Former olympian Redmond Forms forms endurance team

Former Olympic 400m runner Derek Redmond has joined forces with Maria Costello to form a new endurance racing team in the UK.

The pair will compete in both the two hour Junior and six hour Senior TAG Endurance Championships.

The Series consists of seven rounds culminating at the season finale at Silverstone in October 10th. The team has enrolled ten riders to race throughout the course of the season, with five taking part at each round.

Costello Redmond Racing will front a differing degree of motorcycle racing experience. At certain rounds regular competitors Costello and Alistair Fagan of Fastbikes Magazine will lead the team line ups, but the majority, including Redmond, will be racing for the first time.

Redmond, a keen motorcycle enthusiast, explains: “Myself and my friends are at the stage where we are too old to get very far in the racing world, so we want to have some fun. Club racing is a bit too hardcore for me but this kind of endurance racing really excites me.

“Once you have gone beyond the hectic start you settle into your groove and it is quite similar to riding on a track day. My friends who will be competing are in their early to late forties with other commitments so the set up of the championship really suits us.”

But for a chance meeting at a Donington Park track day the team may never have come about. Maria takes up “Derek lives just down the road from me so we have a few mutual friends around the local area. We met at a track day at Donington earlier this year, got talking about racing and decided we would like to start something together.”

For Redmond, the camaraderie as well as the racing buzz is what attracted him to the Hottrax racing scene.

“The endurance racing paddock is renowned for having a relaxed atmosphere, where everyone competes and gets on together. It is a paddock where you can count on fellow competitors for assistance if you are having machine difficulties, and this attitude to racing attracted me to the series. I’ve visited some of the Hottrax track days, which are held just before the racing event and they have some great people working for them.”

So what are the teams aims for the season ahead? Redmond is remaining pragmatic. “As a team we are aiming to finish every race, and I don’t want to raise expectations but I would love to stand on the podium at some stage. Obviously I will be travelling to each race with the intention of winning, but the main thing is that the team gets along and we all have fun.”

Costello Redmond Racing will be launching at the NEC Bike Show in Birmingham which opens to the public on the 28th of November until the 7th of December.