Gilera Four Returns

GILERA FOUR RETURNS

B. R. NICHOLLS

THE INTERNATIONAL Hutchinson Hundred is renowned for the high standard of racing which it always seems to produce. This year’s meeting was no exception and a great crowd of over twenty thousand was there to see two 500cc Gilera four-cylinder machines being raced for the first time since 1957. These Scuderia Duke entries were in the hands of Derek Minter and John Hartle but if anyone thought the race was to be a walkover for these two they were mistaken.

The meeting opened with a 350cc race for the lesser lights of the racing world and the winner was Bob MacGregor, a man who impressed last year with his brilliant riding of a BSA Gold Star. Now Manx Norton mounted, he will be a name to watch during the coming season. A similar 500cc race was won by Rex Butcher (Norton). Florian Camathias (BMW) was the only double winner of the day. winning both the sidecar scratch races, the feature of which was the return of Pip Harris (BMW) who, after a season off through injury, was making his comeback. h was impressive for he was second in the first race and then held the same spot in the second race until six hundred yards from the flag when his sidecar wheel completely collapsed which let

world champion Max Deubel (BMW) into the second berth. Third in both races was Colin Seeley who produces fantastic displays with his G50 Matchless outfit.

The production racers of Ralph Bryans and Tommy Robb were no match for the E.M.C. of Rex Avery who scored an easy win in the 125cc class. Mike Hailwood was in dazzling form on his AJS, winning the 350 race with ease but what a ding dong of a battle raged behind him for second place. Those involved in the fabulous dice that had the spectators on tip toe were Derek Minier (Norton), Phil Read (Norton), Paddy Driver (AJS) and Mike Duff (AJS).

Then came the race that everyone had gone to Silverstone to see, the 500s with Gilera out again in competitive racing, undeveloped for five years, with the best Norton and Matchless machinery and riders in the world against them. Minier, a notoriously slow starter on his Nortons, was almost as bad on the Gilera but moved to the front after two of the eighteen laps, by which time Hartle had moved up to third. It looked as if he would have to stay there, for Phil Read riding a Steve Lancefield-tuned Norton was riding superbly to keep him at bay. Then with half the race gone Hartle moved ahead only to be displaced on the next lap. So it went on with first one in front and then the other. Read riding brilliantly and Hartle having to fight tooth and nail against the single-cylinder runner to eventually get a slight edge and stay in front. So hard did Read push Hartle that John and Derek Minter both set fastest lap at 99.41 mph. The cold and very blustery conditions were not ideal for racing so the Minter/Hartle record of 101.51 mph set up on Nortons remained intact.

With the crowd drifting homeward, the last race of the day started for the 250s. Hailwood on the John Surtees Ducati had a bad start, as he had done in the 500 race, but was in second place by the third lap. However, the leader Jim Redman on his Honda four responded to pit signals and never let Mike get near him. Taking his second third place of the day was Ralph Bryans, a nineteen-year-old Ulsterman riding a single-cylinder Benelli who looks like maintaining the strong traditions that this part of Ireland has always had with road racing.

The most coveted award of the meeting is the Mellano Trophy which goes to the rider whose race speed is nearest to or furthest in excess of the existing lap record. This award was started in 1925 and no rider has yet managed to requisite three wins in a row which would make it his own property. This year Jim Redman won it for his ride in the 250 race, so becoming the third rider to win it twice in succession, the other two being Cecil Sandford and Mike Hailwood. And in some ways Mike was responsible for Jim winning it again for without Mike pressing, albeit from some distance back, then Redman would not have broken the record. •