Simon Turner

Interview with Simon Turner

Interview by Matt Compton
30th Aug 2019

Matt

Hi Simon, how’re you going?

Simon

Hi Matt, I’m good, nice to meet you.

Matt

You too! Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I’ve been trying to catch up with people who spent time with Ted or his two Magni-Guzzi prototypes for a website I’m creating in Ted’s honour. I’ve already spoken to Barry Jones who owns Prototype #1 and I have a number of other people lined up. Do you know Barry?

Simon

Yes I’ve known Barry for many years, he’s a top bloke. Actually I caught up with him last year when I stopped by in Melbourne. Saw the bike again too.

Matt

Ah, that would have been great. So was it just Prototype #1 you rode or were you still around when Ted developed the second bike?

Simon

No I only rode Ted’s first prototype. So Matt, what was your connection with Ted?

Matt

Well, when I was around 20 my brother and I bought a small motorcycle shop called Webrook Ducati. It had ties with Vee Two Australia.

Simon

Yeah Vee Two, that’s Brook Henry, isn’t it?

Matt

Yeah, that’s right. Webrook’s used to be Brook’s motorcycle shop but he sold the retail arm to focus on his engineering and manufacturing, Vee Two still had the unit right behind us.

When Ted connected with us, we started selling Guzzis for him. Then not long after that he asked us to take over his retail for WA, as he was quite unwell and wanted to scale things back a bit to try and recover. So we ended up taking over the retail side of his business in East Victoria Park.

We had the front half of Stolarski’s old shop and renamed it Pro-Italia. Dulcie was still the Australian importer for Moto Guzzi and ran that from the rear of the premises. It was a huge store, used to be a Bunnings at one stage apparently.

Ted and I got pretty close in the short years I knew him; he was so generous with his time and advice. Dulcie and I got along really well too and I liked chatting to her on a regular basis.

Simon

Yeah, yeah, me too, she was a star!

Matt

She certainly was. Yeah, so Ted loaned us the second prototype to race. Chris Cooke rode it for us in 1994 and the following year I rode it. During the year I was racing, Dulcie approached me and said she knew Ted saw me like a son and she believed he would want me to have his bike. She asked if I could afford it and I said I would do everything in my power to buy it so I used every cent I had, and some I didn’t, and managed to buy it from her in 1995.

Simon

Wow, 24 years!

Matt

Yes, it’s been a while. I only raced the one year, it was a good season. Our main sponsored bike was a Moto Guzzi Daytona. The Daytona got 2nd in the Thunderbike championship and I got 3rd on Ted’s Magni-Guzzi. We definitely upset all the Ducati riders out there with both the Guzzi powered machines coming ahead of them all; it upset a lot of expectations.

Simon

I remember when I first started riding it, we pretty quickly pissed-off a lot of highly fancied Ducatis and other trick bikes. We definitely surprised a lot of people on Ted’s bike, and that was when it was with the low horsepower spec. It was only about 80hp when I started riding it. Barry was spannering on it at the time, then Mario [Poggioli].

Last year when I caught up with Barry we talked about getting Prototype #1 back up and running and maybe I’ll throw my leg over it for the Phillip Island Classic. I don’t know how he is going on the rebuild though.

Matt

That sounds fantastic, I’d love to see that happen! When I spoke to Barry recently the engine was out of the bike and on the bench, he was waiting for some new valves to arrive, so hopefully he’ll get there. I’m also hoping to speak to Giovanni Magni again if he has time, we emailed back and forth a few years back and he was very helpful. So, do you have many photos or memorabilia from your time on Ted’s prototype?

Simon

I’ve got a big box of old race photos and a lot of it is Magni stuff. Have you got the original Italian brochure that Arturo made for the bike?

Matt

No, I’d love to see it, that would be great for the website.

Simon

Ok, I’ll send that through to you.

Matt

Thank you, that’s awesome. So how did you know Ted and get involved with racing for him?

Simon

My uncle was a famous rider from the 70’s and when he returned to New Zealand he became a bike distributor, like Ted, and one of the brands was Moto Guzzi.

Ted knew I was racing 250GP and at that time I didn’t have any plans. Ted invited me over to WA and said, “Do you want to have a try on it?”. As a young guy I said, “Of course”. So I ran over to WA and pretty much got into the groove my first day at Wanneroo Raceway.

I went out there with Mario, actually that photo you posted of me and Mario standing around the bike, that was my first day on it, we turned out some really good lap times. So yeah, we were off to a good start.

Then we did a couple of Aussie street races [Round-the-Houses events]. We had some small technical problems, but after a couple of rides I started to really get the feel of it.

Then we took it to New Zealand, did street races and the big circuits. We were top four or five in the Superbike class, which was Yamaha OW01’s, all that trick stuff. There was Simon Crafar on the factory Yamaha, I was pretty much on his tail around Wanganui. We surprised a lot of people, ourselves included actually, because about 190kg and only about 80hp doesn’t read too well.

Matt

I know what you mean, I think mine puts out around 90hp but it just has so much torque and such brilliant handling and brakes. It was amazing how good it was to ride and do lap times that were very unexpected to the competition.

Ted would just tell me to not worry about the revs or the tacho, which never worked, but to just go by feel, ride the torque and trust that nothing could out-brake or out-corner the Magni.

Simon

Ted was always right. It did have a little sweet spot if you could stay in it and keep up the momentum, it was a bit of a weapon. It was all about the corner speed; if you get the exit just right, in some ways it was quite similar to riding a 250GP. GP250’s are all about high apex speeds, maybe that was one of the reasons I gelled with it. So far as the size and weight, of course it was completely different, but the theory was kind of similar on how to ride it.

Matt

That comparison with a 250GP makes a lot of sense actually, the corner speed thing. I don’t know what was on Prototype #1 but on #2 the brake pads which came with it we never replaced over the entire 94/95 seasons. They had such amazing feel and bite, and I just trusted Ted that nothing could out-brake me into corners. The strange thing was, they just never seemed to wear out and they weren’t wearing the discs either. Either way, they were great!

Simon

Not sure about #2, but when I rode #1 you can see in the photos there is a brand name on them, Newfren. That’s an Italian brake pad that we used to run, they were very good.

Matt

Newfren, I’ll have to look into that. I’d love to know, how do you remember Ted? I found him so friendly and supportive the whole time I knew him. It was great to have him around, he just loved being at the track with his bikes.

Simon

Ted was unbelievable, he was so kind to me. I had moved over from New Zealand and stayed in Perth for about three months or so riding for him. Ted totally welcomed me into his house. He had a self-contained flat at his property. I stayed in there and he gave me his old Range Rover to use. He and Dulcie totally opened up their home to me, they were so nice, just salt of the earth people.

Matt

Agreed, they really were. So when did you first start riding Ted’s bike?

Simon

I started riding it after Owen Coles rode it at Daytona, it must have been around 1990/91. I rode it for Ted for a few months, then my uncle brought in a Moto Guzzi Daytona and a Gilera Piuma. We had sponsorship from Agip, the Italian oil company, so I got to ride those two bikes.

I couldn’t ride Ted’s bike anymore as the Daytona was the production bike that they wanted to promote at the time. So I had to ride the Daytona but it was an absolute nightmare, the problem was when they first came out the learning curve was just too steep, so that was a bad year. At the end I parked it and said, “I’m not riding it”. Compared to Ted’s bike the Daytona was so unstable.

Matt

I understand exactly what you’re saying. We were sponsoring Jon Iles on his at the time as well as fielding my bike which we dressed up to look like a Daytona.Jon Iles’ Daytona had been C-kitted, it also had a bunch of work done by Duane Mitchell from Fuel Injected Motorcycles. Duane flew over to Perth and worked on the mapping with his programmable chip for the fuel injection. It was quite the rocket ship after that but still a handful on the track.

I would follow Jon through the esses and I was just stunned by how much he had to muscle that thing around the circuit. I always admired his capacity to do that and still keep it all together. He came 2nd in the championship that year. If I was on it I would have been lucky to be 10th [Laughing]. Jon was incredibly strong and fit though, he was a special forces guy if I remember correctly, I think he may have been working as a navy clearance diver at the time. He did an amazing job on a very unfriendly racebike.

Simon

Yeah, I know. On paper the Daytona should have run away from Ted’s bikes, but reality was quite different. Our lap times were never close to what we used to do on the Magni. Mainly because I just had no confidence in the Daytona.

The photo you sent through of Barry’s new paint job looks awesome! It’s nice he’s put ‘T’ on it, which is what it had on it when I rode it. ‘T’ for Turner and also ‘T’ for Ted.

Matt

Yeah, Barry’s done a beautiful job with it. If you zoom in you can read the tribute on the front screen to Ted as well.

Simon

Oh Yes. Excellent!

Matt

Ted came out to the track on my practice day’s as much as he could, was he out at the track much when you were riding for him?

Simon

Yes! Oh, yeah, Ted was at the track every time. We had a good time in New Zealand, we also went to Italy the following year. In Italy we visited Magni to discuss the production of the Magni Australia and ideas for improving it. I saw Arturo there, he was so kind and welcoming to me. They listened to what I had to say, and my feedback on their bike.

Then they released the racing prototype of what was the official Magni Australia, their version, the twin shock one with no lights and stuff, then shortly thereafter the street version. Apparently they still keep a photo of me on Ted’s bike ‘pride of place’ in the factory.

Matt

That’s fantastic! What sort of ideas or recommendations did you share with Arturo and Giovanni from your time on Prototype #1?

Simon

I can’t remember exactly but it would’ve been around things like the housing of the rear wheel, the parallelogram, the steering angle and the riding position. Those were the main points they talked to me about that I gave feedback on. I’m never going to tell Magni how to build a chassis of course. [Laughing]

Matt

[Laughing] Agreed! And you live in Japan now is that right?

Simon

Yep, I’ve been coming to Japan for business for almost 20 years. Got married here 14 years ago. Started a family, got three young kids. Started a business, my own Japanese company a while ago. Yeah, I never sort of planned on it being a long-term thing but hey, that’s life.

Matt

Japan has always been a goal of mine to visit, it’s always intrigued me.

Simon

Yeah, it’s a very unique country and I enjoy a lot of aspects of it. Some aspects are quite challenging for a non-Japanese person though.

Matt

You must speak Japanese very well now after living there for so long.

Simon

No I don’t, frankly I’m terrible at speaking Japanese. All of my businesses are export based so I keep my brain in English, talking to a lot of export customers. I don’t do a lot of domestic sales in Japan, so I kind of live in an English-speaking bubble.

But yeah, it’s definitely one of those countries you need to make the effort to see. Definitely should be on everybody’s bucket list. Although I do miss Oceania; Australia and New Zealand are special countries, the big open spaces for riding bikes. Greatly missed.

Matt

Through the Facebook group and contacts I’ve made I see that Magni bikes are pretty popular in Japan.

Simon

Yes, there seems to be quite a few Magni enthusiasts in Japan. I haven’t reached out to them or been in contact or anything. I think they are mainly touring guys not really racing type people. I’m sure they’d love your bike over here. And hey, make sure if you ever pull the pin and decide you want to sell your bike, please talk to me.

Matt

Absolutely, if it ever comes to that I will definitely let you know first, you’ve certainly got the history with Ted and his prototypes.

Simon

Yes, I’m sure Ted would approve. Have you ever thought of selling?

Matt

Not since back in the late 90’s. I almost sold it to Russell Aylward who was very involved with Ted and the prototypes in the beginning. Russel had a deal to race my bike in the US however the sponsorship fell through leaving him and the bike stranded in Florida.

Russell let me know what had happened and promised to work things out. Which I’m very grateful he did. He spent a few months in America finding work and saving the money to ship the Magni back to me and then pay his own way back afterwards.

Simon

Sounds like it’s very fortunate you got it back.

Matt

Absolutely! I’m quite indebted to Russell for his trustworthiness and good character. He always did the right thing by me, that’s for sure. He had the bike shipped back to me late 2000 or maybe early 2001 and it’s been at Thunderbikes since.

Mario’s been very kind to look after it for me. I have offered him money for storage but he just never accepts anything. He always just says, “No, no, it’s a great bike to have around. Lots of history and a wonderful talking point with other Guzzi riders!”.

I’ve seen many posts and online comments where people are praising Mario’s customer service. One recent example was from a bloke in the Eastern States who had ordered some parts. Mario just shipped them straight to him and trusted the payment would come through. Pretty rare thing these days for such trust and generosity.

Simon

Ted was very generous in the way he did business with everyone, maybe Mario picked that up from him. I haven’t seen Mario since way back. My brother lives in Perth, so there is a couple of excuses for me to get down there and visit them both.

Matt

Yes, Mario and Ted were very close, everyone always speaks very highly of both of them.

Simon

Ted was a real character. When Ted, Barry, my uncle and I went to Italy together, it was such a good trip. We also went to the factory and met Dr John, that’s when he was consulting for them, he had his own desk there. We had discussions with them and then we went to the Magni factory.

Matt

That’s incredible, meeting Arturo and Dr John on the same trip. Are the Moto Guzzi and Magni factories close to each other?

Simon

I can’t remember exactly, from memory Magni was quite far from Moto Guzzi. I think Varese was the main area for bike production and bike factories. I don’t think Magni is close to there at all, I think they are quite a bit South.

Matt

Ah, I see. So I was wondering if Ted gave you much in the way of racing tips or advice with his prototype? I know when he would come out to the track with me he would tell me not to rev it too much just to ride it on the torque curve.

He said that he specially modified the gears so that it was way smoother to change than a standard Guzzi gearbox. He said to only use the clutch on the starting grid but for the rest of the race, all upshifts and downshifts, to just trust the feel of the engine and shift without the clutch. I followed what he said and it was just amazing, smooth as butter, never a missed gear or false neutral, it was beautiful.  

Simon

Not off the top of my head. Once I started punting the thing pretty well he left me to it; but as I started pushing the bike really hard things started to bend and break. I remember even the first day I rode it, I was driving out of a turn so hard it started to pull the rear shaft connector apart, the main part was pulling away from the black shaft housing.

Matt

Really !

Simon

Yeah, so I designed a plate. I remember, after we got back that first day, drawing it out on a piece of cardboard in the workshop, in the building that you took over. I said, “Ted make a plate like this and then it can’t pull away”.

That part is on all the Magnis now, all the Parallelogrammos with the shaft drive. Where the main shaft housing connects to the rear wheel, you’ve got the black shaft housing which connects to it, which has four bolts. That part has a black plate that extends past and then goes through where the axle goes through and stops it pulling apart. That was my cardboard cutout solution. Mario and Barry should be able to confirm that as well. That was from lessons learnt at Wanneroo. I will try to find a photo of it.

Matt

That’s very interesting. Would be great to see a pic.

Simon

As I started to get quicker and quicker on it we uncovered new things all the time. So that was always entertaining. It would always happen at a race meeting which meant that we had to improvise and make repairs. It was all good knowledge and they were all the suggestions that we passed on to Magni themselves. I guess that’s the old adage, ‘Racing improves the breed’.

Matt

So you rode at Wanneroo and some Round-the-Houses meetings in both Western Australia and New Zealand?

Simon

Yep, some of those street circuits are quite brutal on a bike. I remember Wanganui, very rough, hard braking. But that’s why you go I guess, for the challenge, to see how far you can push the bike.

At Wanganui, we had problems that nearly pitted us. I think it was something to do with the clutch. We had issues with it during practise, but Ted did something to it so I could ride it that day. I’m glad he did cos we had a great day!

We really pushed Robert Holden hard. He was riding the BMS Ducati that ran on methanol. It was a real brutal, powerful thing, but we were on his heels the whole day, we led sometimes as well. We had a great day, I think in F1 we got 4th.

Matt

Fantastic! Sounds like a great day. Did Mario or Barry go with you guys to New Zealand as pit crew?

Simon

I’m not sure if Barry came to New Zealand. You might have to check with him, my memory is a bit vague on who was actually spannering on our overseas trips. Mario was certainly always at Wanneroo, he took me up there that first day I rode Prototype #1, it was a very nice day, I remember it clearly.

Matt

So that’s the pics I’ve got with Mario in the red overalls and you in the red and white leathers?

Simon

That’s right, I’ve got Honda logos all over the suit, that’s cos I was riding an RS250GP Honda that year.

Matt

Was Russell Aylward around the workshop at that time as well?

Simon

No I don’t think so, but I remember that there was a young guy named Matthew kicking around in the workshop quite a bit, he was related to Ted. His father took some awesome photos, he was a bit of a photographer and came to the circuit and took some of the best photos we’ve got on the Magni. Those are the ones I’ll get some scans of and send to you, they are really nice.

Matt

That would be much appreciated Simon, thanks.

Simon

Sure no problem at all, anything in Ted’s memory is fine by me.

Matt

I’ve managed to connect with a lot of people I knew from back in the 90’s and also a number of others have come forward with stories and photos. It’s been great.

Simon

Yeah, Facebook can be quite good for community and for finding information, that’s for sure.

Matt

Yeah I’ve been very surprised with how fast it’s grown, the level of interest internationally and the amount of feedback about Ted and the two prototypes. A lot of people really loved Ted. His prototypes were featured in a quite a number of articles back in the 90’s too.

Simon

They’re definitely special bikes, Ted’s vision and passion lives on brightly. I’m keen for Barry to get that engine fixed, repaired, rebuilt, whatever. I’d be happy to contribute and hopefully we can punt it around a circuit again.

Matt

So when is the Phillip Island Classic?

Simon

I think the race is in January.

Matt

Hopefully Barry will have it back up and running by then.

Simon

By the way, thanks for that photo from Barry. That’s given me motivation to reach out to him again and see how progress is going.

Matt

No problem, you’ll have to let me know how it goes, I’d love to see some photos from the event. Fantastic to talk to you Simon.

Simon

Yeah it’s been nice Matthew. Any other questions just shoot them through and I’ll try to answer back as quickly as I can. I will dig out my old archives and get some shots off to you in the next couple of days.

Matt

Brilliant, thanks so much.

Simon

No worries, take care.