Ian Lougher is somewhat known as the quiet man of racing and many could probably be forgiven for thinking that as he reaches almost 30 years of racing the he is starting to take a back seat and only picks the odd race to compete in, but you would be wrong. Not only is Ian enjoying his racing more than ever, although he now only competes in the larger International events such as the North West 200, Isle of Man TT and Ulster Grand Prix and of course the Scarborough meetings, but he is also the team manager for the Northern Ireland based Team Black Horse Yamaha.

Lougher who originated from Wales and is now living in Dromore, County Down, Northern Ireland, having relocated their a number of years back, started his career over 20 years ago, (despite what Dave Macey Market and Franchise Development Manager, from Black Horse Finance stated at the recent North West 200 press conference, when he hinted that Lougher was their test rider back in 1921 when Rally the original Black Horse company was set up!!!) and his competed in various branches of this tarmac sport, including road racing, short circuits and endurance events and indeed with much success.

I took some time out recently to spend some time talking to this shy man who tends to back away from the spotlight, but has enjoyed a long career in motorcycle racing. Although he is very modest he has had a very successful career, having won TT’s, North West 200’s and Ulster Grand Prix’s to name but a few of his successes. I spoke to the man himself recently at the opening round of the British Superbike Championship where he is in his team manager role, this season sees Isle of Man rider Conor Cummins ride for the team in the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship. This is just the latest instalment in the Lougher career which started in 1982.

Lougher’s career started when he took up short circuit racing after a few years of getting into bother with the law, riding motorcycle’s on the road, following in his brother and father’s footstep. When Ian started out he wasn’t actually sure where he was heading, he commented “I never really had a set path planned, I still don’t really, everything has just really fallen into place.” But having gotten into trouble with the police a couple of times he thought it might be best to safe the antics for the track and in 1983 he competed in his first event at Llandow, in South Wales and the bug was caught.

The following year, he took part in his first Manx Grand Prix and was third in the 350 Yamaha’s newcomer’s race, behind Steve Hislop and Robert Dunlop. He then moved up to the Isle of Man TT in 84 and in 1990 came his first TT win in the 250 race, when he beat his Manx Grand Prix rival the late great Steve Hislop, who was riding for the factory Honda team, and in doing so created a new lap record which would remain in his hands for a lengthy nine years. “I really enjoyed that race with Hizzy”, quipped Ian when he reminisced of days gone by. This was to be the first of eight TT victories in Lougher’s 28 year career, with further victories coming throughout the last twenty years, along with a further 24 TT podiums, making him second rider with the most TT winners rostrums and the first TT race in 2009 will see him make his 100th TT start, another TT landmark and a record. His record of 69 TT replicas gives him the record number of replica’s achieved by any TT racer.

Alongside his TT wins, Lougher also has a record of eight North West 200 wins and is the only rider to have won the 125cc race for five years in succession, he has been on the winners rostrum every year at the North West since 1997 and his hoping in this the North West 200’s 80th anniversary year this record will continue. His winning pedigree in road racing continues also at the Ulster Grand Prix where he has 13 victories to his name with 23 rostrum places and along with these wins holds a record number of victories at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough where he has 115 race victories to go along with his 32 Southern 100 victories. With such as success rate it is no surprise that he was the winner of the Duke Marketing Road Racer of the Year on three occasions. “It was nice to win the Duke Road Racing award, it’s nice to have recognition, although that’s not why I am in this game!” commented Ian.

But not only is Lougher known for his road racing exploits but he was also fast on the short circuits and was regularly at the front in the British 125cc and 250cc Championships and in 1990 he also competed in the European Championship’s racing along with his good friend and close rival Hislop, with the two competing against names such as Carl Fogarty and also who at the time was a little known Italian bloke called Max Biaggi, “who would have known then he would become a household name” said Ian with thoughtfulness. Throughout the 90’s he continued to race on both roads and short circuits before deciding to concentrate mainly on the roads in 1999. After competing for what was to become the successful TAS team “they were a great team to work with”, in 01 and 02, he was offered the works Honda ride for 03. Finally in 2005 he started out the now well established “Young Rider” Scheme saw Black Horse Finance step in as the teams title sponsor after a number of years helping Lougher out with some financial backing.

In 2008 after a number of very successful years partnership with Honda the team moved over to Yamaha and Lougher took over the running of the official Yamaha Motor UK “roads” effort and was successfully running the team with Ollie Linsdell in British Superstock Championship alongside his own racing career. And in 2009 with the continued backing of Black Horse Finance and Yamaha Motor UK the team will be running Connor Cummins in British Superstock Championship and run a permanent two man road racing team (comprising of Lougher and Mats Nilsson) for the main International meetings such as the North West, Ulster Grand Prix and Scarborough, whilst for the Isle of Man TT a third overseas rider will be coming on board in the form of Japanese rider Yoshinari Matsuhita, who was chosen to join the team after meeting up with Lougher during a trip to Japan which saw Lougher teaming up with Isle of Man rider Richard “Milky” Quayle in a trip to Japan to research the new Japanese TT venue. “That was a good trip and I would like to see the Japanese get their TT running.”

So with some many riders coming on board the team of the 09 road racing season and trying to cram in the British Championship meeting’s the Black Horse Yamaha team will be kept busy and if Lougher was having any thoughts of taking it slower now that he’s getting close to thirty years of racing, he can think again. So what’s the aim for 09, to hopefully score more victories in all the main International Road Races and for a top ten in British Championship and no thoughts of retirement for at least another few years for the quietly spoken Welsh born, Ulster based man. So with the last word to the man himself, “yeah I am still enjoying my racing and the team management side of things, while that is happening I will stick with it.”