Your Letters

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MEMORIES OF A SIDECAR RACER

Dear Jeff, I was most interested in the article on the Noll/Cron sidecar racing partnership and their BMW based career. I was not aware that they kick started (no pun intended) BMW’s domination of motorcycle sidecar racing throughout the 60’s and 70’s, although as a racing sidecar passenger myself in the sixties I was fully aware that in the premier class a BM outfit was de rigueur if you wanted to stand any chance of winning. Not for nothing did the likes of Max Deubel and Fritz Schiedegger make sure they had BMW power under them when they took their many wins and championships. Even British ace Chris Vincent found his results took a leap forward when he obtained an ex-Florian Camathias Rennsport engine for his innovative kneeler outfit.

Like many racers of ‘chairs’ I started sidecar racing on grass - probably thinking it wouldn’t hurt so much if I fell off - what a foolish thought that was! I still have a dodgy ankle from landing on ‘soft’ grass. Grass track sidecars in my time were mostly in the unlimited class and the engine to have was a nine stud Triumph Bonneville which the star racers like John Chisnall and Derek Yorke, both multiple National champions, had. Everyone made their own outfits and different areas had either right or left hand chassis, i.e. which side the chair was fixed on. Essex and surrounding counties were right-handers whilst Kent was left. I always envied the Kent boys as their bikes looked more like road racing outfits with flat platforms for the passenger as opposed to the highly banked right hand chair. Being very impecunious we could not stretch to a Bonnie so instead had a bored out BSA, which nonetheless had enough speed to frighten you if you got it wrong. When we first built the outfit we used to take it over to the ex-WWII Hornchurch aerodrome, which has now disappeared under housing estates, but at that time it was merely disused and with long runways it was ideal for setting up the carburettors. Which, as we all ran Methanol, was simply a case of dumping as much fuel as possible down the inlet tract commensurate with not flooding the spark. The local residents were obviously not too pleased with us running flat out on straight unsilenced exhaust pipes so it became a balancing act to get it done and off before the fuzz arrived!

My first actual race meeting was scheduled to be at the Orsett Show which had racing as one of its attractions. Unfortunately we had gearbox trouble (why is it that pampered racing machinery always goes wrong on the day whereas the most uncared for road car will usually get you home) and because of this we missed all our entered races. My next event was at Braintree which was reckoned to be the longest and fastest track in the country where the speed on the straight could reach 100mph - quite fast enough on a reasonably bumpy farmer’s field!

This was the real eye-opener for me. I vividly recall sitting in the assembly area waiting to go out for practice with all the other bikes crowded round revving their engines, and while they all seemed so relaxed I was absolutely terrified and whilst trying very hard to look nonchalant, was inwardly praying that once again the bike would break and I wouldn’t actually have to go and do it. But as always with competition the marshals waved us all out and suddenly the fear was gone replaced by concentration and exhilaration. By the time we’d done our qualifying laps I was hooked! Although I never attained anything like the sort of success enjoyed by the guys above I nevertheless had five years of enjoyment from it.

I like your acknowledgement that sidecar racing is a team effort as so often the passenger is regarded as just that, and not a vital partner without whose input an outfit won’t even roll round a corner never mind race round one.

Thanks for jogging happy memories.

Kind regards, John Atkins

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