Rob McElnea (born 12 December 1959) is a British former professional motorcycle

road racer Road racing is a form of motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held either on a closed circuit or on a street circuit utilizing temporarily closed public roads. Originally, road races were held almost entirely on publ ...

. At the peak of his career he raced six seasons in the MotoGP, then named 500cc Grand Prix Championship. He also competed for five years in the World Superbike Championship and became British Superbike Champion in 1990. McElnea went on to run the very successful Rob Mac Racing team in the British Superbike Championship for over a decade until 2011.

Motorcycle racing career

Having won the Senior

Manx Grand Prix The Manx Grand Prix motorcycle races are held on the Isle of Man TT Course (or 'Snaefell Mountain Course, Mountain Circuit') every year for a two-week period, usually spanning the end of August and early September. New for 2022 is a period re ...

in 1980, his TT wins followed in 1983 and 1984, and he won a round of the TT Formula 1 World Championship in 1983, finishing second to Joey Dunlop in the season final standings. He competed for six seasons in

500cc Grand Prix ''500cc Grand Prix'' is a motorcycle racing game developed by Microïds which was released in 1987 on multiple platforms including the Amstrad CPC, Microsoft DOS, the Commodore 64 and the Atari ST (where it was one of the first French-made games ...

- for

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Suzuki, Marlboro Yamaha, Pepsi Suzuki and Cabin Honda. Despite finishing fourth eight times, luck went against him and he never quite secured a podium result. He then finished 5th overall in the Superbike World Championship in , for Loctite Yamaha. Rob then moved back to domestic competition, winning the British 750cc/ TT F1 championship in 1991 with the same team. His career was ended by injury in 1993. McElnea then ran the Virgin Mobile Yamaha team in the British Superbike Championship. With

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sponsorship in the 1990s and rider Niall Mackenzie, the team won three successive championships, 1996-1998. They have been less successful in the 21st century, although

Steve Plater Steve Plater (born 22 August 1968, in Luton) is a former English motorcycle road racer. He was the 2009 British Supersport champion, and also finished as runner-up in the series twice in the late 1990s. In the British Superbike Championship h ...

James Haydon James Richard Barnaby Haydon (born 2 November 1973 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire), is a British former motorcycle racer. He raced in 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix, MotoGP, British Superbike and the World Superbike Championship. He retired in 2008. ...

and Tommy Hill have won British Superbike races for them. For

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they ran Karl Harris. McElnea also ran the Virgin Mobile Cup series with the prize of a berth in his Superbike Team for upcoming riders and, from 2007, a British Supersport Championship team. At the end of the 2011 season McElnea retired his team who were one of the longest standing Superbike teams in the British Superbike Championship.

Grand Prix career statistics

Points system from 1969 to 1987: Points system from 1988 to 1992: ( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McElnea, Rob 1959 births Living people People from Yorkshire and the Humber English motorcycle racers Superbike World Championship riders 500cc World Championship riders Isle of Man TT riders