Easter In England
Easter in England
B. R. NICHOLLS
A FOUR DAY HOLIDAY FEAST for the spectator can mean a very good time watching racing but for the competitor faced with possibly three meetings it can turn into a nightmare trying to find time to fettle the raceware overnight between meetings. However, all usually goes well and we get a first class helping of motor cycle road racing. Trials, scrambles, grass tracks and hill climbs all get their share but pride of place must go to the road racing with the plum being the first, held on Good Friday at Brands Hatch. We were promised the first MV vs. Gilera clash since 1957 and this brought over 60,000 spectators to the circuit to see Derek Minter (Gilera) and Mike Hailwood (MV) battle. But it was not to be.
The first race of the day was for 350cc machines and it produced a wonderful scrap over ten laps between Phil Read (Norton), Mike Duff (AJS), Derek Minter (Norton) and Mike Hailwood (AJS). Then on the last lap Hailwood fell when leading Minter only four hundred yards from the finish. So close was Minter that his fairing struck Hailwood and sent Minter onto the grass verge but he stayed aboard to win the race. With Hailwood lying motionless by the track ambulance men rushed to his aid and the spectators stood silent, fearing for the safety of Mike and bemoaning the fact that the race they had come to see would obviously not take place, for the crash had occurred at something in the region of one hundred miles an hour. Then a mighty cheer from the crowd as Hailwood stood up and was helped into the ambulance — he had a severe shaking and a damaged wrist, the full extent of which would not be known for a couple of weeks. Even without Hailwood the sparks flew in the big race of the day for Minter recorded the first-ever over ninety miles an hour lap at Brands by a motorcycle.
Brands Hatch competitors had a day off to get to the International meeting at Snetterton on the Sunday. Strongest overseas contingent came from Sweden and to them went the honours for the day. For the first time ever a Swedish rider >Vas to win a road race in England. The man Sven Olaf Gunnarsson and the race the 500cc final — the big race of the day — for the Molyslip Trophy. Twenty-eight-yearold Sven is a car salesman from Gothenburg and he showed scintillating form in his heat though beaten into third place by Dave Degens and Mike Duff, both Matchless mounted. But by the time the final came it was raining cats and dogs with the track awash in places. Revelling in these difficult conditions Sven got a beautiful start on his Torsten Argaardtuned five-speed Norton and was never headed during the race.
Winner of both sidecar races was Florian Camathias (BMW) who rides with his chair English-style on the left. He beat world champion Max Deubel in the 500cc race and just got the better of Bill Boddice (650cc Norton) in the 1200cc event held in pouring rain. Canadian Mike Duff (AJS) won the 350cc race after a scrap with Selwyn Griffiths, also Ajay-mounted. Griffiths had not done anything particularly outstanding before this race so it remains to be seen whether it was a solitary inspired performance by the Welshman. Smiles all around in the pits though, for during practice Duff's sponsor, Tom Arter, had been helping Griffiths sort out a carburetion problem. Irishman Tommy Robb on his works production Honda won the 125cc race as he had done at Brands Hatch whilst fourth and fifth places went to Bultaco-mounted Swedish riders Carlsson and Hogberg. To complete a truly international event the 50cc race was won by Englishman Dave Simmonds on his Tohatsu, whilst New Zealander "Ginger" Molloy had his first European victory when he won the 250 race on his 196cc Bultaco. Molloy has been racing for ten years in New Zealand and plans to do the Continental Circus this year with his Bultaco and a 7R AJS and G50 Matchless. He should do well.
Easter Monday saw the Gileras out again at Oulton Park in the second International meeting of the weekend. Minter and Hartle both broke the 500cc lap record with Minter finally setting a new figure at 91.86 mph. Tommy Robb got the better of Steve Murray in a 125cc production Honda battle that gave the Irishman three wins in three outings. The new five-speed Aermacchis are remarkably rapid for a pushrod motor and it was with one of these models that Brian Clark won at Oulton and Brands and took second spot at Snetterton — success richly deserved by a trier who has not had all the luck. But you just cannot keep the name Minter out of things and he was leading Clark at Brands on the Cotton Telstar when it cooked a plug.
To my mind the battle of the weekend was the Oulton Park sidecar race which Pip Harris won, beating Max Deubel; both on BMWs. Whilst Deubel was handicapped to a certain extent by the continental right-hand chair, Harris rode brilliantly and showed that in the 500cc class he has no British equal and will give the continentals something to think about in 1963. Also run on Easter Monday was the Commonwealth Trophy meeting at Thruxton and here Mike Duff swept the board, winning the big race of the day.
For scramblers the big meeting was the Hants Grand National held on Friday and made all the more important this year by the first appearance of the new BSA challenger for the 500cc .World Moto Cross Championship. This is a unit construction machine of 420cc being much lighter than the old 500cc Gold Star. Ridden by Jeff Smith it won the first race and finished second in the next, thereby gaining first place on final classification. Jeff was chased hard and, indeed, led in the second race by Don Rickman (Matchless Metisse) so no doubt the search for more power will go on at BSA to produce a world beater.
Last but not least, the trials men had their day of fun in the West Country contesting the annual Beggars Roost trial. It produced two new winners for the event with Mick Dismore of the James team gaining his first-ever national win, whilst in the sidecar class Alec Wright and John Gazely continued on the winning road with their 246cc Greeves sidecar outfit, beating last year's winner Ken Kendall by two marks. The margin in the solo classes was even narrower, with Dismore winning by one mark from last year's winner Malcolm Davis (246 Greeves).
