You know those moments when you later think “Why didn’t I do that?” Philip Ridley recounts one of those incidents in his life.
I lived in Toronto, Canada, for ten years throughout the 1970s. I was then and still am interested in motorcycle road racing, as is my brother, Ralph. Ralph went to live in Toronto before I arrived ‘in town’ and was already involved in motorcycle road racing with a degree of success.
He bought an ex-Mike Duff 350 cc aircooled Yamaha TR3 and raced with Canada’s ‘elite’ on tracks in southern Ontario, these being Harewood Acres (a disused airfield circuit), Shannonville, and Mosport Park, as that track was known at the time. It’s now known as Canadian Tire International Raceway. Mosport Park was the venue for the only FIM sanctioned round of the road racing world championship in Canada, this being in 1967. Several of the European top class riders were competing; Mike Hailwood, Agostini, Bill Ivy, Ralph Bryans, but others boycotted the event because of the disparity in start money and expenses being paid by the organisers.
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I’m digressing. One day we had a phone call from a motorcycle dealer, Ernie White of Ernie White Cycles, based in West Hill, Ontario. “Did Ralph want to ride my bikes at Daytona?” which was coming up in four weeks’ time, or thereabouts (early March), this being part of Daytona Speed Week. The main event was the Daytona 200 race, first race of the year in the AMA (American Motorcycle Association) road racing series.
Thanks, Ernie. Yamaha’s 250cc TD2 and a 350cc TR2 were loaded into a borrowed Ford Econoline van (the North American equivalent of a Ford Transit) and we were ‘Daytona bound’. A 500-mile slog, along with a couple of ‘hangers-on’, friends of another road racer, an Irishman named Mike Kavanagh, who was also competing in the amateur 350cc 100-mile event, as was Ralph. Mike’s claim was… “I was leading at the time”, which in most cases he wasn’t. Typical Irish blarney.
As a by the by, it’s worth noting that in the 1970s crossing the board from Canada to the United States, in our case from Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan, was straightforward. You just had to show a current driver’s licence or an envelope with a home address on it and “have a nice day, sir”, you’re on your way down Interstate 75 heading for the Florida sunshine.
It’s not the same nowadays. Showing a passport is a necessity. Illegal immigration and the terrorism threat is a major concern to the US border authorities. Donald Trump, too. I guess. One of the Ernie White Cycles team, one of the hangers-on, a man named Steve, was in just that situation – no identification, but he got across the border, no problem. What ID did he have on him, if any, I do not know. Maybe a supermarket till receipt.
I’m digressing (again). The Daytona 200-mile race was at the time a very prestigious event and drew in all the major motorcycle manufacturers from the USA (Harley-Davidson) and Japan. Honda Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki, and from England too, Triumph and BSA. All the top riders were competing, Cal Rayborn, Yvon Duhumel, Gary Nixon, Dick Mann, and others from North America, and Paul Smart, Percy Tait, Mike Hailwood from Britain, along with many sponsored privateers from America and Canada. So here we were racing early white-sponsored Yamaha’s, racing shoulders with creme de la creme and motorcycle racing.
Here’s the sad part. While Ralph was out practicing and qualifying on the Ernie White Cycles TR2 on the famous Daytona Speedway Bank circuit, I had a few quiet moments in the paddock soaking up the Florida sunshine, much appreciated after the cold snowy weather in Toronto, when who should come along and sit on the paddock wall, but Mike Hailwood, not more than 15 feet away from where I was. Mike didn’t have the adulation
that he had in Europe and Japan and was sitting quite alone. He was riding a 750 BSA and was taking a break from qualifying.
“Cripes, it’s Mike,” I said to myself, but I was just too shy to go and say hello and shake his hand, one Englishman to another, and ask him how things were shaping up with the BSA team at Daytona. I’m sure Mike would appreciate a little chat, but that didn’t happen. As I mentioned, I was just too shy, an opportunity missed for sure.
In the event Mike retired the BSA with a holed piston (this being in 1971) on the forty-first lap of a fifty-two lap race. Coincidentally a retirement too for Mike the previous year, again riding a BSA. Some years later, closer to home, at the Mallory Park Festival of 1000 Bikes meeting organised by the Vintage Motor Cycle Club, spectators had the opportunity to meet former star riders like Dave Croxford, ‘Kork’ Ballington, Mick Grant, Phil Read, Carl Fogarty, John Cooper (who could forget the ’71 Race of the Year) and others. Phil Read was in the paddock area and was patting his chest and thighs, trying to find a light for a cigarette which he had between his teeth. “Here, Phil, use my lighter,” says I, which he did! My claim to fame, I let Phil Read use my cigarette lighter.
On another occasion, again at Mallory Park, Giacomo Agostino was handing out signed photos of himself (naturally!). No people crowding him, I was passing by and sort of held out my hand and in popped a signed photo of Ago, many times world motorcycle champion in 350cc and 500cc classes.
It was a privilege to have known these world class motorcycle racers, if only from a distance, many of whom are no longer with us. For me, a privilege indeed. But not going to say hello to Mike Haailwood at Daytona… An opportunity missed.
About the Ernie White Cycles racing team. A stalled engine and a fouled spark plug of a start line put an end to any hope of a win in the amateur 100-mile race. In the event, Ralph finished the race as a mid-field finisher in a race of eighty riders.
In the 250cc race, to use the politician’s bluff when confronted with an awkward question that they didn’t really want to answer (supposed memory loss), “I really can’t recall” the result!
Original article appeared in Old Bike Mart. To subscribe, click here: https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/old-bike-mart
