Team Classic Suzuki has handed over its novelty, a Suzuki GSF600 Bandit bike, to be raced in 2019 by James McHardy at Motorcycle Live.

McHardy, the winner of last year’s Bandit Challenge race series, will campaign the Team Classic Suzuki-prepared machine in 2019 and will be trying to repeat the last season’s success. Also the racer will be looking to make it a third title in a row after he won the championship in 2017 for the first time, which also was his debut year.

“I’m really looking forward to riding the Team Classic Suzuki Bandit,” McHardy said after receiving the bike. “It looks so well prepared and put together as I knew it would be, and it’s going to be great to run it next season for the team.”

The Team Classic Suzuki machine, prepared in partnership with Suzuki’s Vintage Parts Programme, was built to the Bandit Challenge’s strict regulations, which allow only Mk1 or Mk2 bikes and limit modifications to keep costs down and provide close and exciting racing.

“There’s going to be a big target on my back next year with plenty wanting to take this Bandit off my hands. But I’ll be trying hard to win it for a third time. And a big thank you to Team Classic Suzuki for supporting the series and the opportunity to ride their machine,” McHardy added.

The bike build was announced earlier this year, with the promise of being delivered to the race series champion to use for the 2019 season.

Suzuki GB Tim Davies added, “We can’t wait to see James in action on the bike. We really enjoyed raiding our Vintage Parts Programme to build it this year – it was fully rebuilt and freshly prepared by Nathan Colombi – and it looks fantastic, and it was brilliant to be able to formally hand it over at Motorcycle Live. We’ll be supporting James with a spares package and Motul are kindly supplying an oil package as well. So hopefully he’s got everything he needs to win the title next year and make it a hat-trick.”

Credit:motorcyclenews.com

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