Solo racer
That he was a world champion on three wheels is well documented, but Eric Oliver was also a more-than-decent solo competitor, too.
Although not sporting his familiar, trademark moustache, it clearly is the same Eric Oliver who was to claim the inaugural GP world sidecar racing championship in 1949, a title he added to with further successes in 1951, 1953 and 1954, all on Norton outfits.
Indeed, his first win– when 600cc outfits were allowed – was on a prewar example, passengered by the intrepid Denis Jenkinson, who a few years later enjoyed more success, whenhe partnered Stirling Moss to Mille Miglia victory in their Mercedes.
Though he enjoyed his greatest success when he’d switched to three wheels, it was on two Oliver first sought fame and fortune.
Born in April 1911, in Crowborough, Sussex, Oliver made his TT debut in 1937, retiring a 500cc Vincent-HRD Comet in the Senior TT. Hewas back in 1938, with Norton entries for the Junior and Senior races, but, alas, he retired both times, before switching to Velocette for the 1939 TT.
That he was fairly well thought of is evidenced by the fact he had a new Mk.VIII KTT at his disposal– which is the machine hhe’s pictured with here. For the 1939 Junior race, the new Velocette was absolutely the machine to have, giving privater runners a real chance. They were also overwhelmingly the most popular choice for the 350cc race, though a few entrants had to do with the Mk.VII version. Last year’s model, this was similar to the Mk.VIII except for one, crucial difference – while the Mk.VII (like many other machines in the race) had a rigid frame, only the Mk.VIII KTTs
(and the works Velocette versions) had swinging arm (as opposed to plunger) rear suspension.
The performance of the Velos in the Junior TT is extremely impressive; of the 35 finishers listed, 24 of the mare Velocettes, the majority being Mk.VIIIs. Winner was Stanley Woods on the works bike – featuring a lower bottom gear than the ‘customer’ machines, incidentally – narrowly a head of Harold Daniell on the works Norton (Stanley thought he had more in hand and eased off, nearly disastrously) and Hans Fleischmann onn the DKW two-stroke. Fourth was Ted Mellors, on the second works Velo, ahead of Dave Whitworth, on the first Mk.VIII,
Whitworth’s entrant being the self-same Ted Mellors he followed home.
Oliver finished 17th, at 76.24mph, then later in the week he pressed the same 350cc Velocette into service for the Senior. Hewas not alone in choosing touse his ‘350’ in the blue riband event; of 30 finishers, nine were on Junior eligible motorcycles – in fact, the machines they’d used in the Junior race – in the Senior. Best of them was Whitworth again, this time 12th, with Oliver once more 17th, following home like-mounted Harold Lamacraft, on KTT engine number 818, sold by Bonhams in 2018. Oliver’s machine, the one he is on here, was engine number 824; the majority of KTT engine numbers 813 to 836were at that year’s TT, plus a few earlier numbers.
Post-Second World War, Oliver was back at the first (1947) TT, recording an impressive ninth on his Junior Norton, then in 1948, with a 350cc Mk.VIII KTT, a best-ever eighth in the Junior and 10th in the Senior.
His last solo appearances at the TT were in 1949, 21st on a Junior Velocette – though from then on his concentration was focussed on sidecars, which had no Isle of Man race, until 1954. Oliver claimed his one TT win that year (the first Sidecar TT since 1925 and held on the shorter – 10.79 mile– Clypse Course), though perhaps his most famous (certainly memorable) attempt was in 1958 on a ‘standard’ Norton Dominator with roadgoing Watsonian Monaco sidecar. With Mrs Pat Wise in the chair, 10thplace was a notable achievement, and did no harm in terms of publicity for its entrant – Eric Oliver Motor Cycles Ltd, opened when he’d retired at the endof the 1954 racing season.
Spurred on by his achievement, Oliver was backwith a ‘pukka’ racer in 1959, for a closed-roads lap on an outfit to see if sidecars could cope with the Mountain Course. The verdict was they could; in 1960, the Sidecar TT was on the Mountain Course. Alas, a practice crash– when a bolt in the forks sheared – left Oliver with his back broken in two places and with that he called it a day.
In the 1970s, hewas back, campaigning a Norton outfit in vintage racing with gusto, before, in March 1980, his untimely death, aged just 68, from a stroke.