Bold new Chinese Racing bid unveiled

Haojue had conceived a plan to go racing at the highest level in the 125 class, with the 125 road class being the mainstay of Chinese motorcycle sales, and was contemplating ways of joining the sport in line with its market status.

At the same time, John Surtees and Garry Taylor had decided that with their respective skills, they were able to offer elite racing expertise, and were seeking a Chinese factory with just such an interest. “We were looking for a company in China that wanted to promote itself internationally through racing, and to take advantage of the short-circuit we could offer with shared technology,” said Taylor.

Their respective needs coincided perfectly. Haojue and the English faction agreed firstly that they had no interest in racing except to become fully competitive. Haojue did not want to take an easy short-cut, simply leasing complete machines from another manufacturer as is often the case – several of the manufacturers who have been at the forefront of racing in recent years are essentially running rebadged Aprilias. Haojue was clear from the outset that it wanted a fully original project that would develop and demonstrate the company’s dedication to new technology and progress.

Gary Taylor

While Surtees is extraordinarily well connected, Taylor has been a professional MotoGP team manager for three decades, presiding over two world MotoGP title-winning efforts. Most importantly, he is well versed in the key aspects of marketing and sponsorship in addition to current knowledge of running an elite championship team.

Taylor filled the role of team and general manager for the Suzuki factory from the 1970s until 2004, becoming the longest-serving team manager in MotoGP. Taylor’s first work in GP racing was as a marketing consultant to Suzuki GB in the 1970s. There he was part of the publicity revolution surrounding Barry Sheene, racing’s first true global superstar. With a co-ordinated publicity effort leveraging Sheene’s racetrack exploits, extrovert personality and supermodel girlfriend (subsequently wife), Sheene became a household name world-wide. Taylor’s commercial nouse was pivotal in bringing some of the biggest-name sponsors to the Suzuki team included Pepsi, Rizla, Skoal Bandit, Lucky Strike and Telefónica MoviStar.

After retirement as team manager, Taylor found the lure of racing too strong to resist, and remained involved behind the scenes at the highest commercial levels of the sport. Taylor has been involved with the Maxtra project from the inception, and has agreed to lend his expertise to the team for the next three years.

The man who runs the company owns the company

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