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Motorcycling
and Grand Prix racing have been a life
long passion for Peter Clifford who grew up in a family of bike enthusiasts.
He was just six weeks old when taken to his first motorcycle race and his
interest grew throughout his youth as he became involved in club racing. After
graduating from Mechanical Engineering in the UK, Clifford went to put his
engineering skills to work for Paul Dunstall, the noted British manufacturer of
motorcycle exhaust systems and accessories. An appointment as Technical Editor
of Motor Cycle Weekly (a leading publication) followed next, which allowed
Clifford to make the transition from engineering into what became a very
successful journalism career, specialising in Grand Prix Racing. Turning
freelance upon the closure of Motor Cycle Weekly Clifford served 11 years as the
Editor of motorcycling's influential annual bible Motocourse and also as grand
prix correspondent for The Guardian (London) and a host of other international
publications. This
work fitted perfectly with Clifford's passion for television broadcasting and
for more than a decade his commentary was heard on major international networks
including Eurosport, TV3 (Malaysia), Prime Network and ABC in the USA and for
five years with ABC (Australia) covering the
Swann International Series. In
1992 Clifford answered a call from American enthusiast and businessman Bob
MacLean to manage the newly created independent racing team know as - World
Championship Motorsports (WCM) which evolved into the Red Bull Yamaha Team. For
many years Clifford combined his media duties with that of team manager but the
scale of operating a factory-backed GP squad in the world championship has seen
Clifford relinquish his media duties for a management role. "Concentrating
on the team was a big step to take but one that I have really enjoyed," Clifford
said. "The racing side
wasn't new to me of course but the task of managing the people to get the best
of the team has been the real challenge." For
Clifford the emergence of Garry McCoy and the Red Bull Yamaha as World
Championship contenders has been a great reward. "Without
doubt seeing Garry succeed, has been a reward worth all the effort. Great credit
needs to go to his race engineer Hamish Jamieson and our race winning transition
to using the 16.5 inch Michelin rear tyre. What Garry and Hamish did was totally against the run of play
at that time in grand prix racing." It
is no surprise that Clifford is an avid collector of bikes and books (on
motorcycles) and when time permits
he is still a keen amateur racer. His library boasts an impressive 500 plus
precisely catalogued titles and his garage a Yamaha V-Max, WR 250 enduro bike, a
race prepared Yamaha R6 and a 1994 ROC 500 GP bike. "I'm not
sure how many GPs I've been in the past 25 years.
I know that I have only missed one though". This
quote epitomises this English gentlemen's dedication to this sport and his work
although you will never here him call it work. |
