Late News From England
LATE NEWS FROM ENGLAND
B. R. NICHOLLS
ROAD RACING is now in full swing and 1962 looks like a real vintage year—the best, in fact, since the tragedy of 1957 when we last heard the sound of the Gilera four and the fabulous Guzzi V8. The last named machine was such a powerful device that at certain parts of the Isle of Man course it was necessary to shut off to prevent lifting the front wheel where other machines were being accelerated to the maximum. Handling, however, lacked a little something and it was not raced long enough to develop into the winner we thought it would be. But, that is digressing . . . That geometric monstrosity, the sidecar, has been given a lot of thought during the winter months and the kneeling driving position is obviously
thought by the riders to be the solution to a little extra speed. Some are also mounting the engine on a slant (one competitor has even mounted his Triumph motor horizontally), but at last we are moving away from the basic idea of a motorcycle and a sidecar. And the man who has made the biggest step of all is the Swiss ace Fritz Scheidegger. Second in last year’s sidecar world championship title, the machine he has built for 1962 shows just how determined he is to gain the crown in 1962. From ground level to the highest point of th'e fairing is thirty inches, and to assist in reaching this alltime low the B.M.W. has been converted from wet to dry sump lubrication and a very light space frame built from aircraft tubing.
On the solo front there has been a lot of talk about style in racing and the most controversial at the moment is that of New Zealander Hugh Anderson, member of the Suzuki works team and currently riding the works A.J.S. and Matchless machines. Few would deny that Geoff Duke was the most classic stylist of all time, for when he raced there was a complete blending of man and machine, but when John Surtees started racing the M.V. he developed a Cossack style when cornering — sitting toward the inside of a bend; now a knee out is becoming more popular, with Anderson the most exaggerated of them all as the accompanying photograph shows. But surely it is wrong aerodynamically? The greatest problem in cornering with a racing motorcycle is the back wheel stepping out or sliding — putting the inside knee out must create a drag that would tend to do just that. In theory, when taking a left hander the right knee should go out to push the back into the bend.
While he was at Thruxton, Bob McIntyre was racing the 285cc Honda at Oulton Park. Fully repaired after its crash at Mallory, Bob was again out of luck when he got a flat tire on the last of nineteen laps letting in Alan Shepherd to win on his A.J.S. So it was not until the following weekend at Mallory Park that, third time lucky, the overbored Honda scored its first victory. A pity Hailwood was not there with the M.V. so that a comparison between that and the Honda could have been made. But Mike was on the continent in preparation for the Austrian Grand Prix where, although he won the 50()cc race, his 350 M.V. was beaten into second place by the works Jawa ridden by Frantiszek Stastny.
Undoubtedly the Czechs have been working hard on the twin-cylinder machine during the winter and Stastny is a very good rider but few would give him much chance against Mike on the Italian fire engine. But the truth of the matter is that the 350 M.V. has been badly neglected from the development side and a couple of years back at the Ulster Grand Prix Alan Shepherd on an A.J.S. was challenging Surtees for race leadership when he retired with a broken timing chain — the year was 1960 and Shepherd set a lap record — the M.V. equipe were so shattered by this time that they had the A.J.S. measured to ensure it was a 350. Surtees seemed disgusted by the Italian’s attitude. Shepherd amused by the compliment and everybody happy when the size was confirmed at under 350cc.
Bianchi must be kicking themselves for they have remained silent about plans for racing in 1962. That leaves Honda and Jawa to fight it out for the 350cc title for I expect the M.V. now to disappear from the scene before the end of the season. This would leave the 500cc model in charge of its class and likely to stay that way for a year or two yet, thus keeping the name of M.V. in the public eye without spending time and trouble on development at a time when most of the concern’s resources are being used on the production of helicopters. If the ride of Stastny at the Austrian meeting was a minor sensation then that of Italian Silvio Grassetti on the Benelli four cylinder 250cc machine at Cesenatico was nothing short of stupendous, for after crashing during the race, he beat both Phillis and Redman to win his class and set a record lap for good measure. The Japanese
concern is now really organized with Reg Armstrong, the 1952 Senior T.T. winner, as team manager for what might be thought a miniature United Nations for the riders under his control are Bob McIntyre (Scotland), Tom Phillis (Australian), Jim Redman (Rhodesia), Tommy Robb (Ireland), Luigi Tanei (Switzerland) and of course the Japanese riders. Phillis will not be allowed to ride the Norton machine this year as his contract precludes him from riding anything but Honda machines. Tommy Robb, a recent signing, is an excellent all rounder and will be especially valuable in the 50cc class. An obvious choice for a team man as he could be relied upon to hang around to see what was happening to the leaders in the event of strong opposition. Also a Honda machine winning in Irish events will be good publicity and part of what seems a systematic campaign to have Honda winning all over the world, which is the way to sell machines. Works rider Teisuke Tanaka contested the Singapore meeting to win the 125 and 250 classes and then the Malaysia Grand Prix on his 250cc machine. Hero of this meeting however was British airman Chis Conn, who flew from England with his 500 Norton to contest the event but collapsed from heat exhaustion with nine laps of the big race to go. But not before he had won the 500cc race the previous day and then during the big race lost four laps with clutch trouble but fought back to fourth place, setting up a lap record in the process.
Whilst all this road racing has been going on Sammy Miller, the ace bogwheeler, was realising his ambition in winning the most exacting reliability trial of all — the Scottish Six Days. Second was last year's winner Gordon Jackson who, riding his A.J.S., lost eighteen marks, ten more than Miller on his special Ariel machine. These two were way ahead of everyone, the third best man being a virtual unknown Mick Ransom riding a Villiers powered 250cc Francis Barnett, who lost 29.
On the Moto Cross front B.S.A. continues to lead the 250 Championship with Lampkin out front with 25 points. Smith is joint second with Swedish Torsten Hallman who, riding a Husqvarna, won the French round to take his total to 18 points. •
