Mat Oxley

Mat Oxley has been a motorcycle journalist since 1981, covering the Grand Prix world championship full-time since 1988. He was a keen racer from 1979 to 1990, winning the Isle of Man 250 Production TT in 1985, establishing class lap records in 1985 and 1986. He also set 250 production lap records at Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Snetterton.

Oxley contested the World Endurance Championship from 1983 to 1990, taking second place in the 1984 Le Mans 24 hours and the 1984 and 1990 Spa-Francorchamps 24 hours. In 1986 he finished third in the WEC. He also contested five Suzuka Eight Hour races, scoring a best seventh-place finish in 1986.

In addition to writing GP reports and stories for a number of publications around the world, including Bike, Motor Sport, Performance Bikes, MCN, Roadracing World, Bike India, Classic Bike and AMCN, he was formerly editor of Performance Bikes and Moto Grand Prix magazine and has written several books, including acclaimed biographies of GP legends Valentino Rossi and Mick Doohan, An Age of Superheroes (a tribute to the golden age of 500 GP racing, 1988 to 1993, and Stealing Speed (a riveting account of the Ernst Degner affair of the 1960s) and a history of Honda’s Grand Prix activities. In 2001 he was nominated for a Royal Television Society award for his TV commentating work on Channel 5’s MotoGP programme.

Oxley is 56 years old and married, with two children. He lives in north London and is still a keen street rider.