. When he’d finished and because I’d been a good sport he said “I suppose you want a go on my bike”. Of course I said yes. I was sixteen but was really short for my age with a lot of growing still to come and looked eleven. He laughed and said maybe its best that he rode it and I went pillion. I don’t think I’d ever been faster than the 55mph downhill flat on the tank that I could do on my SS50, Certainly not on the Cub and definitely not in my Dads Reliant. I was introduced to a Laverda 750. It smelt, sounded and felt fantastic and off we went, he was clad head to toe in leather whilst I sported a Project 9 open face helmet and a nylon jacket and gloves straight off the market stall. He didn’t hold back, and we were soon swerving through the countryside, using all the road and scrapping a peg at every bend. I had never known anything like it. It was light years away from my moped, the acceleration literally took my breath away as I tightly clung on to the bike. The braking was just as violent and the sensation of the tarmac seemingly inches from my head as we swept through the corners was overwhelming. When I got off the bike I was totally exhilarated and shaking. I now knew what a motorcycle could do and if I wasn’t hooked on bikes before I was then and they have been a part of my life ever since. I have had a lot of very interesting bikes since but I still don’t have a Laverda 750 in my collection. Strangely, I have however managed to buy examples of all the moped models Batavus sold in the UK. I now have two compacts.
So you became smitten with speed early on what was your first fast bike?
At 17 I had a Honda CB250 G5 and as soon as I passed my test it was swapped for a very early Norton Commando 750 Fastback. The piston broke within a few days and I set about fixing it. In the Guinness Book of Records at the time the fastest production motorcycle was the Gus Khun 750 Commando. Where else would I go for my replacement parts but to Gus. Performance pistons, a 4s Cam and re-profiled cases followed by months of hard work accompanied buy regular questioning of the Norton designers parentage for deciding that Imperial, AF and Whitworth were the correct choice for the inaccessible studs and nuts, I finally had a monster. Until the Norton came on the cam, it just sputtered and eight stroked but once on the power it was like a two stroke. Un-believable performance. I hadn’t done anything to the
suspension and its drum brakes so it was a little bit of a handful to say the least. Also courtesy of my minimal mechanical skills, after a few miles of terror the engine detonated into many much smaller parts than Gus had sold me. This cycle of toil/joy/explosion repeated many times with the intervals sadly growing longer each time. I had the Norton for quite a few years and during all that time it only gave me a few hours of trouble free motorcycling. It had quickly become my second bike and a bit of a curiosity. It was working when it sold but the exhausts did glow yellow when it ran. I never quite got to the bottom of that.
How did you get involved with Road Racing?
I broke my leg. I was never involved in road racing until recently, though I had done loads with bikes. I was an advanced motorcycle instructor, did a bit of motocross and made up the numbers riding circuits with motorcycle clubs. I was enthusiastic but generally rubbish. Motorsport had given me quite a few knocks and scrapes along the way but my worst injury was in 2006 slipping on wet grass in the white knuckle activity of putting a hosepipe away! By the time I got to thirty my Insurance business had really started to take off and between that and a family, my motorcycling was reduced to the occasional thrash along the lanes. When the slip occurred I was a quite portly man in his late 40’s, my weight and the physics of how one foot slipped and the other one stayed put meant the leg break was quite bad, and the ankle had, to quote my friend who was working the Xray that day, exploded. I thought it wasn’t saveable and suggested it was removed, however eight operations later I’ve still got it. Until I had it fused six years ago it was really neither use nor ornament. It couldn’t support my own weight for quite a time, leave alone the third of a ton Triumph Rocket Three I had then. It had to go and for the first time since I was fourteen there wasn’t a bike in my life. I started watching a lot of videos and reignited an obsession with the Isle of Man TT I first discovered watching Joey Dunlops V four Victory at a meeting of the Norton Owners Club. As I started to to move about with sticks getting back on a bike was a priority. I even thought about doing a bit of racing myself, the lightweight MZ series looked inviting and I dreamt of perhaps even progressing to the Manx. Fantasy! I finally felt fit enough for a road bike and got a 99 Sukuki Hayabusa and all thoughts of me racing melted away and I felt like a human again. The TT obsession however didn’t go away.
I got my fix reading biographies and autobiographies and watching loads of motorsports films, thank you Duke Videos!. My business and my then wife didn’t give me a chance to get over to the TT for a week or two as I wanted, but in 2013, while watching the warm up coverage for the TT on ITV, Steve Parrish said it was still possible to get Platinum hospitality tickets for the upcoming race. A few calls and a couple of days later me and a couple of my sons were having a day trip to the Isle of Man.
It was possible then to fly out early in the morning from Birmingham and get a latish flight back the same day. The Platinum tickets are expensive but compared to a fortnight on the island not bad at all. The Platinum tickets gave you access to the VIP pavilion, all your food and drink, programmes, a hat, discount voucher for the official retailers, a lap in a course car and a TT Legend as host for the day. Our TT legend was Mick Grant. We hit it off straight away, and we had a fabulous day. The course car was fantastic, averaging at over ninety mph. Its not just thrilling but you have a much better appreciation of the road surface and the light conditions; it was wonderful.
Mick was brilliant, most of the buyers of the platinum tickets were corporate, so not really there for the bikes, and had soon wandered off, leaving just a handful of us with Mick and he looked after us so well. Just before practice he bundled us into a borrowed course car and went off to visit an old lady Mick knew who had bungalow on Bray hill. We had tea and cake while bikes flew by at 180mph inches away from us as we sat on her garden wall. It was so raw and physical, the sound, the smell and the pulse of energy that surged through your body is indescribable. If you’ve never done it, get in a hedge on the circuit for an experience of your life. Intoxicating and addictive. He also introduced us to Davison’s Ice cream, possibly the best in the world. Walking round the paddock and on the grid we met everyone and really felt part of the excitement.
We did the same next year and we had already arranged with Mick that he would host us again. Had a brilliant visit again in 2014, Mick was working with Norton so we got to spend some time with the team. For one of the races I was late going to the grandstand so instead of rushing to join Mick and my sons I went out the back of the hospitality to view from the grass bank that overlooks the winners enclosure. It was the best spot to get a bit of a view of the pits. I was stood next to a bloke called Keith and we got chatting and became fast friends. He was sponsoring a bike and his excitement was wonderful. The team were first running in the low twenties then got to the high teens. He was totally made up, and that was the moment that the idea of my becoming a sponsor was born. When we walked into the hospitality my sons rushed up to me and asked for a Photo. I hadn’t known that my new friend was Keith Flint from the Prodigy. His sponsoring went from strength to strength culminating in TT wins. After then we only bumped into each other occasionally in race paddocks but he was always a kind, gentle and funny man, and his very sad passing was a huge loss to the motorcycle racing family. Mick Grant and Keith Flint were responsible of what happened next.
We were back again in 2015. Mick was working for Norton so we were given a different Legend, Ian Lougher. We got on really well. Ian had just retired from racing (for possibly the third time) and at the end of the day, just before we left, I asked him if he knew of a team that I could possibly sponsor. It turns out he had a team doing BSB and he would be delighted to have my sponsorship. I really wanted to be doing the roads and especially the TT but I got on so well with Ian I started sponsoring Team ILR.
The next year 2016 we were at the TT and Ian was riding the 500cc two-stroke Suter!
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You were obsessed with Road racing and the TT what makes them so special?
Circuit racing is excellent and you’re not going to find much better than the BSB. The bikes and riders can go to their absolute limit in an environment designed to minimise the risks. It is certainly not risk free as the very tragic passing of the wonderful Chrissy Rouse last year highlights. Racing on the road just amplifies the number of things you have take into account. Road races take place on public roads that are temporarily closed for the racing. The street furniture, curbs, walls, gates and hedges are therefore still all there. The road surface isn’t as smooth as a circuit and it’s camber is very different.
The Isle of Man circuit takes things to another other level. Each lap is thirty-seven and three quarter miles long. Going from sea level up a mountain and back down again. There are over two hundred bends to memorise. The road surface is so changeable, for example the circuit from the Ginger Hall Hotel to the town of Ramsey is so unbelievably bumpy. In other places the faster line isn’t where you would think, as lumps that could unseat a rider at 200mph have to be avoided. All the solo machines will need to come in for at least one pit stop so the whole team is physically involved in ensuring the fastest time. The best average speed is 137MPH by Peter Hickman. Despite having so many corners, villages and towns it is the fastest road race in the world.
Your first race bikes were two beautiful Patons How did you go from being a sponsor to buying race bikes and why the Patons?
I had been sponsoring Team ILR for a couple of years and had been the ideal sponsor, I sent them money, made no demands at all and very rarely showed my face. When I did I helped as much as I could and got on like a house on fire with the team. We worked hard and partied hard. The team members were also brilliant. Ian Lougher is a ten times TT winner, has corners named after him at the Ulster Grand Prix circuit and Olivers mount where he has ludicrous number of wins, over 140 I think. He is however one of the nicest most humble people you are ever likely to meet. Apart from what he has achieved on the track he can really set up a bike. To this day we do not use dataloging but rely on the sensitivity of a Welshman bouncing the suspension up and down combined with rider feedback to assess our settings. When we relax at the end of the day Ian tells the funniest stories of his times racing. Asa, Ian’s wife, looks after us, so while helping in the pits, working trackboards, doing translations, still manages to somehow produce three really delicious meals a day for the team from inside a truck. Our chief mechanic is Michael “Jacko” Jackson and he is a brilliant mechanic, so hardworking and very happy. Always humming and whistling we can always find him. Everyone loves Jacko. He too is great rider and had many British and Irish titles and is a demon off road as
well. We are all team mates but also very close friends. Four years ago I joined Ian and Asa on a visit to Japan and met Keiko who was president of the Women’s International Motorcycle Association and is now my fiancé!
For the 2017 TT Ian was to be again riding the Suter. He had kept himself in race fitness and done all the necessary qualifying races to maintain his mountain licence to compete at the TT. Just a few weeks before the TT, Suter said they were sorry but were overstretched in other commitments and unfortunately couldn’t come. Ian was obviously very disappointed and on a rainy Wednesday of race week, we found ourselves in the hospitality marquee again, racing cancelled, and wrapping ourselves around quite a few drinks. Consoling him I said “If you want to race at the TT next year I will buy our own Suter". Next day, now sober, Ian called me and asked if I was serious about buying a bike and I said yes, my word is my bond. He said instead of the Suter which was probably far too complicated for us, for the same money we could buy a couple of Patons. The Patons had done really well at the TT that year and Ian had run one before. I said why not and Ian contacted Paolo at Paton and in March next year we went to Cremona Circuit in Italy to test and bring them back.
I have ended up with four Patons, a Kawasaki ER650, a Yamaha R6, new Honda CBR600RR super sport, BMW R1000S and Kawasaki ZX10 as race bikes. We have done some BSBs to give riders some track time and get them up to speed but are predominantly focused on the roads. We have had Paton wins at the NW200 ridden by Joe Loughlin and at the Manx ridden by Francesco Curinga last year. Francesco also set a new lap record. We have recently made announcements for our line up for this year.
Team ILR are pleased to announce our rider line-up for 2023, a season in which the team will target the North-West 200, Isle of Man TT, Southern 100 and Manx GP, as well as Oliver's Mount and selected Irish Road Races.
Returning for 2023 will be Italian Francesco Curinga who will ride a Team ILR - Mark Coverdale Paton at the North-West 200, and he will make his Isle of Man TT debut where he is no stranger to the Mountain Course having won the Junior Manx GP and breaking the Lap Record on the team's Paton in 2022.
Joining Francesco at the NW200 and TT on the same machinery will be his experienced fellow Italian Stefano Bonetti, a man who needs no introduction having had a lot of impressive results in a long career. Stefano will be right at home on the Paton and will finally get the chance show what he can do on the bike having been due to ride it in 2020 until the Covid pandemic disrupted the season.
Another man who needs no introduction, especially to Irish fans, is Michael Sweeney the 2022 Irish Road Race Superbike Champion and the recipient of the National Road Racer of the Year Award at the prestigious Adelaide Irish Motorcycle Awards. 'Micko' will ride a Paton at the Tandragee 100, NW200, TT, Southern 100, Skerries and possibly the Armoy Road Races.
Spain's Victor Lopez will also take part in the Manx GP where he will ride a Paton and our Yamaha R6. Victor made his debut at the event in 2015 and was lying a very close 2nd to Curinga in the 2022 Junior Manx GP when the engine blew on his Aprilia RS660. He was 5th in the 2022 Senior Manx GP.
Ryan Gibson will ride our Yamaha R6 at the North-West 200.
Gibson enjoyed a successful 2022 season winning the Ulster Supertwin Championship and finishing 3rd in the Ulster Superbike Championship, and he is another rider with previous links to Team ILR having been supported by Ian Lougher and his team at the Sunflower Trophy Races at Bishopscourt in 2017.
Completing the trio of Italian riders competing for the team in 2023 is Maurizio Botalico who will ride a Paton and our Honda CBR600RR at the Manx GP. Maurizio was a Newcomer at the Manx GP last year, and finished 12th in the Senior Manx GP.
If ever a rider epitomises the spirit of the Isle of Man TT then it has to Masayuki Yamanaka, and the popular rider returns to the island in 2023 for what will be his third year supported and guided by 10 times TT winner Ian Lougher. Masayuki, the first ever Japanese rider to step on a Manx GP podium, will ride the team's Kawasaki ER-6 and Honda CBR600RR in the Supertwin TT and both Supersport TT's at this year's event.
Manx rider Joe Yeardsley completes the team's line-up for the 2023 season. Joe has only been competing for a couple of years but has already impressed with some great performances, particularly at the Southern 100, Anglesey and Scarborough last year.
Yeardsley will ride a Paton at Scarborough in April, in addition to the Southern 100 in July and the Manx GP in August.
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What have been your highlights?
There have been so many highlights, but success on the roads is so much sweeter and the wins this year have been brilliant. Joe Loughlin and Francessco Curinga are such wonderful people too, we were truly blessed and I couldn’t have helped two nicer people. Francesco is back this year for the TT and Joe is looking forward to fatherhood and we hope he will be helping the team behind the scenes this year.
A win at the TT with one of our bikes is still our goal and the only podium at the TT with with me in the team was Ian getting a wonderful and surprising third in the Zero race in 2019. Ian had been asked to ride the race by Yoshihiro Kishimoto who had designed and built the electric Mirai. It was surprising because the hand built Mirai bike’s powerbank had been on fire just a couple of days before and unfortunately the smouldering batteries had to be buried by the fire brigade off the circuit near where the bike stopped. We were so grateful to the other teams who lent us batteries to allow us to compete and come in third behind the two Hondas. I was overjoyed with that result so proud of Ian, Yoshi and the team. The podium, was Michael Rutter, John McGuinness and Ian Lougher and I was hollering with excitement and delight. It’s for those moments that you do it.
Another highlight was going to Pikes Peak sponsoring the Mirai of Yoshihiro Kishimoto as its rider. Pikes Peak is the highest peak in the rockies and the Hill Climb runs from 9390 feet elevation to the summit at 14110 feet. With a distance of nearly 12.4 miles and 156 bends mostly hairpins with sheer drops. At such altitude its a huge technical and physical challenge. It wasn’t the result but the event itself that was fantastic. It was such a privilege to be part of a paddock so high up the mountain. We had to set up paddock in the middle of the night to prepare for practice. It was a challenge for all the teams to climb in rental cars and vans to assemble at the three different stages each night of practice week and work in such cold and windy conditions. You are totally exposed to the elements and Keiko and I ended up wearing every article of clothing we had brought to try and stay warm. The altitude took its toll on us too and at the higher stages had to take the occasional puff of oxygen we carried with us. Experiencing dawn there was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and it is indelibly marked on my soul. Unfortunately early in the race Yoshi left the track went into the trees and badly broke his ankle, and the American Carlin Dunne, who had been leading every practice on his prototype Ducati so close to victory at the summit left the road and so sadly lost his life.
James Chawke was running his own supersport for a win and my Paton for a podium at 2018 Manx Grand Prix. It was the 30th anniversary of the wonderful RC30 and it was being celebrated by the classic TT. A party had come across from Japan, including members of the RC30 Owners club and the special guest of honour, Honda-san (no relation) who was the designer of the RC30. Ian and I were asked to look after the party. They were a great bunch of guys and we first went to Hillberry then onto the Creg-ny-baa. My highlight was at the Creg where every time James went past us in his victorious race we all stood as one, with hands in the air cheering him on.
My first race with the Patons was at the NW200 in 2018 and it will forever hold a very special place in my heart. Joey Thompson rode his heart out, narrowly missing out a win in a nailbiting last corner shoot out. I think that race was voted most exciting race of the year.
Why do you sponsor riders, what do you get out of it?
The economics of motorcycle racing are baffling compared to other sports. The prize money is pitiful, competitors have to pay to get there with their teams, pay entry fees, pay for tyres, fuel and accomodation. If any money is made by the organisers very little goes into the general paddock but is used to secure names who will be a draw for the event. They may not even be competing riders but are there just for a parade lap. Sponsors money is therefore essential to make racing possible at all. There is no difference in the risks taken, cost of fuel and tyres between those running at the top and the privateer. It is a challenge that draws people from all over the world and they need supporting. All of my sponsorship is now directed into our team but in the past I have helped out individual riders. I don’t actually have anything that I
can sell from having our name on the bikes. I do it to keep the sport going and because I love it so much. The excitement, the camaraderie of the team and the paddock and the pure undiluted joy of a good result make it all worthwhile.
I understand you have a business restoring Motorcycles.
Yes in 2019, I asked Jacko if he would like to work for me full-time as I wanted to get a lot more preparation done on the race bikes before the season. When he wasn’t working on race bikes he would do up modern classics. Anything two stroke, some race bikes, and the road and trail bikes of the 70s and 80s. We were drawn to the bikes we always wanted and we have now got about fifty of them. Amongst them there’s a Moto Morini 250c identical to the one I rode on the circuits. Looking at it now its amazing what tiny tyres it has, there are bicycles nowadays with bigger tyres. It still handled brilliantly. As I said we have a collection of Batavus mopeds, every type of Honda CB from the 70s, Suzuki GTs including a 750 Kettle, Kawasakis including a lovely little KH250 and a Z900. Lots of Yamaha two strokes. We have got quite a few fully restored to an inch of their life just waiting for new owners. We are really good at the restoring but rubbish at the selling. I say to Jacko we really must sell some of these and he asks which one of my babies do I want to let go.
What road bikes do you ride?
Most of my time on a bike these days seems to be on a scooter. Me and Keiko have a couple of AJS scooters and we go everywhere around the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland on them. I get a bit of well deserved stick from the Marshalls as I try to get to a viewing point on the circuit before roads close with the poor scooter wheezing up the hills bearing my weight while much lighter Keiko streaks away!
I still have my 99 Busa which like some of my other bikes, has an adapted gear shift for my duff ankle, an old blue RD400 and my faithful Suzuki Burgman. Its a giant 650 scooter which is such a surprisingly good bike, so comfortable, but handles astonishingly well. We recently got a FSIE in as a restoration project and when we got it back to the workshops Jacko and me were like dogs with two tails, initially forgetting the four in line gear sequence, but were soon bombing round the trading estate on it. In the house I have an Honda RC30, Norton Commando 750, Suzuki XR69 and a Ducati Hailwood Replica.
When we visit the workshops in North Yorkshire we have a couple of Beta Alps and do a bit of trail riding. They are small 200cc bikes that are a cross between and trials and an Enduro, but are perfect for an easy days off roading. They are so light at only 100 kilos and as capable as a mountain goat over even challenging terrain. The jaw dropping views are wonderful and it is the best seventy or eighty miles you are going to ride.
My last question, you and the team have been quite successful is there anything that you can pin down to what makes a successful rider?
It’s certainly not me, I try and help out as much as I can but in the main just try to take as much pressure off the team and talk to anyone that comes up to the awning asking questions. If there is a special ingredient it is to make the rider as happy and relaxed as possible. We prepare thoroughly and try and get the bikes in the right condition, fast and rideable and fit to last the distance. If you want to finish first, first you have to finish! Ian is our set up guru and we have usually got the bike in a pretty good starting point before practice starts and he has the experience to work with our riders to get the settings about right. Ian also can help and guide the rider to make the best of the bike at the circuit. Jacko and his mechanics, work cheerfully and tirelessly ensuring the bikes are ready, fettled and scrutineered. We try to avoid any sense of panic or tension at all. Efficient but relaxed and good humoured is the order of the day. Every rider has to prepare in his own way and can do without any hint of additional stress, we believe a happy rider is a fast rider. We want success but we do not put any pressure on riders for it. Races are not won in practice but they can be lost. We would rather see easy progression and development rather than over extension early on especially at difficult circuits like the TT.
There are many talented riders out there, who in the right circumstances could win. Getting the circumstances right is essential. They give the rider confidence. Confidence in your own ability can be so easily lost. For example if you go out on equipment that is frequently unreliable, or you are distracted or stressed in the wrong way before stepping on the bike.
We have a big challenge this year and we hope we see more successes but if nothing else try to ensure we give our riders the best chance to do their best.
