Kevin Magee

Kevin Bernard Magee (born 16 July 1962 in Horsham, Victoria) is an Australian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer who raced in 36 grands prix during his career, winning the 1988 Spanish Grand Prix. He is currently a television commentator for Fox Sports Australia.

Career

Early career Magee's career began with production and Superbike racing, at home in Australia and also in Japan. He gained early notice racing the Bob Brown Ducati in Australian Superbike races and then joined Mike Dowson at the Warren Willing-managed Yamaha Dealer Team to race the then premier Production race series as well as the growing Superbike series. In 1986, he gained international attention when he and Dowson scored a second place in the Suzuka 8 Hours Formula One race on a lower-spec Superbike. His Grand Prix debut was delayed after he broke his leg crashing at the Arai 500 race at Bathurst when, leading by a clear margin, he was confused by his pitboards and thought another rider was closing in on him. At the end of year, Magee was given the opportunity to ride a Yamaha factory Grand Prix bike and distinguished himself by winning two of the six races.

Grand Prix In 1987, Magee got his break in the 500cc world championship with three wildcard appearance on the Kenny Roberts Yamaha team. Crashing in the opening Japanese Grand Prix, he earned a point in the rain-affected Dutch TT before scoring an impressive third place in his third ever Grand Prix at the Portuguese Grand Prix round. Having teamed up with Martin Wimmer to win the 1987 Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race, and having also won the 1987 round of the now-defunct Formula 1 motorcycle championship at Sugo, he became the only rider to stand on the podium of three different World Championships in a calendar year.

Magee (left), battling with Alessandro Valesi at the 1989 British Grand Prix.

In 1988, Magee was awarded Randy Mamola's place in the Kenny Roberts team, competing as teammate to Wayne Rainey for the next two seasons. He also returned to the Suzuka 8 Hours race, teaming with Wayne Rainey to claim another win.

Magee won his first Grand Prix at the 1988 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix at Jarama and the future looked bright for the young rider. However, at the 1989 United States motorcycle Grand Prix, he was involved in a terrible crash with Bubba Shobert on the cool off lap after the race, wherein Shobert drove into the back of Magee's motorcycle. Magee stopped his motorcycle in the middle of the track and performed a rear-wheel "burnout", presumably due to frustration that dwindling fuel had cost him third place in the race. The wreck occurred while Shobert was congratulating racer Eddie Lawson and it ended Shobert's career. Ironically, Magee would crash at the same spot during the 1990 race, suffering head injuries that put him out for the season. In 1991, he appeared a couple of times for Suzuki and once for Team Roberts, along with another wildcard Grand Prix appearance in 1993.

Magee also entered a few Superbike World Championship races, winning twice at his home race at Phillip Island in 1991 and 1992. He also raced in the AMA Superbike series in 1994, for the American Honda team before announcing his retirement. Magee was never able to capture the early brilliance of his career after his accident with Shobert.

Post Racing Magee is still a familiar face with Australian motorcycle-racing fans in his position as co-commentator on Australian Grand Prix and Superbike telecasts on Australia's largest Pay-TV provider Foxtel teaming with Warren Smith on Fox Sports. He is also an occasional tester and writer for Two Wheels magazine. In 2020, he appeared in the documentary movie Dark Rider, as navigator for the blind motorcycle rider Ben Felten, setting the world speed record for a blind rider.

Family On 27 April 2002, Kevin's 19-year-old nephew Liam Magee, the son of his older brother Peter, was racing in the Australian Superbike Championship when he was killed in practice for the round at the Mallala Motorsport Park in South Australia. The younger Magee crashed at turn 4 (the kink, on the back straight) his bike slid off the track into the concrete retaining wall located only a short distance from the track and he died at the scene, the bike reportedly travelling at over 100 km/h at the time of impact. The concrete wall Liam Magee hit had replaced an old tyre wall in 1998 in an effort to provide more grandstand seating for the circuit.

Motorcycle Grand Prix results Source:

Points system from 1969 to 1987: Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Points 15 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 Points system from 1988 to 1992: Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Points 20 17 15 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Points system from 1993 onwards: Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Points 25 20 16 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Class Team Machine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Points Rank Wins 1987 500cc Roberts-Yamaha YZR500 JPNNC ESP- GER- NAT- AUT- YUG- NED10 FRA- GBR- SWE- CZE- RSM- POR3 BRA- ARG- 11 15th 0 1988 500cc Lucky Strike Roberts-Yamaha YZR500 JPN7 USANC ESP1 EXP3 NAT5 GER5 AUT6 NED4 BEL5 YUG5 FRA9 GBR5 SWE6 CZENC BRA6 138 5th 1 1989 500cc Lucky Strike Roberts-Yamaha YZR500 JPN5 AUS4 USA4 ESPINJ NATINJ GER7 AUT5 YUG4 NED4 BEL7 FRA5 GBR6 SWE5 CZE7 BRA6 138.5 5th 0 1990 500cc Lucky Strike-Suzuki RGV500 JPN4 USANC ESPINJ NATINJ GERINJ AUTINJ YUGINJ NEDINJ BELINJ FRAINJ GBRINJ SWEINJ CZEINJ HUNINJ AUSINJ 13 21st 0 1991 500cc Team Lucky Strike Suzuki Suzuki RGV500 JPN13 AUS11 USA- ESP- ITA- GER- AUT- EUR- NED- FRA- GBR- RSM- CZE- VDM- MAL5 19 19th 0 1993 500cc Nihontelecom RT Yamaha YZR500 AUS- MAL- JPN9 ESP- AUT- GER- NED- EUR- RSM- GBR- CZE- ITA- USA- FIM- 7 25th 0

Suzuka 8 Hours results Year Team Co-Rider Bike Pos 1987 Shiseido Tech 21 Racing Team Kevin Magee Martin Wimmer Yamaha YZF750 1st 1988 Team Lucky Strike Roberts Kevin Magee Wayne Rainey Yamaha YZF750 1st