Maria Costello
Maria Costello MBE is a delight to interview. She is easy going, straight talking and thoroughly down-to-earth.
She knows her apples too, well motorcycles anyway, she talks with passion about motorcycles, racing and in particular mechanics.
Busy year you have ahead of you, what’s next for you in the immediate term?
“Well the Supertwin will need some development for the TT, obviously we built and raced it last year, had some good success on it but with a big event like the TT, we want to make it even better.
“We’ve already had the engine improved, we’re getting an exhaust developed with Scorpion the radiator is being modified by Radicool – this month’s going to be very hectic.
“Pr1mo are helping as well, they’re going to make me a nice new top yoke and do some different rear sets, we’ve still got a bit of work to do, there’s always stuff to do [laughs].
“I think today (at the Pr1mo team launch) it’s really sinking in, this is just fantastic. From a few conversations it’s turned into something that’s going to be a really great ride for me.”
Which bike do you ride first yours or the Pr1mo bike?
“I’ll be riding the Supertwin first, my first meeting is the Cookstown 100 in Ireland where I’ll be riding the Supertwin, a classic Suzuki T20, that I rode at the Manx last year, and…something else which I can’t tell you about.”
In terms of the TT though, is it going to be strange to jump from the ZX10 to the Supertwin or vice-versa?
“No because I’m riding different bikes all the time and that seems to have been what my career is all about, riding lots of different bikes, and at the TT that’s again what it’s about.
“I’ve been there a few times now with a 600 and a 1,000 so…it does mean you have to really engage your brain!
“As long as everything has the same shift pattern and the gear shift is on the same side I’m fine, obviously with riding classics that isn’t the case! [laughs] I’ll be jumping off one with the gearshift on one side to it being the opposite side, to be race shift, to it being road shift. It does keep you on your toes!
“I love it though, I’ve been racing a long time and I’m very fortunate to be given opportunities like this still, and to still be doing new and exciting things in motorbike racing, getting to race in America for the past two years on classic bikes has been fantastic.
“Last year I got to race with Kevin Schwantz and hang out with Kevin Schwantz, it was just fantastic he’s my hero. I stood at Donnington watching him in the Grand Prix, I had an RGV which had a Kevin Schwantz helmet paint job, I had one of his helmets. So then I’m in an awning with a load of classic bikes and mines parked net to his. He’s a very shy and introvert man, when you don’t know him. I didn’t want to go up to him, I thought I’d wait, anyway he introduced himself and he was like “hello I’m Kevin Schwantz” and I was just like I know who you are! [laughs]
“Just turning round and seeing him in his Kevin Schwantz helmet and leathers was just…we were all saying it, there was a lot of us riding, a lot from New Zealand which is where his bike had come from (Ken Macintosh) and we’d all turn around and be like “that really is Kevin Schwantz over there”.
“How amazing was that!”
Same again this year?
“The America thing, I’m hoping so. The guy I ride for has got a big collection of motorcycles, he’s called Jamie Walters, and he contacted me and he said, “if I buy that Ken Macintosh Norton, would you come back and ride?”
“His bikes are just beautiful, Kevin Schwantz wouldn’t ride anything else.”
What are the ambitions for the TT this year?
“I want to go fast [laughs].I have my own personal goals that are not something that I share with anybody really. I just want to go fast and enjoy myself.
“The Supertwin round there I think is going to be so enjoyable, big grin factor! It’s such an easy bike to ride, even testing in Spain you had to be working really hard to work up a sweat where jumping on a ZX10 that’s going to get you working hard straight away.”
What about your ambitions early on in terms of BSB, SBK, MotoGP etc?
“I think when I started I though ‘yeah I want to be doing British Superbikes’ so yes I guess that was a goal.
“I think my problem is that I accepted rides that perhaps weren’t worth taking and maybe lost a bit of ground with doing that, but, in saying that, everything that I have done has been fantastic, it’s been the best thing in my life, I could even write a book! [laughs]
“I perhaps have different aspirations now than I did then, now I’m a lot older [laughs] but I’ve still got goals, a lot of them are more I want to go and race in that country or I’d like to go and do that event or I’d love to race one of those bikes.”
How long do you see yourself racing?
“I want to keep racing forever, as long as I can race I will.”
No ambitions to maybe go into team management say?
“It’s something that I’ve thought about, who knows. The problem at the moment is that I still want to race but I definitely wouldn’t rule that out.”
On the mechanical side of things is it something that you have taught yourself?
“Yes. I remember in my first year my parents coming to a race meeting and my dad was watching me change a sprocket and he said “I didn’t know you could use spanners” and I said “well there you go dad” [laughs].
“Because of riding for other people, they end up looking after the bikes and I stopped using spanners. I took my RVF to Killalane on my own and I just thought blimey I’m really rusty at working on the bikes which was when we decided to build Supertwin, so that I could get back up to speed with spannering and also because Supertwins are becoming the big thing in Ireland and I wanted to race in Ireland.
“The little 400 is fantastic but it’s outdated now and Supertwins are taking over.”
What made you choose that Supertwin in particular?
“Really because of what Ryan Farquhar has been doing, he’s pioneered it really the Kawasaki. Everyone was using Suzuki’s but I think it’s easier or maybe cheaper to tune a Kawasaki, there’s a bit more involved in tuning and setup on an SV, although I think there’s a debate as to which has the best chassis, the Suzuki probably has. So that’s why you use a different front end on the Kawasaki and different swing-arm etc.”
We were speaking to James early and asked him about the accidents in things like the TT3D movies and how that can affect you as a rider. Have you seen those?
“I don’t watch that part actually, no. I’m just not keen on watching that type of stuff.
“I don’t block it out, I’ve been involved in a few myself but I just don’t really want to watch that.
“That was the only bad thing in the film because I really wanted to take my mum to the cinema to see it, but I didn’t want her to see those things.
“But what a great film, although I have to say I’m a big fan of No Limit, have you seen No Limit? The black and white George Formby film? You need to watch it! [laughs]”
What is the draw to the TT and the road racing?
“This goes right back to my first year of racing and I got approached by Sandra and Peter Barnet. Sandra Barnet was, at that time, the fastest woman to lap the TT, they had both raced at the TT. They approached my and Bridgette McManus, to form an all girl team with Sandra, Sandra would do the TT and we’d do the Manx.
“I wasn’t particularly interested in the Manx side of things, I’d never been there though Steve Hislop was my hero, but I’d never been to the TT or anything like that. Also when I started racing I promised my mum that I’d never ride at the Isle of Man.
“I joined the team because it was a fantastic opportunity, at the end of my first year I was being offered a ride so I thought I’d made it. I went from riding a 2-stroke RGV to a 4-stroke 600 and suddenly I was at the Manx Grand Prix.
“That year my boyfriend of the time was racing in the TT and he had two horrific accidents and it really put me off and I told the team that I don’t think I’ll be coming back to the Isle of Man.
“I don’t know what it was that changed my mind and I went back to them and said actually I would like to still come to the Manx but if I do a lap and I don’t like it can I opt out and they said of course.
“I went there unsure as to how I would gfeel about it all, my boyfriend was still on crutches, but I loved it and I’ve been going nearly every year since.
“So it wasn’t in the plan, my mum had forbid me to go there and I’d agreed, but somehow it turned out that I turned into a road racer.”
How did you get round your parents then?
“I was just a defiant daughter. I remember at the Sandra Barnet all girl team launch, when the boss got up and said we’re going to be racing at the Manx my mum walked out. I hadn’t told her. It was one of the other riders that went and got her and calmed her down. But gosh I have put my parents through it.”
Do they go along to the races?
“No, my dad passed away two years ago this year. Neither of them had been to the Isle of Man, I wouldn’t want them there I’d worry about them too much there. But they used to come to short circuits and really enjoyed that.
“In fact a guy who was here today, Dave Weston, he really helped me out when I very first started racing and we’d be racing at Mallory Park and my dad would come and watch and that evening all he’d talk about is Dave Weston [laughs] never mention me! [laughs]
“When I got the MBE I think that brought it home to my parents that I’d not just been messing round with bikes and I must have done something right.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen my dad more proud.”
And when Jenny Tinmouth broke your record at the TT how was that? There must be a friendly rivalry I see you speak on Twitter sometimes?
“Well, it’s not my record is it? It was a record that I held…and now she holds it.”
And do you want it back?
“Of course, I’d love that, love it. But to have held it for five years is pretty cool.”
