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B. R. Nicholls

JOHN HARTLE

TWENTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD John Hartle has been chosen to support Derek Minter in the Scuderia Duke attempt to win world honours in the 350 and 500 classics with Gilera machines this year. Yet Hartle did not even race last season for he was recovering from an arm injury received in September 1961. Newcomers to the sport might well ask “why pick Hartle?,” so let’s look at his career.

John started racing in 1953, having already worked as a mechanic to a road racing equipe. Two years later he was in the Norton works team and in 1956 gained third place in the Isle of Man Junior T.T. and followed this with a second place in the Senior leading the Norton trio to a team prize. He stayed as a Norton rider until joining the M.V. concern at the end of 1957. With them he was overshadowed by team leader John Surtees.

But riding only in the classics did not appeal to John so he left M.V. at the end of 1959 only to he recalled hv them to ride their bikes in the 1960 T.T. He readily accepted and won the Junior and finished second to Surtees in the Senior, positions which were reversed in the Ulster Grand Prix later that season when Hartle won on his Norton.

Since then he has been dogged by injuries but after a tryout at Oulton last October on the Güera, John spent the winter competing in trials on a 500cc Velocette to get himself one hundred percent fit for the 1963 season. With plenty of experience riding four-cylinder machines and a clean bill of health from the doctor, who better could Geoff Duke choose to ride in his team? •