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RG Racers: Perry Goldstein
Speedo Supermono racer with early ties to the RG500!
Regarding the above photo, Perry wrote: "I recently watched a video by Bob Keen from Brands hatch, it was the 1986 Sun free day 1300 production race. It was great to see all the 2’stks mixing it up with the big 4’stks, with my old team mate Zan Marseilles on his blue and white Gamma, Derek Lee’s green and white RG (not Skoal bandit) and I have to mention Vince Bennett, a great friend of mine who sadly is no longer with us on his GPZ900 which spectacularly blew up! Vince fortunately saw the light and swapped to an RG500. There were quite a few that raced Gamma’s back then, I didn’t know all off them but seeing Paul Taylor’s number 1 on his RG made me think about a picture I have of the only time I got to use it."
On his race history with RG500s:
"Just a brief history, I bought my RG500 brand new in 1985 for £2800, ran it in on the road and raced it for three seasons. Bob Farnham tuned it, although for the first two years Bob raised the compression and altered the disc valves to Mk8 spec’ with standard porting, it was competitive enough to win races so I left it until the third year to have the barrels ported. Bob said if I won a championship on it he wouldn’t charge me, so I won the Bantam club open championship, and came fourth in the BMCRC production class.
It was generally reliable and finished every race and that was Sat/Sun, 4 races a day most weekends.
In 1985 I was at the British GP in the Metzeler production Series, tech/Scrutineers thought I was too early and should come back later! Apparently they thought I was practicing with Spencer and Lawson and the other GP riders - yeah rite!- It was because I had yellow background number boards, while the Metzeler series were white!
I can tell you something I’ll never forget, we were at Brands Hatch on the RG500’s, going into Druids R/hairpin, mid pack, Derek’s dived up the inside but realised he was carrying to much speed. The next thing I hear is Derek shouting out “PERRY!” and I just managed to pick it up and we both got through for another lap, cheeky, yet considerate 😇.
Biggest problem with the RG was having to run standard wheels, I started with Pirelli phantom front, can’t remember size, Michelin Hi-sport 160/60 rear, completely wrong, but that’s what we all did; it would wobble in a straight line at 135mph until you put your weight over the front, then Pirelli brought out the Demon which was softer and with a 140 on the rear was much better.
That last year with the barrels ported, all it did was make it more of a screamer, spent most of the year trying to get back to my previous lap times, had a club lap record at Snetterton from the back of the grid chasing ray stringer on his 350YpVS, which was a particularly enjoyable race. That first time out of pit-lane at the start of the year, wondering if it would still have the same kick... OH YEAH!
Apart from the Gamma, here's a bit of Perry's history with bike racing:
As for my start in racing, I went to see a friend who had a TZ350A race at Brands Hatch and didn’t realise you could race road bikes in a production class, and thought “I could do that”. So, I got an old Yamaha YDS7 250 and entered a race, this was the end of 1982 and every one was on 250LC’s. I was hooked - and got an LC for the following two years where I started my steep learning curve which seems never ending.
So after the LC came the RG500, which I’ve previously spoke of, and a brief spell on a GSXR750J which after the RG was a bit boring, but ok for a 6 hour endurance race where I teamed with a fellow RG500 rider. He came from Ohio and was based at the American airbase in Mildenhall; he later traveled with me when I contested the European Supermono Championship (ESC).
Before I got into the ESC (European Supermono Championship) I raced SS400 with an RGV250 for 3 years, but got sick of Production rules and wanted to race on slicks. I started looking at TZ250’s but was not sure about the cost, was thinking about a Honda RS125 when a friend suggested a Supermono. I made some enquires and ended up building a Suzuki DR800 with a Harris chassis for 1992 which was ok as a Club/ National racer but not fast enough for the ESC.
So that got replaced by the KTM that I still have, which was built by John Dieterman, based on the early LC4 600 from 1988 with no balance shaft, it had a good power to weight ratio and was much more competitive, enough to finish 3rd in the ESC and 2nd in the UK National but it was tiring to ride because of the vibration. Then in 2007 John built me another chassis for a KTM EXC 610 Crate engine which KTM Uk gave me, with some great support from the factory in Austria. It’s a great bike to ride and a lot smoother than the older one with 70bhp at the rear wheel and only 95ks it’s a bit of an animal but great fun.
I’m glad I did it, I had 3 years supporting WSB, on some of the best circuits in the world, my favourite in Europe was probably Brno, Spa is pretty good, too, apart from the weather, and I have to say the old Hockenhiem through the trees with Foggy and the other Ducatis, the sound was something else, on a Supermono it just lasts a bit longer.
Perry's website relating to his Supermono racing can be found here:
http://www.perrygracing.co.uk/
Photos below!
