Murray Walker: Bikes are best!

Murray Walker may be best known as the voice of Formula One, but as far as he's concerned even the pinnacle of four-wheel motorsport doesn't come close to the excitement and drama of motorcycle racing.

Walker, born in 1923, was present at last weekend's Thruxton round of the British Superbike Championship as a guest of Rizla Suzuki, where he was asked to compare the two disciplines.

"I've never made any secret of the fact - and I never will - that bikes are closest to my heart," he replied. "They always have been. My father raced professionally. The first race I went to was the 1925 Isle of Man TT, when I was still in my mother's arms, and without wishing to sound disparaging - because it's certainly not meant to be - motorcyclists make the car blokes look like a load of wimps!

"They're not of course. But in motorcycle racing you get very close contact, the riders have the temerity to pass and re-pass each other, and the power-to-weight ratio - the performance of the bikes - is absolutely incredible.

"There's nothing like it in mechanical sport for excitement and drama, so it's very much number one as far as I'm concerned."

Walker's words come hot on the heels of similar comments by former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer, whose Motorsport Vision company now promotes BSB.

Palmer described motorcycle racers as 'real heroes' during an interview with Crash.net, while even seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher has recently been enticed by the unique challenge of two-wheeled racing.

Walker briefly raced motorcycles himself, but his commentary career proved much more fruitful. Murray made his debut in 1949 and only brought his full time career to a close at the 2001 US Grand Prix.

"I've been coming to Thruxton for nearly 60 years. I remember in 1951, I think it was, Geoff Duke on the works Norton was here and was given a hell of a run by a new young chap whose name was John Surtees," recalled Murray. "John Surtees went on to become a multiple motorcycle world champion and the only man who has also won the Formula One World Championship."

Turning back to the present day, Rizla Suzuki has signed reigning Japanese Superbike champion Atsushi Watanabe to ride alongside Tom Sykes this season. Watanabe is still in the early stages of learning English; something Walker had considerable sympathy for - and some words of warning.

"I congratulate Atsu on his mastery of English so far. It's very difficult for somebody to come from Japan and try to learn English," he said. "My father used to race motorcycles professionally, very well, and they had a hot-shot Italian come over and join the team.

"He didn't speak a word of English so they said to him - in the way that the British do - when you meet anybody in this country you should say 'hello you old bastard!'

"The first race he was taking part in was the Isle of Man TT and the first person they introduced him to was the governor of the Isle of Man... So he said 'hello you old bastard!' "