Mike Sinclair ( left ) with the Stuart Avant ( centre ), the rider he first went to Europe with in 1976 , and Kevin Magee , who he worked with in 1989
Yamaha team take Wayne Rainey to three world crowns . In the same team was Mike Sinclair , another former national championship winning racer . Norris Farrow had been a top-level racer in New Zealand before making the switch to machine preparation and saw early fruits of his labours in American Fred Merkel ’ s back-to-back Superbike World Championships . Former NZ Champ Bob Toomey got his start in international racing through English technical writer and race reporter Peter Clifford . Clifford used to summer in New Zealand and do quite a bit of racing . When he discovered Team ROC Honda NSR500 needed a mechanic to work with Pierfrancesco Chili halfway through the 1990 season , he called Toomey to see if he knew anyone who might be interested . “ What about me !” Toomey exclaimed , and thus began his decade long world championship adventure . Christchurch ’ s Mike Sinclair says all the above reasons for going to Europe are valid , but for him it was mostly the adventure . “ I was a full-blown dreamer and loved the history and culture of GP racing . I dreamed about seeing tracks like Le Mans , Nurburgring , the TT , Assen etc and seeing MVs and Ago and co . racing . Even as a teen I read everything I could get my hands on to do with racing and the tech involved .” He says that in New Zealand there were “ many smart mechanics to learn
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