By Established amongst a group of new wave IOM road racers, all tipped for great achievements soon, 2023 Senior Manx Grand Prix runner-up Marcus Simpson has already shown this year an above optimum turn of speed.
Super Twins race three winner, from the Oliver’s Mount Bob Smith Spring Cup, he finished this month one of the top Northwest 200 newcomers, securing 16th, 11th place finishes (Supersport races) and a best lap speed of 119.244 mph (4 minutes 30.805 seconds).
Before Monday’s free-practice, qualifying sessions astride LMR Powered by Jon Cuff Electrical Honda, Kawasaki, JPS Racing Powered by LD Glazing Triumph machines, which proved more than a touch eventful for ‘Spartacus’, slipping off twice at Governors Dip, Road Racing News managed to gain a quick catch-up with him.
The conversation, is as follows:
Road Racing News:
Good morning, so how things going.
M.Simpson:
“Good, were all set up, ready to go, the weather has delayed proceedings today, one thing you can’t do anything about is the weather, just have to wait it out, see where we are with the weather this afternoon.”
Road Racing News:
All in all, how’s the season been coming up to here?
M.Simpson:
“There’s been lots of positives to take from the season so far, a few things that could have gone better, but lots of positives to take.
We’ve gone all in this year, no hiding from that with the training in Spain, machinery we’ve purchased, giving it a good go this year. Hopefully, all that pays off over the next two weeks.”
Road Racing News:
Obviously, your nickname Spartacus has stuck, and that’s a great catch name for your team because people remember that.
M.Simpson:
“A couple of years ago, when I was going to go to Ireland and start my road racing campaign there, I was up chatting with ‘Slick’ Tony Bass, great engine builder, everyone will know.
I was up at his unit at Andreas, we were chatting away, and they’d always called me ‘Spartacus’, him, Andy Cowan, Dan Kneen all these people from when I was eight, nine, ten, eleven years old, they called me ‘Spartacus’.
I said I was thinking of creating a Facebook page and he said you need to run with Spartacus, it’s a good name, you need to run with it, I thought if I don’t listen to somebody like him, what I am doing.
So, that’s were Spartacus came from, I’ve ran with it, like the gladiator connotations it has.”
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
