Carluke’s Paul Bowerbank on track for motorcyle glory

Paul, of Old Lanark Road, has recorded eight race victories out of 15 in this season’s Scottish Motorcycle Championships at Knockhill Racing Circuit to become national champion by a mammoth 40 points in the Pre-injection 600cc class.

“I had spent a good bit of time and money refurbishing the bike the previous winter and this certainly paid off as I won the championship by miles,” Paul said.

“I found competing in all the races to be exhilarating and really good fun.

“Although I didn’t really appreciate ‘The Power’ nickname, it was probably appropriate as people kept asking me if I was doing so well because I was riding a bike with a 750cc engine!

“Being Scottish champion is great because it’s something I’ve been aspiring to do for the past three years, having finished second and fourth respectively in 2010 and 2011.”

Such are the demands of his day job as a self employed mobile plant engineer – he regularly works 12 or 13-hour shifts – Paul didn’t indulge in overly-strenuous celebrations after becoming national champ.

After securing the Scottish title, he instead produced a victory celebration that was, quite literally, smoking!

“I burned one of my bike’s tyres to celebrate,” he said.

“That has become one of my trademarks.

“I just put the brake on and spun the back wheel until the tyre started smoking. The smoke then billowed out pretty quickly, which was a great sight.”

Paul’s 600cc rivals for the most part couldn’t live with him in a 2012 campaign in which he finished in the top two of every race he completed.

The only blots on his racing copybook were two non-finishes and one crash.

Paul’s overwhelming dominance this season means that he is set to step up to a higher grade of competition in the next campaign.

“I will hopefully move up to racing at superstock level at Knockhill next year,” he said.

“That will present a new and exciting challenge for me, with a better standard of competitor to cope with and 30 bikes in races as opposed to the 20 of last season.

“My bike will be a lot newer and my lap times should be down by two or three seconds as I’ll be reaching speeds of up to 150mph.

“One drawback is that it will be more expensive for me to race.

“I reckon it will cost me £8000 to get a second-hand superstock bike ready for next season.”

Paul, who has been racing motorbikes for the past five years, was last season sponsored by AG Transport of Braidwood.