Dave ‘Radar’ Cullen By, Trevor Hedge Kawasaki enters the 2007 Australian Superbike Championship season with a new man at the reigns. The technician tasked with bringing Kawasaki that long elusive Australian Superbike and Supersport success is Dave ‘Radar’ Cullen. The diminutive Queenslander brings to Team Green a pedigree unrivalled in the Australian Championship landscape. Like many of us, Radar first started messing around with motorbikes as a kid. Unlike most of us however his fascination was not just for riding. He quickly found that he derived a great deal of pleasure from tinkering with all things mechanical in order to try and make them perform better. Young Dave even managed to invent new ways of having fun, like installing marine outboard engines into pushbike frames along with some other wonderful contraptions. After finishing his schooling he moved on to a motor mechanic apprenticeship with an independent car garage in the Queensland coastal city of Mackay. While serving his apprenticeship Dave's spare time was taken up with a rapidly increasing interest in trail riding and motocross. After finishing his apprenticeship Radar moved across to the local Yamaha dealer and took up spannering on motorcycles rather than cars. It was also his first chance to start working in race preparation by helping out various racers the shop sponsored. The shop was then known as 'JG Yamaha'. Now it is run by the son of Radar's then employer and is known as 'Bullet Bikes'. Radar himself was also competing in motocross around that time. But an incident while mucking about on his dirtbike sent him over backwards, the resulting impact left him with a cracked vertebra and doctors told him to take an extended break from racing. Radar then decided on a change of pace and packed his bags for Europe. After purchasing a Transit van from Australia House in London Radar set out on a bit of an adventure. He had no firm plans but was looking to stay around 18 months and try his luck in Europe. He floated around the British Isles for a while and even ended up working with Mike Hailwood at the 1979 Isle of Man TT. This is where Dave earned the nickname 'Radar'. One of Hailwood’s team told Dave he looked like the M.A.S.H. character known as 'Radar'. Not because of a physical similarity but because Dave always had a clipboard under his arm, just like the TV show character. He was called Radar for the whole TT week. When Hailwood won the race he thanked his mechanics by name and referred to Dave as 'Radar'. The name has stuck ever since and continues to be the handle by which Dave is most commonly referred. Radar then set up his British base in Croydon, Surrey, not too far from Suzuki Great Britain HQ. After some prompting from a few people Radar approached Suzuki for a job. He had seen how race teams worked in the big league and thought that being a permanent mechanic looking after a racer would be a prime gig; in his words "I thought what an easy number that would be". Dave was soon to find out about late nights burning the midnight oil in a quest to give his racers the slightest competitive advantage. After his first meeting with Suzuki GB he was told that they might need mechanics for the next season, as the current season was drawing to a close. Radar lived close by and took every opportunity to drop in and pester them for a job. Eventually they gave in and offered him a position. Radar was soon working 'spare parts control' in the Suzuki Grand Prix squad. The team underwent a reshuffle for the next year with Barry Sheene moving across to Yamaha, while Suzuki signed Graeme Crosby and Randy Mamola. Jerry Burgess, the man who went on to help Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi to a run of Grand Prix World Championships was also in the team at the time, as was current day Honda Australia Victoria Territory Manager Mick Smith. Radar started working with Crosby and before the season started the pair had already taken on the Macau GP with a Kawasaki triple and had raced at Sandown. In 1982 Crosby left to join Marlboro Yamaha and Radar made the move to Yamaha with him. The other rider in the team was Graziano Rossi, father to current MotoGP star Valentino Rossi. The following year Eddie Lawson and Kenny Roberts (Snr.) were the team's riders. Radar was employed to work with Lawson but also ended up working with Roberts. Interestingly Radar names Roberts (Snr.) as the best rider he has ever worked with. 1984 saw Radar back at Suzuki Great Britain where this time around he returned to his motocross roots. The British Suzuki team competed all over Europe in a very busy schedule and it was during this period that Radar really started to learn the fine intricacies of motorcycle suspension. Ohlins were just starting to delve into road racing with a serious effort and Radar went out of his way to keep himself apprised of their progress and methods. But it was a lot longer than the originally envisaged 18 months away, and a touch of homesickness meant that Australia was calling. Radar returned home and took up a job with Matich Racing in Sydney. Here he looked after their road racers who rode Kawasakis and Suzukis along with a large contingent aboard FZ 750 Yamahas. Matich's lead rider was Richard Scott with Paul Feeney (current MV Agusta, Cagiva and Husqvarna importer) drafted in for the endurance events. The duo won the 6-hour in 1985. Richard Scott also wrapped up the Regina Series, the production category of the Swann Series. 1987 saw Radar return to Europe, this time with Honda GP. During this period back on the international circuit Radar worked mainly with Japanese riders. He also spent a year working with Mick Doohan in 1989. Soon though Radar was missing the Australian way of life and again returned home to Queensland. This time he took some time out of the racing scene and took to his first love, trail riding. 1991 saw a return to Europe to work with Robbie Phillis and Aaron Slight as part of Kawasaki’s effort in the fledgling World Superbike Championship.

The three Radar boys running up front, as usual
Baird leads here from Curtain and Coxhell, Jamie Stauffer also in shot