First Up for Ryan's Testimonial

NEWS Tuesday 12th April 2016, 5:47pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Ryan Fisher has named the first rider booked in for his Testimonial at Armadale on Friday 3rd June – it’s his Coventry and USA colleague Billy Janniro who last raced in the UK in 2008 but still competes in the States.

Ryan said “Of all the riders I want in my meeting, Billy is the no. 1 that I wanted to be there because we have been so close.

“Billy signed for Coventry the year before I did, and when I went there we stayed together for a while. We had also raced together when we were kids.”

Pressed on suggestions that they had a bit of a wild time in their early days in the UK, Ryan said “All the stories are true! We did enjoy ourselves.”

More seriously, he recalled the year that his friend just missed out on becoming a Grand Prix rider. “Billy was in great form and had reached the Grand Prix challenge which was at Poole, and in that year there were 8 qualifiers, whereas nowadays it is only 3. Billy was brilliant at Poole and I thought there was no way he wouldn’t qualify.

“I was mechanicking for him, and he had so much bad luck starting with a carburettor problem, and he didn’t make it. I was so disappointed, but he just shrugged his shoulders and said “Ah well.” I was more upset than he was! But he should have been a GP rider.

“I’m very pleased that he’s coming to my meeting and I think he will still be very good for the fans to watch.”