Only just learned that Nobby Clark has passed away. The Rhodesian - legendary chief mechanic to Gary Hocking, Mike Hailwood, Jim Redman, Luigi Taveri, Ralph Bryans, Rodney Gould, Kent Andersson, Kenny Roberts, Hydeo Kanaya and Giacomo Agostini - has ended his race in a rehabilitation centre in Pawling. He was 81 years old.He contributed to the winning of 17 world titles, across all classes from 50 to 500, three Daytona 200s, one Daytona 100, four Imola 200 miles and eight Italian championships.Nobby began his career in 1958, with Gary Hocking and in 1960 he was hired along with the MV Agusta rider with whom he won 350 and 500 titles in 1961.Gary was my hero as a lad. I was born in '58 and have long associations with Rhodesia. Nobby was a master.
When I retired from racing I became a journalist. Mike Hailwood kindly gave me the opportunity of interviewing him and gave me photos from his own personal collection to be published with the story. One photo was taken at Le Mans with Mike chatting to Hollywood actor Steve McQueen. Mike also kindly wrote the foreword to the bigraphy "No Time To Lose" the book on Bill Ivy which I had the great privilege of writing as a very inexperienced journalist! R.I.P. According to the promise in The Bible in John 5; 28, 29 means Resurrection In Paradise. We will meet again, Mike, Bill and many of old racing mates who have "gone under the chequered flag!" Happy Trails Ahead Alan Peck 🐴
Spot on mate in every way his lad took many of his qualities his looks too, for the amount of races Mike won specially the TT he was an extremely modest down to earth very approachable man n this is the sign of a truly Great man
I was there too, and so were my biker friends, from the Manx Radio live broadcast, it became obvious that Read couldn't match Mike Hailwood;s pace and after two laps some friends up at the 2nd. Mountain Box, saw read coming towards the end of the mountain mile, ( where there were very few spectators ) and they heard his engine scream, and shortly afterwards he pulled out of the race. Most of us thought that he would rather drop out with engine trouble, than face the humiliation of being on the podium second or third against. Mike.
Maybe you should just do it anyway. Many great channels exist without sponsorship. There's also Payteon now. How about crowd funding? Many options. Biking is big business. If you're god at what you do you will attract backing. Go for it mate. I used to own an as agency. I can spot a good idea at a glance. Yours is a great idea. PM me at moderatefkr@gmail.com if you want to chat about this. I'm not touting for business, I'm retired from that game.
I appreciate the kind words. I will pass them along to my partners. I'm afraid, though, that the Retro Moto ship has sailed. Other horizons these days; many from the seat of my bikes.