Bruce Anstey: Road racing’s reclusive hero

Bruce Anstey arrived at the Ulster Grand Prix without as much as having ridden a scooter since the TT, let alone a 200+bhp superbike. 

He left with a Superbike race win and a new 133.977mph lap record. That makes him the fastest rider on the fastest motorcycle racing circuit in the world.

Rumours were rife that his job was on the line after a disappointing year – although his Senior TT podium showed he still had the pace.

But Anstey had been a virtual recluse since and team boss Philip Neill told MCN: “Not only hadn’t he ridden a bike since the TT, no one in the team had heard from him since then.

“You would have thought he’d have picked up on the rumours and rang us to see if there was any truth in them but we never heard anything until he turned up here.”

But that is the Anstey way. In a motorcycle racing world of finely honed athletes who spend hours in the gym, have special diets and spend weeks of testing as well as racing each year, the 41-year-old Kiwi races just three times a year – and still has the ability to mix it with the best on the roads.

MCN asked him how he could just twist and go!

You had not ridden a bike since the TT. What did you do to keep up to speed?
I think I went out on my mountain bike once (laughs). I’d not even ridden a scooter.

How long did it take to acclimatise to the speed at the Ulster?
I actually thought the superbike felt a bit slow in the first few laps!  I thought it would feel really fast here.

I had to hold myself back because I just want to push on and go fast.

So what was the process for you to get back up to speed?
I concentrated on corner speed first and then gradually started accelerating harder and harder off the corners.

Then I worked on corner entry, letting the bike roll in faster and faster.

How hard would you say you were riding after day one at the Ulster?
About 60%. I was just trying to build.

But if you were only at 60% on day one, didn’t the bike start behaving different when you were 100%?
Our superbike is never too far away (on set-up). The faster we went the more we stiffened it up. That’s all it took.

So pre-season testing or short circuit racing to stay sharp is nonsense?
It makes no difference to me.  If I’m on the pace, that’s it.