Three-times British Superbike Champion Niall Mackenzie continues to be heavily involved in national racing, mainly supporting his 15-year-old son Taylor who debuted in the Relentless British 125GP Championship this season.
Besides writing for the motorbike magazine Two Wheels Only (who? - ED) and instructing on track days for Focused Events, he assists the racing career of Mackenzie junior.
Niall said: “I am over the moon really, at the last five rounds he’s scored points. It’s been a really tough season weather-wise, he’s also been learning a lot of circuits and he normally brings the bike home in one piece.  He’s learning every week and finishing in the top 15.”
Explaining why he has taken his son into the most competitive racing level at such an early stage of his career, Niall added: “I made a conscious effort to get him straight to the British 125cc championship.  Although he was out of his depth at the start of the year I knew he would get dragged onalong. It’s such a good championship, we go to all the best tracks in the UK.
“We get plenty of track time, it’s really well organised and really professional as well as being with the UK1 team.  We like to think we are a professional team, this is where we want to be and Taylor has got a lot of friends in this paddock. I think he will learn much more doing this rather than club racing.  Even though he’s not at the front yet, we think this is definitely the best team to do it with.”
Mackenzie Snr admits that, unusually from a father and son perspective, Taylor does listen to his advice and in among the pressure that comes with the territory, he makes sure that his son realises, and doesn’t forget, he needs to enjoy racing.
When asked how he would describe his son as a person and a racer, Mackenzie said: “Physically he is quite young for 15, quite small and maybe not that strong, but mentally he’s very bright.  He ‘s doing quite well at school which is important, he’s knows he can’t go racing if he doesn’t do well at school so it’s a good carrot to dangle from both sides.
“He’s good because he doesn’t try to tell us anything clever, but he’s knows when something isn’t quite right.  It’s the mechanic's job to download him and try to find out exactly what it is. And again, he’s getting experience of that, as we build that it will help us for the rest of the season and in the future. He’s shown really good progress, we’re ahead of schedule really.”