The fantastic Mick Grant – Best of British
Nearly a world champion and one of our greatest racers of all time
‘My motivation was passing people. It was an insatiable desire’ ‘I worked 12 hours a day next to a furnace’
It’s easy to forget Mick Grant, 75, was a racing superstar. He’s so down-to-earth and approachable that you end up chatting to him like a mate down the pub rather than a TT and GP-winning hero who spent over a decade at the pinnacle of motorcycle racing. His record is astonishing, especially on the roads – seven TT wins on everything from Triumphs to Heron Suzukis, two Macau wins and the first ever lap of the North West 200 at over 120mph. But getting there was not easy.
“I bought a Velocette 500 to go to art college on – I was there because my parents wanted me to go and there was no light at the end of the tunnel. It was the loneliest place in the world. Then I did a couple of hill climbs on the Velocette and suddenly I’d got a direction. From that point my life changed completely.
“I needed money to race, so I left college and took some labouring jobs. I spent two years at WoodheadMunroe making springs – 12 hours a day next to a furnace with a white hot bar coming at me. One week was days, the next was nights. It was tough but the money let me do what I wanted to do. On Friday nights I’d go to work, finish at six in the morning and trailer the bike to Cadwell to do a club meeting.
“Jim Lee [the initials on Mick’s helmet throughout his career] asked me to work for him and said he’d build me some bikes to ride. The first one we made was in 1971 around a Goldstar engine that Jim had in his workshop. The first time out at a National I finished fourth against some proper racers – Peter Williams, for one. Then we made a 350 Yamaha which we had a lot of success with. “At that stage I just thought I was being very lucky. My motivation was passing people. It was an insatiable desire. But I’ve never been a natural rider. I’ve got a theory that if you’ve got 100% natural ability and 100% want, you could be a multiple world champion. I had 100% want and 85% ability. So what I achieved was about par for the course. Champions like Rossi, Agostini, Roberts, Read… they had 100% of each.
“When I went to a new circuit I’d go a few days early and do my homework learning the track in detail. People like Greg Hansford (10-time GP winner and Mick’s factory Kawasaki team-mate) would get out of the caravan on Thursday morning and say ‘Mick, which way does it go?’, and within three laps he’d be on the lap record. It’s so