Best of British: Nick Jefferies, the man who raced everything
Racing’s great all-rounder: TT winner, works trials ace and a Manx GP podium at 65!
Nick Jefferies is a racing polymath who’s climbed on 11 TT podiums (winning the Formula One race in 1993), won dozens of trials and represented Great Britain in enduros.
“I just couldn’t dedicate myself to one thing,” he says. “There was work at Allan Jefferies [the dealership started by his father], women, and then marriage and then kids, and trials and house building and racing… I’ve always had so much on and have never managed to dedicate myself to one thing. It’s a weakness. I look back and think I should have committed to the trials riding – like the Rathmells and Lampkins did. I had the ability but not the dedication. “After I led the Scottish Sixday [trial] in 1974, Sammy Miller signed me to ride a Honda. I said, ‘I’m racing at the Skerries 100 this weekend,’ and he said he didn’t want me racing bikes. I told him I’d set my heart on doing two things, Skerries and the Manx GP. He said: ‘You do those and nothing else.’ “I got Honda their first world championship points on that bike and won the Manx two-day trial so I did OK. But I got back from Skerries covered in scars and limping like mad because I’d been knocked off after I crossed the finishing line. Then I went and did the Manx and Sammy said ‘no more racing’. “So I dedicated myself to trials and came sixth in the world. I was going places. But stupidly I couldn’t resist the temptation of racing. I told Sammy I was doing the Manx two-day trial, but didn’t mention that I was also racing the Manx GP. I got away with it that year. But the next year I did it again and came third and he found out and sacked me. If I hadn’t got on the rostrum I might’ve got away with it.”
By 1987 Nick had a string of top 10 TT finishes to his name. “Then I rode a VFR750F that was in the showroom window the week before. I put some Goodridge hoses on it and took it to the Island. I did a 111mph lap and got a sixth. That year I beat Roger Burnett, Fogarty, Trevor Nation, Paul Iddon – all pretty good jockeys.”
Honda sat up and took notice, and in 1988 Nick was riding alongside Joey Dunlop, Steve Hislop and Roger Burnett on the new RC30. But he was left behind by Joey in the first race. “Ron Grant was my spannerman and he made me believe in myself. He convinced me I could keep up with Joey so when he passed me in the F1 race I followed him all the way over the Mountain and I got this euphoric feeling because he wasn’t pulling away.”
‘If I hadn’t got on the rostrum I might’ve got away with it’
‘I dedicated myself to trials and came sixth in the world’
It was an amazing ride: Joey won, Nick came second.
After a string of seconds and thirds, Nick finally won a TT in 1993 in the F1. Riding a factory RC30 (which he now owns), Nick beat Phillip McCallen into second, but Honda’s reward was the sack. “There were three RC45s allocated for the 1994 season. Joey got one, obviously, Hislop got one, and Phillip McCallen got the other, partly because he was fast and partly because he brought a lot of money with him. So I was sacked.” Nick continued racing at the TT until his superstar nephew David was killed there in 2003. “David was a magician on a bike. He was just amazing. From the age of 16 I had remained focused on bikes but when DJ lost his life I did one more race and took up golf.”
After 11 years he was tempted back by the offer of racing an MV at Goodwood. “That gave me the taste. Soon after, they launched the Classic TT so I bought an RC30 and came 12th. Then I bought an ER6 Kawasaki and finished third in the 2017 Manx, aged 65. That was 40 years after my first rostrum – there can’t be many people who’ve done that. I love the Manx but I thought ‘that’ll do me’. I was quite proud of myself and felt like I’d finally got it out of my system. I stick to classic trials on my Bantam these days…”