10 minutes with Adrian Archibald (2010)

What is your full name?
Adrian James Archibald

Year you were born
1969
Your Age?
40
Where are you from?
I’m from Ballymoney but now live in Armoy

How did you get in to racing?
I always had road bikes and then a couple of friends got in to racing so I though I would have a go at it as well.

Race number and how did you get it?
Number 13 most of the time. When you started racing you had to ring up and get a number and all the numbers were away up in the 100’s at that time. I says have you any other numbers and he says well I have no 13 but no body wants it so I says well I will take it. And that’s really how it started

What is your favourite road circuit?
The Isle of Man would be the one

What is your favourite short circuit?
Have rode a few different circuits both here and in England and I would say that Oulton Park was a good circuit to race on.

Who would you most like to meet - living or dead?
Have met a few people here and there on my travels and I was always a fan of Kevin Schwantz and I actually ended up meeting him in the Isle of Man. Aaron shouts from the background – you really want to meet Ryan Farquhar.

Who was your boyhood hero?
Obviously Joey Dunlop because I was from Ballymoney and he was the best road racer about.
What was your first bike?

My first bike was a 50cc Yamaha

What age were you?
I don’t even remember!

Who is your most respected rival?
Obviously when I started up racing and that it was myself and Richard Britton those guys and we were having a lot of battles at that time and me and Richard would have had some of the best races and I really respected him. I suppose at the minute now it would probably be Ryan would be the one.

What would you buy if you won the lottery?
Don’t know. Would retire from motorbike racing.

Does that mean you make money from Motor bike racing?
No!!!

What is the reason for helmet design?
Pretty much have kept the same design over the years when I have been racing. I have had to change it a few times like when I rode for TAS with the Relentless thing and that. I’m back to my own design again now again though and it’s a guy called Paul Edgar who paints helmets or used to and I asked him to paint me up a helmet. He came up with the design; I liked it and really stuck with that for most years.

What is your favourite food and drink?
Favourite food is Indian, could eat it all the time. Favourite drink is Magners.

Do you have any superstitions or rituals before you go racing?
No nothing at all

What is the music you last listened to?
Well usually in the van its Calvin Harris as Aaron likes it as well so he always makes me put it on

Tell me a funny story from racing?
Well wasn’t funny for me. The most embarrassing one was when I won a race down in Mondello Park one day, years ago, and managed to fall off on the slowing down lap.

Do you have any hobbies away from bikes?
I do a lot of cycling and have a big interest in cycling, both doing it and watching it on TV as well.

What is your proudest racing moment?
Obviously my first TT win. That was always the big ambition and at that time I managed to win at the NW200, the TT and the UGP all in the same year but the TT was the big one.

What did you have for breakfast today?
Didn’t actually have any breakfast. Had a Kentucky with Aaron at dinner time

How do you relax between races?
Just sort of mosey about here, not really doing much. Stand about and talk to the guys who help me. That’s really about it.

What is your nickname and how did you get it?
Scratch they call me and I have had that for years. My name is Archibald and then at school it became itchy balls and then Scratch.

What is the best bike you have ever ridden?
I suppose some of the Super Bikes. When I rode for TAS the first couple of years at that time the Superbike was really good and would have been better than most of the bikes about. Then the one I was riding last year was a really good bike and I enjoyed riding in that.

Tell me an improvement you would like to see in racing.
Maybe sometimes some of the organisation is a bit poor. They seem to struggle getting the thing run smoothly and from a safety point of view they need to try and do as much as they can but really some days this messing about really pisses me off.

Adrian Archibald was speaking to