Five Champions Amongst Host of Road Racing Heroes for Golden Jubilee Spectacular
The entry list for the 50th edition of Macao’s legendary motorcycle Grand Prix reads like an international who’s who of pure road racing and includes five riders who have each conquered the unforgiving 6.2km Guia street circuit on two wheels: defending champion Peter Hickman; eight-time winner and the undisputed ‘Two Wheel King of Macao’ Michael Rutter; four-time winner Scotsman Stuart Easton; 2013 winner Ian Hutchinson; and champion in 2001 and multiple-podium finisher at Macao, Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness.
Joining them on the 28-strong entry list is a host of Macao regulars, seasoned professionals and exciting newcomers from eight nations.
Hickman, 29, took victory in Macao last year at only his second attempt. Although he has been a British Superbike Champion regular since 2006, he only made his road racing debut in 2014. It was an impressive entry into this unique category of two-wheel competition, and he won both the Ulster and Macau Grands Prix the following year. This year Hickman will be aboard a GBmoto Kawasaki machine for Saturday’s 12-lap race.
A full 19 years after taking his first podium at Macao, and 17 years since the first of his record-braking eight wins to date, Michael Rutter was once again on the winners’ rostrum in 2015 with a third place finish. This year, Rutter is again looking strong on a race bike and will partner Easton on a pair of Bathams/SMT BMWs.
One of the sport’s most dazzling talents and the man who rode into legend with a fairytale win on these streets after two years of rehab following injury, Ian Hutchinson arrives in Macao off the back of a spectacular year which saw him take a hat-trick of victories at the Isle of Man TT in the summer, bringing his tally of wins there to 14, equaling the record of one of the greatest road racers of all time, Mike Hailwood. Hutchinson also added to his trophy cabinet with wins at the North West 200 and the Ulster Grand Prix, and made an impressive debut in the British National Superstock 1000 Championship where he currently lies second. That level of performance earned him a ride on the Tyco BMW Superbike in last weekend’s MCE BSB Showdown round at Assen.
The second most successful rider in Isle of Man TT history, John McGuinness is not only a road racing legend, but a formidable force everywhere else he races, especially on the Guia Circuit. He missed out on a podium finish last year to friend and rival Rutter, and is joined on the Honda Racing team this year by 30-year-old Manx rider Conor Cummins.
A hot contender to take victory in the Golden Jubilee edition of the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix is Briton Martin Jessopp. A four-time podium finisher at Macao, runner-up on three occasions, the 31-year-old is also a regular front-runner at the TT and North West 200.
Gary Johnson partners with fellow countryman and Macao rookie Danny Webb, 25, on the Penz13.com BMW by MGM & Special Olympics Macau team.
A strong European contingent is made up of Portugal’s Andre Pires, who partners Briton Ben Wylie on the Bimota UK team, Austria’s Horst Saiger on a Saiger Racing Kawasaki, and German Didier Grams who joins Macao newcomer Marek Cerveny of the Czech Republic on the Heidger-Motorsport by WEPOL, SAFMETA on a pair of BMW machines. Cerveny is the newly-crowned International Road Racing Championship (IRRC) Supersport champion, while Grams finished third this year in the IRRC Superbike series.
Mark Miller is well-known to Macao fans but he also has new fewer than 20 career AMA/Pro National Roadracing podiums to his name, holds the record for the fastest lap by an American at the Isle of Man TT, and is his country’s leading road racing exponent. This year Miller will be aboard the single Splitlath EBR entered for the Far East Classic.
Among other newcomers making their debuts this year are the deceptively cheerful Glenn Irwin, whose Macao entry with the Be Wiser Ducati Racing Team will be his only road racing outing his season having focussed on the British Superbike Championship, although he's no stranger to the roads back home. Irishman Derek Sheils, reigning Irish Road Racing Superbike Champion, will be aboard a Cookstown Burrows Engineering Racing Suzuki for his Guia Circuit debut, and this formidable combo could be one to watch. Dan Hegarty, winner of the Isle of Man Privateers Championship this year and still bang on form at Oliver's Mount just a month or so ago, will race a Kawasaki for Special Olympics Project Kawasaki by Nature Power.
First run in 1967, when a mammoth 30-lap Motorcycle Grand Prix was introduced for the 14th running of the Macau Grand Prix, the Guia circuit has seen 27 different riders take victory in the 49 editions of the Grand Prix run so far. Forty-four year old Rutter’s eight victories between 1998 and 2012 make him the most successful rider in the history of the event.
Another Briton, Ron “Rocket” Haslam, took six wins between 1981 and 1987. He still holds the record for wins from starts, having taken victory in all six Macau Motorcycle Grands Prix he entered. Scotsman Easton, 33, is next on the roll of honour, with four wins between 2008 and 2014, while two riders hold the distinction of three Macao titles: Japan’s Sadeo Asami, with victories between 1978 and 1980 and the late Steve Hislop, who won in 1990, 1993 and 1994.
Japan’s Hiroshi Hasegawa holds a special place in the history books of the race, not only for being the winner of the first Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix in 1967, but for taking a second win the following year, becoming the event’s first double champion. The next winner on the list, taking victory in 1969, is John MacDonald, the only man ever to have won Macao’s two-wheel showpiece as well as the Macau Grand Prix and the Guia Race.
Half a century since motorcycles were first introduced to the programme, the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix has become a legend in the world of pure road racing. Success on the Guia Circuit is always highly prized, but for whichever of the 28 riders takes victory on this special anniversary Grand Prix, Macau’s streets will be paved with gold.
2015 Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix – 49th Edition Results
1. Peter Hickman GBR Briggs Equipment BMW
2. Martin Jessopp GBR Riders Motorcycles BMW
3. Michael Rutter GBR Penz13.com BMW Motorrad Motorsport by MGM China
Fastest Lap: Peter Hickman / Briggs Equipment BMW / Lap 4 / 2:24.940 / 152.01 km/h
Macau Grand Prix Entry List
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