Rowe Racing stepped back in time at Mallala recently when Andy Burford invited Royce to test his immaculate TR 750cc triple two-stroke replica.

For those too young to remember, the TR was Suzuki’s race bike built for the 750cc world championship class in the early/mid 1970s.

It was only the second time on track since the bike was completed, so there were a number of adjustments needed and still a lot more work to do, but overall the bike performed extremely well.

The plan is to keep developing the bike with an eye on next year’s Australian Historic Championships.

Between stints on the Suzuki, Royce was given the chance to ride a Yamaha TD2 (early 70s 250 racer) prepared by the Doxboyz Racing stable, just to keep sufficient two-stroke exhaust in the atmosphere.

Pausing his Skyhooks cassette, sipping on a Pina Colada, Royce said…

“With my limited classic racing experience, that being dads 125cc TZ and the sidecar in recent times, having a crack on a bigger classic bike sounded like a lot of fun! 

“Hoping not to do the same as Barry Sheene when he rode the thing last, I eased into it slowly picking up the pace as the day went on. 

“The riding position was a little easier on the old hips, so the bike was a hoot to chuck around Mallala.

“We got great weather and had great people there for the historic ride day. Thanks again to Andy for letting me have a ride and looking forward to the next outing on it.”