DANGEROUS BRUCE

By day the office tea boy but come Friday night, our man turns into a leather-clad hero seeking fame and fortune on the track. Meet ‘Dangerous’ Bruce!

Words: Bruce Wilson Pictures: John Wilkinson

Like every single one of you reading this magazine, I’m itching to get at the new season. Only a few weeks away now and for 2008 at least, I’ve got a bit more impetus than most to focus on the racing year ahead.

You see, by day I might be the Ad guy on ‘Racer’ in its now rather swanky Lincolnshire office, just a mere stone’s throw away from Cadwell Park, but the rest of my life revolves around my racing. And in the coming year, at the ripe old age of 21, I’ve finally managed to break into the realms of BSB.

This year, the newly-formed ‘Team Motorcycle Racer’ will be competing in the National Superstock 600 Championship with me at the sharp end. I can’t promise too many earth-shattering revelations about the season to come, but I can tell you about the nitty-gritty of making the jump from seasoned campaigner (kind of) to bashing fairings with the brave and the good of the Junior Superstock lads.

Now you know who I am, and where I’m planning on strutting my stuff this year, I guess it makes sense to tell you where I’ve come from. The truth of it is, I’m fresh from the club racing scene. Having been an apprentice for three years in the Derby Phoenix MCC, it was time to move on.

So at the start of 2007, I begged, borrowed and generally scraped together just enough money to have a shot in the ACU/Suzuki GSX-R Trophy and it really was as awesome as it sounds. Close racing on as-equal-as-is-really-possible bikes not only provided a good spectacle for those by the side of the track, it also really helped me, and a few others, to develop as a rider, bringing out a lot of our potential.

Throughout the year I managed to bag a best placed finish of second and eventually secured third in the Under-23 Championship. It was a pretty busy season and I was fortunate enough to be given a couple of wild card rides in a couple of other series, just to sharpen me up that little bit more.

I raced a KTM 990 in the Superduke Battle at Cadwell Park’s BSB round. That was a truly great experience which was so intense, so full on, I was just aching to keep going, not wanting the race weekend to finish at all. In the end, in front of that massive, brilliant crowd I managed to bag a 7th and 8th place finish in the double header. From there it was a quick jet out to the World Superbike round in Germany, and racing at the Lausitzring circuit in the GSX-R European Cup...

ON-BOARD WITH TEAM MOTORCYCLE RACER

On-board footage from an Oulton Park Focused Events trackday with Team MCR National Superstock 600 rider Bruce Wilson.
Watch out for 2008 BSB exclusive footage and pit-video - only with Motorcycle Racer magazine.

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