Where Are They Now?

Well, having found this site I'm whiling away my jet lagged hours on it & enjoying hours of nostalgia. I found the thread "Gone But Not Forgotten" & although poignant to remember those great names & to hear that they are no longer with us, it brought many great memories of the 1970s/1980s flooding back with some wonderful pictures. Then I got to thinking about the guys who are - hopefully - still with us: what are they up to now. I'll throw a few names into the hat & would be really interested to hear what became of them & where they are. Chris Guy, Steve Manship, Clive Horton, Asa Moyce, Dick Greasley, Jon Ekerold, Toni Mang, Trevor Ireson & Clive Pollington, Alan Pacey, Graham Wood, Dave Aldana, Gene Romero, Mike Baldwin, Dennis Ireland, Roger Marshall, Barry Ditchburn, Mick Boddice, et al.

Well, having found this site I'm whiling away my jet lagged hours on it & enjoying hours of nostalgia. I found the thread "Gone But Not Forgotten" & although poignant to remember those great names & to hear that they are no longer with us, it brought many great memories of the 1970s/1980s flooding back with some wonderful pictures. Then I got to thinking about the guys who are - hopefully - still with us: what are they up to now. I'll throw a few names into the hat & would be really interested to hear what became of them & where they are. Chris Guy, Steve Manship, Clive Horton, Asa Moyce, Dick Greasley, Jon Ekerold, Toni Mang, Trevor Ireson & Clive Pollington, Alan Pacey, Graham Wood, Dave Aldana, Gene Romero, Mike Baldwin, Dennis Ireland, Roger Marshall, Barry Ditchburn, Mick Boddice, et al.

Only know of the following: Jon Ekerold is in Germany, wrote an excellent book "The Privateer" about his racing life. Barry Ditchburn emigrated to Australia, did some sidecar racing there with some success I believe, one of the Antipodeon contributors should know more. Dave Aldana is still alive and kicking, he won a bunch of AHRMA dirt track championships in 2012.

Dennis Ireland is living back in Dunedin.

Chris Guy , Clive Horton and Mick Boddice are all ' friends ' of mine on facebook and are all in good order

Chris living in Rowai , Thailand


Roger Marshall presented the awards at the CMRC dinner the season before last

Edited by fil2.8, 18 March 2013 - 06:56.

Only know of the following: Jon Ekerold is in Germany, wrote an excellent book "The Privateer" about his racing life. Barry Ditchburn emigrated to Australia, did some sidecar racing there with some success I believe, one of the Antipodeon contributors should know more. Dave Aldana is still alive and kicking, he won a bunch of AHRMA dirt track championships in 2012.

Barry Ditchburn won the Australian sidecar championship about 20 years ago .He still does a bit on solos and helps his son with his own Yamaha 3 Bill Lawrence

Ditch up the hill at Wanneroo on the 500-3, historic nationals 2008

Ditch up the hill at Wanneroo on the 500-3, historic nationals 2008

Is that the bike he rode for Ted Broad in the 70's?

Roger Marshall is back in his old home village and does a bit with the BSB organisors in a technical role.

Dennis Ireland is living back in Dunedin.

....where he owns a business called SPV selling bikes but also various professional ( "special purpose" ) vehicles. I'm not sure if it's him pictured aboard the ZX6R on the compant's website but it may well be - see link : http://www.spv.co.nz/index.php

Is that the bike he rode for Ted Broad in the 70's?

Don't think so Robin, the two bikes (one each for him and his son Craig) have Seeley chassis but no doubt the engine configuration is the same as the Broad bike, although knowing Ditch, further developed. As an aside, the chair he won the Australian title on was a TZ750 in a Ford-Dunn chassis, then he built an historic chair with a Harley engine for fun racing, and sort of entered classic racing through the side door.
Ditch's son Craig was a successful junior track cyclist, some years ago I was spectating at a title meeting at a velodrome in Perth and thinking, "Jeez this bloke alongside me's a dead ringer for Barry Ditchburn !", then the riders for the sprint were introduced, including the Victorian junior champ Craig Ditchburn, and the light came on... Craig is a pretty good racer in his own right and the two of them have had many a scrap for the lead in the P4 500 class on the two triples, great stuff.

Not too many years ago Steve Manship did some plumbing work for my niece in Leicester, my niece rang to ask if I'd heard of him and was he famous, she was well surprised when I told her.
Greg

Edited by greg1953, 19 March 2013 - 16:33.

Only know of the following: Jon Ekerold is in Germany, wrote an excellent book "The Privateer" about his racing life. Barry Ditchburn emigrated to Australia, did some sidecar racing there with some success I believe, one of the Antipodeon contributors should know more. Dave Aldana is still alive and kicking, he won a bunch of AHRMA dirt track championships in 2012.

Talking about former racers and their off spring, shortly after I bought "the Privateer" I sent an email to Jon Ekerold's email address which appears in the book. To cut a long story short, he emailed me back, and in answer to my question as to what he was up to these days, he informed me he runs a motocross team for his sons, one of whom is pretty decent it appears. He finished 3rd in the FIM junior world championship a couple of years ago and Jon sent me this picture of him (on the right) which I'm sure he won't mind me sharing with you.

Chris living in Rowai , Thailand

Spelt Rawai in Phuket Thailand, about 40 min from where I live and I recently found out that Mike Dowson spends 6 months of the year living about 10 doors up from me in Phuket and I believe Steve Ellis lives in Pattaya Thailand.

Edited by Hasselhoff, 19 March 2013 - 23:26.