Paul Myler motoring to more racing success

With 12 titles to his name over 17 years, the 52-year-old, from Telford, admits it’s hard to walk away from the motorsport he loves.

In fact, he recently returned to the crazy world of ‘Plop Endurance’ racing – as the meeting is called – suffering tyre punctures and other mechanical problems to finish 48th out of 100 starters at Mallory Park.

But in the club racing world he is still one of the best and regularly finishes in the top 10 in the Open class, at Tonfanau, which is the toughest of the lot.

This year he is racing two motorbikes, his Suzuki GSXR 1000 in the open class, which he has already enjoyed two seventh place finishes on. He is also racing another GSXR 1000, this one from 1986, in the Forgotten Era, in which he had two fourths and a third place finish.

“I have club racing for 17 years and during that time I have won 12 championships,” he said. “That’s two on Mini Twin bikes and 10 on Forgotten Era superbikes.

“The championships include eight at Tonfanau, one at the Wirral 100 and one at the Nantwich and District, which has since folded.”

Motorbike racing does not run in Myler’s family – in fact threats from his father convinced him to take the plunge and try circuit racing.

“When I was a kid my dad said to me if I ever got a motorbike he would smash it up,” he said. “It’s the worst thing he could ever have said because I haven’t been without one since I was 13.

“There are a few occasions when I thought about retiring and it would save me a lot of money.

“But it’s my hobby, it’s like a drug and there’s nothing that can replace the adrenaline rush of racing motorbikes.”

Myler, who runs his own removals company in Dawley in his spare time, has been around bike ever since he was a teenager.

He has been chairman of the Bug Splat Motorbike club in Telford, since 2001, and also obtained his national road racing licence, working his way up to Chief Motorcycle Instructor. He also tried his hand at road racing between 2004 and 2005 over in Northern Ireland, competing in the likes of Tanagree. But after seeing some bad accidents on the roads he decided to take a step back – but never forgets those who have been injured or worse.

He also has time to enjoy the lighter side of motorbike racing, which is where the Honda 90 comes into play.

“Motorbikes is the passion – everything else is a pain in the backside,” he said.

“This year I will run a full season in at Tonfanau and I also have team running in the endurance race, where a team will be running a Honda 90.

“The first round was at Mallory Park, on May 6, and there were about 100 teams taking part, which was massive.

“We started 30th, got to 25th, had a puncture, lost 20 laps, dropped to 87th, and finished 48th. The other races are at Anglesey and the final round in Ireland.

“I’ll also doing a few round at Aintree this year, which is a track within the horse racing course. I want to dedicate my race season to Paul Brooks this year too, who had a bad accident in Broseley, and my thoughts will be with his family.”