ITALIAN MOTORCYCLE MANUFACTURER PATON CONFIRMS TT RACES ENTRY FOR NEW MODEL WITH OLIE LINSDELL
After announcing their first street legal bike last November at the Italian EICMA exhibition, the S1 ‘Strada’, Paton has also confirmed its participation at the Isle of Man TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy in June, competing in the bikesocial.co.uk Lightweight TT Race. Bedford based Olie Linsdell will head up the Italian marque’s entry.
This ambitious challenge has been made possible by the small but determined Italian factory team, by Steve Linsdell of Flitwick Motorcycles who will prepare the bike and rider Olie who will set up the bike and compete.
Olie Linsdell made his Mountain Course debut at the 2007 Manx Grand Prix and his TT Races debut in 2008 but the highlight of his career was undoubtedly his race win in last year’s Bennetts 500cc Classic TT when he powered to victory on a Paton BIC 500 BL3 replica.
Roberto Pattoni, Technical Director, Paton commented: “This is a challenging and thrilling opportunity for us but also for Olie as a rider an engineer; to be the rider who brings Paton back to racing on an International stage is a great honour. We’d also like to thank the Isle of Man TT organisers for being very clear and matter of fact on what is required for the brand new Paton to race in 2014.”
He continued: “Racing has been Paton’s goal since it started in 1958, and with modern classes it means making a street legal bike, which also carries the added motivation of increasing our small firm’s technical knowledge by having to solve problems it has never had to face before as well as providing a new challenge. It is a culmination of all our history into one single product.”
“All involved parties are now concentrated on the hard work needed to meet a tight schedule that will see us arrive on the island with a competitive bike in June. The required enthusiasm is definitely there to achieve this goal, with daily technical discussions and updates between the two teams.”
The S1 Strada, Paton’s first street legal bike, is a project based on the Kawasaki 650 twin engine, but surrounded by all of Paton’s experience after 55 years of racing. Built to be legal, and excel both on the road and track, it is hoped that Paton will therefore return to the TT right at the sharp end of the field.
Paton would like to encourage any current or potential customers to review the machine’s performance, which bar the engine will remain standard when it lines up at the top of Glencrutchery Road in June.