A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

Taylor Mackenzie has endured a difficult few years of racing before his 2016 championship success. Let’s see what makes the young man tick!

WORDS: BENJAMIN J KUBAS CRONIN IMAGES: DOUBLE RED, MACKENZIE FAMILY, MSVR, COLIN HILL

Taylor, in front of some hard chargers and on his way to glory!

TAYLOR MACKENZIE

It’s not often we get to be hilariously cruel to a motorcycle racing champion, but 2016’s British superstock champion, Taylor Mackenzie, recently felt the full force of some infamous journo wit. He was on a launch with us, his first, and the poor fella fell hook line and sinker for every jape in the book. Think sending someone out for tartan paint, or a long weight, and you get the idea!

Yet the lad sucked it all up and was a bloody good laugh, one of the boys in an instant, but then he’s had a brilliant year on track and was still in a smashing mood. It was, however, a great time to catch up with him about his year, and life in general.

So then, young Taylor, how did you enjoy your first journo launch?

“I’m avoiding doing real work for the moment, so 1 loved it! It’s not like proper work (steady on! - Ed), well not the riding in the sun part anyway. That’s just my first one though, wait until I’m five deep in and ask me again about it.”

We will! Let’s go back a bit in your life, surely all your early memories must be about racing, paddocks and travelling?

“It’s funny, 1 don’t really have too many early memories. One of the clearest is watching Chris Walker from pitlane after his bike blew up at Donington in Y2k, that sticks out. There’s the BSB days when my dad (Niall Mackenzie) was racing for Rob Mac and then GSE are at the forefront of my mind, but I can’t picture much before that - unless we’re looking at old pictures. Racing is all I’ve known, from three months old I was travelling round circuits in a motorhome.”

It’s funny how perspectives change, isn’t it? You mentioned that when you were young you had to hate your Dad’s arch rival from BSB back then, Steve Hislop?

“It is strange, even years later he seemed a bitter rival, but I think of him in the same way I now think of my rivals - you just don’t want to go on about them much. My Dad was the first to admit though, how much respect he had for Steve. The guy was unbeatable on his day. It was hard to say that at the time, you just don’t admit that.

When did you first taste two wheel action?

“It was on a PW50 when I was three or four. There were always bikes about, which Dad made sure of. But he never forced us to ride, and at one point I was really into playing football as everyone else at school did Nobody else had bikes, but all my mates could kick a ball. Taz (brother Tarran) copied me, too. When I played, so did he. We’ve been best mates growing up. But the point came where I wanted to get my knee down after watching the racing. I’d tried to do it on grass, but kept crashing and couldn’t figure out why. Dad took me to a minimoto track and the whole point was just to get that knee on the deck.”