Sidecar drivers and passengers are a breed apart! I still remember my first ever visit to Oulton Park. I must have been maybe 14-15 and a gang of us pushbiked to the circuit and jumped the wall to get in for nowt
we just got settled down at the hairpin when the chariots where let loose! They hurtled around the banked hairpin two abreast at what seemed like 200mph! One passenger who was wearing baseball boots
had his foot trapped between the rear of his outfit and the front of the one behind and his foot was smoking! Next lap he came round in second place and the sole of his baseball boot hit me squarely in the face
Two laps later he was in the lead and they won the race. As he come round for the lap of honour I jumped the fence and presented him with boot sole, the look on his face was brilliant. From that day on all I wanted to do was race bikes (not sidecars mind you
)
There was a Swiss guy who used to race in the GP’s which included the Isle of Man and all the big scary continental circuits like Spa etc called Florian Camathius who wore glasses like pop bottle bottoms he later admitted his vision was VERY poor
There rubbish them Jap bikes lad they won't last five minutes! you want to get yourself a nice Royal Enfield!
A quote from my old dad
I started out with nothing and I’ve got most of it left!
Owen Greenwood was the Guy,