Hugh Anderson

HUGH ANDERSON

TOP MEN IN EUROPE:

B. R. Nicholls

WITH SECOND PLACE in the 50cc Dutch T.T behind his Suzuki teammate Ernst Degner, and a win in the 125cc event, Hugh Anderson went into a clear lead of the world championship tables for both classes. For this quiet-spoken, intent and likeable New Zealander it could not have happened at a more appropriate, meeting for early this year he married the Dutch nurse who tended him when he crashed at the same meeting last year.

Now thirty-two years old, Hugh comes from the North Island of New Zealand where he had a distinguished racing career before coming to Europe for the 1960 season. He had an inauspicious start, for he retired in both T.T. races but later gained a third in the 350 class of the Ulster Grand Prix. In 1961 he began to show real form, taking 350 and 500 classes of the Austrian Grand Prix and the junior of the Saar G.P., the start of his association with the Suzuki concern. This was at a time when their machines were plagued with teething troubles but where others fell by the wayside with frustration Hugh persevered, bringing a 250 model into tenth place in the Isle of Man.

But 1962 saw his best season, with a sixth in the junior T.T. and a good showing in the classics on the 125cc Suzuki, which culminated in the winning of the Argentine Grand Prix both in that class and the 50cc race. He then returned to New Zealand where he won many races before coming back to Europe for the 1963 season, contracted to ride works Suzuki machinery. Now he leads two world title chases, having already this season won five grands prix and also gained four second places. He is a rider in bang on form and richly deserves to clinch a crown that is already within grasp. •