Interview by Mark & Dave Neal
I’ve never met a team manager before, I’ve seen them on TV of course, much like you all have, but in person, Peter is my first. I get the impression he’s also not quite the normal team manager, I mean how many team manager would have a public team launch, miles from Bournemouth…where they’re based?
There’s an obvious enthusiasm that Peter emits, before we even sit down to chat he’s buzzing around, talking to anyone and everyone and always with a smile on his face. Given the tough summer he’s had it’s amazing he’s here at all.
How did this all come about for you then? From owning a dealership to running a team?
“Well about six years ago James’ [Hillier] dad came in the shop one day and basically asked us if we’d sponsor him in the R6 cup. He was a local lad which is good but the biggest problem then was that he was on the Yamaha and not the Kawasaki so that was a bit of an issue.
“We kept in touch and the year after that he went with Gearlink, with Mike and Norma, and we put a little bit in, we helped with some parts, bit of discount.
“We enjoyed working with James, real nice guy and he only lives five miles from the shop, which was great, James used to pop in the shop and help with deliveries and things like that.
“It’s really almost because of James that we’ve got where we are, we really love supporting him and we’ve watched him grow into the rider he is now, at that stage he’d never done the roads or anything like that and we’ve really just watched him grow on that side, more than short circuits really.”
And so the opportunity you find yourself with now?
“The opportunity came along for us to run with Stuart Hickens team and we ran it as Buildbase Bournemouth Kawasaki with Alex Camier and Luke Stapleford and then the year after that we ran Luke Stapleford and James [Hillier] in Buildbase Bournemouth Kawasaki and then I decided to do it myself and it was just Bournemouth Kawasaki with Luke and James again, we’re very loyal we stick with the same riders [laughs].
“Then towards the end of that year, which was 2010, we got the opportunity to do a few Evo rounds because we’d struggled in Superstock for various reasons and so we did the last three rounds, we were on the podium at Croft and at Oulton at the last round and so decided to do a full year of Evo in 2011 and so we ran that.
“Towards the end of the year, well at Cadwell Park, it was announced that for 2012 it was going to be a two rider team, this new elite status was coming along, the guy that ran Pr1mo approached me then, as well as John Jameson from PR and a couple of other teams as well. This was really nice as they were approaching us to join their teams, so quite a nice gesture but we decided to run with the route that we went, which involved Chris Walker and then there was the issues with the other guy and Chris was in he was out, he was in he was out and then what happened…happened. I contacted Joe and Enzo (from Pr1mo) and they were keen to pursue it and here we are now with my own team, a main sponsor and Chris and James are on board and we’ve a great team I think.
“Great chance to do well at BSB and a fantastic chance to do well on the roads as well this year we’ve got a really good setup with the roads, we’ve got a great relationship with Paul Phillips at the TT, we’ve got some great things happening as far as numbers and things like that go, so should be really, really good.”
The changes introduced this season in BSB does that help you?
“Yeah definitely beneficial, it puts everybody on a level playing field, it does help with the costs because you’re not trying to chase the factory teams all the time with the technology and the electronics they’ve got, we just couldn’t do it. It just gives everyone a level playing field, a fair start and it gets back to rider ability, back to basics.
“You’ve got to have great guys doing the suspension and the chassis setup and things like that rather than a rider with a lot of aids and controls and he doesn’t have to worry about coming out of a corner with traction control.
“I think what Stuart Higgs and Jonathan Palmer (BSB head honchos) are trying to do and what they have done is absolutely superb, I think they’ve made a great championship. It’s shown by the type of riders that are trying to come in, I know they’ve got reserve teams as well, so they’ve got a great structure there and it’s a five year contract with them as well. They’ve got sixteen elite teams of which, if I want to get out next year I can sell my spot on the grid to another team, so we own that spot for five years, unless we collapse or something like that.
“So, it’s a great concept, great for the fans and it should be good for everybody.”
And so British Superbikes is leading the way as it has done the last couple of seasons?
“Absolutely and I think World Superbikes will be looking at BSB this year and thinking ‘we need to improve’ or ‘we need to do something’. The other thing I actually think is that Stuart and Jonathan may try to evolve with a few more European rounds as well and you may find that it turns into the British European Superbike Championship and I don’t mean in a half-and-half way but they would like to run three rounds I think.”
Does this add to the costs you’ve just saved from the electronics going?
“No as they’ve got Stena line sponsoring the series, so they’re actually providing transportation abroad free of charge.
“So for us from Bournemouth, instead of going to Croft or somewhere like that, costs wise it’s probably very similar”
Did they approach you about Assen? Did they come to the teams and say this is what we’re thinking?
“I think they may have done with the Swan’s and HM Plant’s but no we just read it like you guys, maybe now they might give us a bit more time of the day and things like that but no it was just on the calendar and that was it.
“I think it’s a good thing but I do feel sorry for the British fans a little bit. The British fans are really loyal and looking at the crowds that they get it would be a shame that it’s now an eleven round series with one round abroad.”
Are all the support classes going to Assen?
“No it’s BSB, British Supersport and 125’s so three classes.”
It’s amazing to see where you are now in such a short space of time.
“Yeah, three or four years ago Bournemouth Kawasaki was a relatively large Kawasaki dealership in terms of dealerships but now it’s recognisable as a team as well so it’s great.”
Inspired by your years at Crescent maybe?
“I worked at Crescent for ten years, from ’85 to ’95, it was just me Paul Denning and his dad. I’ve seen what they’ve done and what they’ve been able to do for their business with racing.
“I was in the shop one day and Paul said to me ‘Pete, go and get the RGV250 out of the window I’m going road racing’, he used to motocross it. So we wheeled this RGV250 round the back of the shop and he starts pulling all the panels off and I said ‘what are you doing Paul?’ and he says ‘I’m going to Mallory to start road racing now’. This was in ’92 I think and from then Paul took on Ian Cobby and road himself in the British Superbike championship in ’96 and now look what he’s done. It’s evidence of what can be done from a small shop and now the identity of his shop is massive.”
And you’re following in a similar path?
“Yeah similar yeah. I mean he’s probably looking over his shoulder ‘bloody Pete, what is he doing’ [laughs] ‘he worked for me for ten years, he took all my customers, he’s battling against me in the dealership and now he’s trying to get on the racing series’ [laughs].
“But lovely family, their really great guys over there and my wife, who’s here today, Paul was going out with her sister for around 15 years and that’s how we met.”
Do you have similar ambitions, are you looking at World Superbikes for instance?
“Well I think I have a problem, it’s the same as Paul had, in leaving your dealership. Their dealership has unfortunately definitely struggled with Paul not being there. Behind every dealership there is generally one person that people want to go and see and do business with.
“I just need to keep an eye on both sides of the fence, I can’t let my business drop-down or fail to go racing because racing is not going to pay the bills.
“My wife wouldn’t let me do that anyway [laughs], the day that she can’t go shopping or whatever will be the day we’re not going racing anymore [laughs].
“There isn’t a better hobby then this though and the fans of course, we couldn’t do it without them. There isn’t Superbike racing without 20,000 fans going watching it so it’s very important for Stuart and that to look after them as well as the teams.”
You mentioned earlier that this is a five year deal with the BSB, where do you want to be come that time?
“I would like to be the official Kawasaki team. Nick Morgan might have something to say about that, Paul Bird might have a say about that but I’ve set my own goals. This year I want to see Chris on the podium, I want to see him make the showdown, I want to see James on the podium at the TT, I want to see a Bournemouth Kawasaki bike up there. I’m sure we will but if it doesn’t happen this year it definitely will next.”
How does that work for you with logistics with the BSB and the road racing?
“Difficult, very difficult. We’re going to have a major problem at one even this year which is Snetterton. James has got lightweight TT practice on Saturday of Snetterton…I’m working on it [laughs] I’m trying to buy a helicopter [laughs].
“The trucks going to be at the TT when Snetterton starts, we can’t take the truck into the TT after it’s all started, you’ve got to have the paddock space and things like that. So we go on the Wednesday on the week of Snetterton with the big truck.
“BSB are aware of this issue but whether we need to put a team like Gearlink or someone like that in our garage with us so that it looks nice and everything else…”
So Chris [Walker] mentioned earlier that there’s a lot of Kawasaki’s on the grid this season, how do you go about differentiating yourself from the other teams, obviously their similar bikes but what do you do?
“I think the nice thing is having a technician like Ray Stringer is that he will do his own thing, he won’t follow suit or anything like that. He’ll do what he thinks is best for Chris and James and we’ve had some great help from Stuart Bland up at Paul Bird’s team he’s helped us out with kit gears and things, they’ve been really, really helpful I think we’re going to use their hospitality as well. I got on with Birdy very, very well out in Macau, we had a chat then, he probably doesn’t see us as too much of a threat and he’s been very helpful, the whole team has been very helpful to us.
“We may have struggled with that from some other Kawasaki teams, I mean it’s fair to say that Shakey and Easton should be number one and number two Kawasaki but I wouldn’t hedge bets against Chris not being number three.”
What is the ambition for the team as a whole this season?
“To see Chris in the showdown is the main ambition, that’s where we’ve got to head towards, and James on a podium in a TT race. After that we need to put that into more podiums and more consistent results to be definitely up there with the rest of them.
“We’ve got some reasonable budget to work with, it’s not as good a budget as perhaps Swan and people like that but it’s a budget and it’s a reasonable budget and one that we should be able to work with. We shouldn’t be hunting around for second hand tires and things like that.”
And what about Maria?
“Well I’d like to see Maria be the fastest lady at the TT. She’s going to have a job on her hands because you can’t underestimate what Jenny [Tinmouth] does and she’s got some great machinery for this year. So, I think what Maria’s got to do is concentrate on improving her lap times and being safe at the same time, because it’s not a very forgiving place the Isle of Man on the roads. She’s got to ride at 100% but carefully and that’s a difficult thing to do there.
“She’s got the experience though, I think she’ll do well, I just think she can’t take her eye off what she needs to do rather than worrying about what Jenny is doing.”
And with that he’s off, more mingling, more handshaking and still with a smile on his face. We definitely wish Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki all the best for the 2012 season and we’ll be keeping track of their progress throughout.
