Mark Hanna – Race Mechanic and Superbike Builder

Mark has a wealth of experience and contacts within the British Superbike Paddock having worked there since 1990. He has raced himself and ran his own racing spares business, so Mark knows the biking world from all angles.

1997 saw Mark working for Mike Edwards British Supersport Champion and then moving on to Lee Dickinson, former 250 Champion. The lure of Europe and the European Championship was next on Mark’s agenda, working for a Swedish rider and working on Ten Kate machinery.

Coming back to the UK, Mark started his stint with Honda, looking after Jim Moodie, John McGuinness and Steve Brogan. A move to Dienza performance followed with Bill Simpson and Ian Simpson, former Supersport Champion.
Dienza took on Ducatis in 2003, so Mark got his hands dirty prepping the Italian beauties.

His most significant career move came in 2004 when he joined Crescent Suzuki working for Yukio Kagayama and teaching him English swear words! This year he spannered for out going British Superbike Champions John Reynolds.

Road racing has also been part of Mark’s career working for Joey Dunlop, Richard Britton, Martin Finnegan, Iain Duffus and Jim Moodie.

Mark has worked on everything form RC45s, to factory Ducatis and Ten Kate machinery. He builds bikes because he is passionate about them and will build any race or road based bike that his customer wants. You can rest assured that it will all be to the highest standard, as Mark doesn’t do anything by half.

After working for JR in 05 I ended up working for Shakey in 06 which was great as I had worked for Shakey before in 99 on a Supersport bike with Rob Frost. So it was great to work with him again, It was Shakey's come back year from MotoGP.

In 07 brought CW back to Suzuki and I really enjoyed working for Chris that year , shame he didn't get a second year on the bike.

08 brought Atsu Watanabee from Japan, it was a very hard year for us on our side of the garage as he was struggling with the big move from Japan , new tracks , new language etc, now he has moved on to TAS Suzuki for 09 and I wish him all the best, top rider and top bloke.

For 09 we had to let the other side of the garage go as that bloody credit crunch really hit us hard as it has so many company's, I feel so lucky to still have a job in racing .

Anyway we have signed Sylvain Guintolli for this year and am really looking forward to working with him this year.

This year has also seen me being reunited with one of my all time favourite riders of my era, Mike the Spike Edwards, Mike will test my RMZ and further help develop it, we will contest the first round of the Thundersport championship and see how it goes but after that I don't know what will happen with the bike, no funds to do any more rounds unless we can find a sponsor to get involved with the project, otherwise I will sell the bike. Anyone interested in the project either get in touch with me Mark Hanna are else log on to Mike Edwards racing .net and follow diary on the whole project.

After joining us due to injury we had to replace Sylvan with M Rutter for a couple of rounds who did a awsome job for us, then we had the chance to give Tommy Hill a run out at Mallory park which he really impressed the whole team with his professional approach and his riding, which rewarded him with a full time ride this year, I am his full time mechanic for 2010, which is going great.

2010 turned out to be a very mixed year with Tommy, we started the year with pole positions race wins and many podiums, the bike was a great package last year and we had a top team, myself, Les , Jason and Stevo alll worked great together and Tommy was spot on to work with. We hit a few low's in the middle of the season but I put alot of down to the pressure Tommy put on himself as he was leading the championship for most of the season, I think every one was looking to Tommy to pulling the championship off, now that is alot of pressure on ones shoulders. to cut a long story short we had a great year battling at the front , had a couple of big crashes destroying a couple of bikes , the one bike rule this year made it very interesting viewing in the garage as we had a couple of hours to build a complete new bike. (PRESSURE) We went into the last round at Oulton leading the champioship by 30 points and came out the other side finishing 3rd in the championship to Kyo who was fantastic on the day. That is racing, alot of tears that day by the whole team.

Tommy has now sighned for Swan Yamaha on factory superbikes, I think he will be the one to watch this year. I have now left Crescent and started my own performance center, Road and Racing Performance with my friend Alan Cook, we offer dyno, all engine porting and tuning, suspension set up, etc . We will be running one supersport 600 kawasaki for Luke Stapleford and a superstock 600 with young Dan Kinloch from scotland also Kawasaki.

I have also been lucky to be offered a job with Honda in world endurance working with Steve Plater, Johny Mac and Kieth Amor, TT Legends the team is called , & rounds around the word so i am really looking forward to that.