Legendary tuner and team boss Jack Valentine will debut his new MV Agusta road racing team, with Gary Johnson in the hot seat, at this year's North West 200.
When he ran the Triumph 600cc in Valmoto colours at the 2003 North West 200 he scored a podium place finish in the Supersport race, with Flying Kiwi Bruce Anstey taking a fine second. The massively experienced man from Lancashire will return to Portrush with the all new MV Agusta 675cc on May 18 and he says that he is ‘very optimistic’ the Italian triple will emulate the feat of a decade earlier.
"We won’t be coming just to make up the numbers,‘ Valentine said this week as he confirmed that the new three- cylinder Supersport class MV will make its world road racing debut at the 2013 Vauxhall International North West 200.
“I am only focusing my racing efforts on the three big International road races this year and I am confident that the MV will be capable of getting a podium at the North West,” he predicted.
Valentine’s old sparring partner from the V&M race team set-up, Steve Mellor, is currently preparing the MV engine and data will be shared with the ParkinGo World Supersport MV team and the Italian factory.
"The bike made an impressive debut at the opening WSS race at Phillip Island in Australia,’ added Valentine. "It has only had limited development but it was still running up in fourth place before hitting tyre issues. It is definitely fast. We’ve got good guys working with us so by the time we get to the North West we will be very competitive."
