The issue of travel costs to compete in European championship drag racing has been a topic of conversation lately. One British contestant planning to make all the necessary dates this year is UEM Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop.

Bishop considers it a godsend that only a rider’s five best finishes, out of the six events on the calendar, will count towards the UEM championship. “It’s a fantastic idea, “ he says, “the only way to help the sport forward, and it will allow additional tracks to stage races without hurting a racer’s bid for the title.”

Accordingly, Bishop plans to omit the Scandinavian Internationals, Tierp Arena’s August race, from his schedule. It’s not that he cannot afford the financial cost: as a successful property developer from the county of Kent, England’s south-eastern tip, Bishop has the resources to attend all six races. Rather, it’s a matter of time, a story familiar to all involved in drag racing. Racers and, especially, crew members can afford only so much time away from work and family. If following the championship tour across Europe to five races pushes the limit, six may well exceed it.

Another reason for Bishop’s travel plan is that he loves racing at Alastaro. So, after Santa Pod’s Main Event, he will compete at Tierp’s first race, the Sweden Internationals, then fly home, leaving his bike and trailer in the care of Roger Lyrén before taking it on to Finland for the Alastaro race.

Bishop has raced motorcycles for 22 years, spending 15 of those years in Pro Stock Bike, five of them in European competition. Drag racing is a (comparatively) safe option; a previous road racing career ended at Brands Hatch after one crash too many, and Bishop has the scars to remind him. An 11th-place UEM finish in 2010 improved to fifth last year, and Bishop now eyes a spot in the top three for 2012. Pre-season, Fredrik Fredlund and Kalle Lyrén look particularly strong opponents, but Bishop concedes that he is up against a very tough field.

Bishop is never one to follow the path of convention; not for him an off-the-shelf billet block for his motor. Instead he has developed a competitive PSB engine from a Suzuki stock-block. Innovation and development are the principles which really fire his interest. Asked if this approach might leave him at a competitive disadvantage and compromise his ability to win, he demurs. 

“No, that thought doesn’t cross my mind,” he says. “If I’m going to win, I want to do it with an ‘underdog’ engine. I like beating more conventional opponents. Earning success with an engine we’ve designed and developed ourselves is what really makes us tick.”

Another British rider, Dave Beck, holds the European record for ET (7.078sec) and Finland’s Fredlund the speed mark (190.22mph/306.12km/h). With personal bests of 7.32sec and 185mph/297km/h, Bishop still has ground to make up on the statistics but, on the track, runs consistently in the thick of the action. At last year’s five races, he qualified 6th three times and 4th twice. Bishop and his crew have personal connections with the world of Formula One and don’t mind using them. Bouncing ideas off an F1 engineer might not have direct implications for a Pro Stock Bike but it sure helps broaden the mind.

Martin Bishop - The Bish

Then there’s the matter of stress relief. Drag racing works wonders for taking the mind off the day job and, for Bishop, the intricacy and concentration required for the engineering work in the garage allied to the sheer speed and the hefty boost of adrenalin encountered at the track, provide a compelling antidote to the pressures of business. “Plus,” he says, “I really enjoy the atmosphere and camaraderie we experience over a race weekend. It’s the perfect safety valve.”

Looking across the Atlantic, does Bishop share the concerns currently being expressed by Suzuki racers in NHRA Pro Stock Bike, who claim their twin-cylinder opponents, particularly the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidsons, have acquired an unfair mechanical advantage that might yet push the Japanese bikes right out of the class? “In a word, no,” says Bishop. “I think our UEM PSB rules are pretty fair, on the whole, and of course we have Buells but not those V&H Harleys. I’d say it calls for more development work to be done on the Suzukis.”



One American item that has caught Bishop’s attention is the new, 16-valve billet head manufactured by Star Racing. He wants to see how it progresses through the year. If it proves as good as it promises, he might indulge in a little Christmas shopping for himself. Crankshafts, however, are a different matter. The current generation of US-produced cranks seems prone to sudden, catastrophic breakage. Another British PSB racer, Mark Smith, became the latest casualty in mid-May, with a high-dollar crank failure destroying an even higher-dollar engine at a Shakespeare County Raceway event.

Bishop believes that British motorsport engineering, honed from the top down by F1, works to the highest standards in the world. “I think a UK manufacturer could produce a much-improved crank for our bikes. If there were sufficient will in our bike community here in Europe, I definitely think we could get one made.”

Martin Bishop is delighted to continue his association with Lucas Oil for this season. In a novel initiative, he is also negotiating to bring a prominent watch manufacturer into the sport. Might the timing be just right for a championship challenge, one wonders.