THE FAST STUFF

Twenty years of top bike racing tales from the world's maddest motorsport

RRP: £18.99
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 978 1 84425 496 5

'I'd sit there, focusing on the feeling of wanting to spit nails and rip the handlebars off the bike. It was like going out to fight'    Wayne Rainey

'Speed has a kind of affinity to me, it's the time God and I have our little talks'    Steve McQueen

'We'd probably had just a little bit too much too drink, and Eddie [Lawson] stuck his Porsche in the ditch. with my coaching'    Kevin Schwantz

Mat Oxley first discovered that he loved going fast on motorcycles when he got his first bike aged 17. He enjoyed a long and successful racing career that included winning the Isle of Man 250 production TT in 1985, finishing third in the 1986 endurance world championship and taking second place in the 1984 Le Mans 24 hours. Since retiring from racing, he has become one of the most respected journalists on the motorcycle Grand Prix scene. Often irreverent, occasionally hilarious, he has been MotoGP's gonzo journo since the late 1980s, always shooting from the hip, always offering a unique perspective of the world's maddest motorsport. This book brings together two decades of his writings from Bike, Performance Bikes, MCN, Roadracing World, Classic Bike, AMCN and other magazines worldwide.

The Fast Stuff tells it how it is in GPs, from the evil dirty tricks and on-track techniques used by top riders to the psychology of 'flow', and tales of racing with Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz and Mick Doohan at the Suzuka Eight Hours. It is also packed with interviews with the fastest, maddest, baddest racers, from hard-drinkin' old-timers like Graeme Crosby and Gary Nixon through to golden age legends Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz and onto today's super-pros like Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Nicky Hayden and John Hopkins. Oxley says "Motorcycle racers are fascinating people; they live their lives at some kind of extreme, which makes them fascinating people to talk to. That's what this book is really about - it is a collection of stories and interviews that live and breathe on the words of the sport's towering greats."

Mat Oxley has written several books, including acclaimed biographies of Rossi and Mick Doohan. Over the past two decades he has interviewed every racer that matters and ridden every race bike that matters. In 2001 he was nominated for a Royal Television Society award for his commentary work on Channel 5's MotoGP programme. He lives in London.

Review copies available

Notes to Editors:

The information on this page is supplied courtesy of Haynes Publishing, please credit accordingly if you intend to use it. For more information, to arrange an interview or to request a review copy please contact Chris Wall at Eventageous PR on 01452 886382 or email Chris@eventspr.co.uk

Haynes Publishing