6 replies to this topic

[GD66]

Hi all, chasing info/details/pics of Ron Grant's formative race years in the UK before he emigrated to the States.

 

Not much falls readily to the eye, I did spot his DNF in the 1961 Senior Manx Grand Prix, and that he rode a Geoff Dodkin Velo in the 1961 Thruxton 500 with Keith Payne....thought I recalled an old pic of him on a Norton at Druids.

 

Ring any bells, gents ?

 

Regards GD

[Russell Burrows]

Hi all, chasing info/details/pics of Ron Grant's formative race years in the UK before he emigrated to the States.

 

Not much falls readily to the eye, I did spot his DNF in the 1961 Senior Manx Grand Prix, and that he rode a Geoff Dodkin Velo in the 1961 Thruxton 500 with Keith Payne....thought I recalled an old pic of him on a Norton at Druids.

 

Ring any bells, gents ?

 

Regards GD

Are you writing something, Glenn ? I can't add anything on Ron 'Im afraid.  It's stating the bleedin obvious, but blokes who were around in the fifties/early sixties such as Ken German, Joe Dunphy et al might be able to help. 

[GD66]

Not me Russell, there are a couple of compadres in NZ stitching something together, said I would have a poke around for them as TNF has been repeatedly amazing over the years with what comes up.

 

Cheers for the tip, will pass the names on : I think I have spotted Joe on fb.

[StanN]

Glenn, I checked back through the UK programmes I have, that go back to 1960 and found a couple of entries for Ron at Thruxton on 18 April, where he was entered in the non-experts senior race and he finished 4^th in his heat but didn’t finish in the top 6 in the final, won by Dave Degens. He was entered on a 598 Norton so it must have been a Dominator based bike. He was also entered in the 1 August event in the same class but the results only listed the winner of each heat and the first 6 in the final and Ron’s name does not appear.

I checked the other programmes I have for 1960 for other tracks and couldn’t find an entry for Ron but I am sure he must have raced at other events that year. The programme entry lists show he was from East Croydon, in south London, so Brands would have been his local track if he could get an entry there, which was always difficult until one had been racing for a while.

In 1961 I found entries for Crystal Palace, Brands and Snetterton, the first one being Brands on 31 March where he now had a 499cc Norton, presumably a Manx. He finished 8^th in the 500cc race in front of Tom Thorpe, Ginger Payne, Ron Langston and Tony Godfrey.

The next entry I could find was 2 April at Snetterton on the Manx but he did not appear in the results so must have been a DNS or DNF. He entered Crystal Palace on 3 April but I have no results for that race. The next result I can find is 22 May at Brands where he finished 3^rd in the 500cc race behind Fred Neville and Joe Dunphy and 2nd in the 1000cc race behind Joe Dunphy on the 499cc Norton. This was from the book “Racing Lines” by Bob Guntrip.

Next was 9 July at Brands where he entered a 348cc Norton as well as the 500. He was not in the first 12 in the 350cc race, won by Phil Read with Mike Hailwood in 4^th place nor in the first 12 in the 500cc race, won by Derek Minter from Read and John Hartle.

Next entry I can find is 30 July at Snetterton, entered on the 500cc Norton, but he does not appear in the results so must have been a DNS or DNF.

Following this was an entry for Crystal Palace on 7 Aug on both 350 and 500 bikes but he was a DNS in both classes.

The last entry I can find for 1961 was on 8 Oct at Brands on the 500. He finished 7^th in the 500cc race, won by Minter from Read and Hailwood.

I checked my 1962 programmes but could find no entries for him and then found on the interweb that he left the UK for the States in 62 so probably did not race that year in the UK. So it would appear he was fairly quick on the Manx and had good finishes at Brands in 1961 considering the competition in the classes he was running in. The entry lists was a who’s who of the racing world at the time, apart from those mentioned this also included riders like Hugh Anderson, Mike Duff, Paddy Driver and many others of a similar calibre.

I see you say you have information about this Stateside racing but I should mention he raced in both 63 and 64 US FIM Grands Prix on a 250cc Parilla, finishing in 63 and placing 2^nd to Alan Shepherd in 64 in the poorly supported world championship event. I can only assume he continued racing in the States during the 60s as he also entered the 1967 Canadian GP at Mosport on a Suzuki in the 250 race and a Honda in the 500 race. He finished 6^th in the 250 race behind Hailwood on the Honda 6, Read on the Yamaha 4, Bryans on a 6 and Du Hamel and Camillieri on Yamaha twins. He did not finish in the top 6 in the wet, cold and miserable 500 race won by Hailwood from Agostini and Duff. Not sure if he finished the race or not.

Stan

[GD66]

Wonderful, many thanks for your patient legwork, Stan. I kept race programmes for many years but after moving them every time I moved house I eventually fired them out, knowing I would never need such info ever again, and have regretted doing so nearly every week since !

 

Anyway that particular info is very sparse, so I have passed it on to the gentlemen concerned. Again, thanks for taking the time. Gotta love TNF !

[StanN]

I was “gifted”a bunch of Brit MCNs from the late 50s to the mid 60s a while ago, but there are only a couple of 60 and 61 editions. On checking these I found a report of the Brands Yuletide meeting on 27 Dec, 1960. This was an invitation only meeting that included a couple of 1000cc races.

The report said that at dawn the track was covered in thick, white frost and the marshals drove round in cars to try and break it up before resorting to salt and brooms! Despite that there were many riders who slid off in practice but the sun did come up and the conditions improved before racing started.

Although Ron wasn’t mentioned in the body of the report he was listed as finishing 5^th in the second 1000cc race, the last race of the day over 15 laps of the short circuit, after the sun had started to go down. Several of the front runners did retire from the race because of sliding off, oil leaks or even running out of petrol but the race was won by Dan Shorey from Fred Neville and Phil Read. Ron finished in front of Dave Degens, Ron Langston and John Hartle in the results that went down to 8^th place.

Bit more info. about Ron.

Stan

[knickerbrook]

Mid-sixties MCN's - look after them, you've got gold dust there !