Team Flitwick confirm strong assault on Classic TT 2015
Flitwick Motorcycles will have a double-pronged and extremely strong attack at this year’s Classic TT presented by Bennetts with Olie Linsdell and Ian Lougher lining up for the Bedfordshire team.
Steve Linsdell will once again head up the family run team and his son Olie will contest all three races at this year’s event while Lougher will again contest the Bennetts 500cc Race, which he won last year, on the team’s Paton.
27-year old Linsdell is the current lap and race record holder for the Bennetts 500cc Classic TT Race after setting a speed of 111.660mph on his way to winning the inaugural event in 2013. For this year’s race though, he’ll be back on board the teams 1972 500cc Seeley framed Royal Enfield Bullet with the aim of setting the first 110mph lap on a single cylinder machine. A number of the components on the machine have been developed and manufactured by Olie, Steve and Ron Herring.
In the Okells Brewery 350cc Classic TT, Linsdell will campaign a Honda K4 whilst he’ll also contest the Motorsport Merchandise Formula One Classic TT race for the first time on the team's FZ750 Yamaha.
However, Linsdell has ridden the bike before, in the 2010 Classic Manx Grand Prix, when he lapped at an impressive 117mph before a high-speed spill at Bishopscourt left him in hospital for over a month. The FZ750 is also the same machine that Steve enjoyed success on in the early 1990s when he too lapped at more than 117mph.
Since the crash in 2010, the bike has been completely rebuilt and after lapping at over 117mph from a standing start in 2010 with just two laps of practice the team are confident of a good result. After riding at last year’s Classic TT with a foot that only had an external fixator removed three days before practice begun, Olie opted out of this year’s TT in order to focus on the Classic event and again prove what he can achieve on a classic machine around the Mountain Course.
The team will also field Lougher in the 500cc Bennetts Classic TT race where the Welshman will once more line up on the CMM/Giovanni Cabbassi-owned Paton. The road racing legend narrowly missed out on taking Linsdell’s lap record away from him with a speed of 111.523mph and after his victory last year, he will be confident of making it two in a row.
The team retains long term sponsors and family business Flitwick Motorcycles, as well as SMV Engineering and Steve Bond with Giovanni Cabassi/CMM once again providing the Paton for Ian to ride.