Keith and Geoff
Congratulations on your Keith Campbell feature in OBA 69. John Surtees described Keith as a conventional stylist type of rider who was a good goer who did not make a habit of crashing. He also said Keith was killed in a very unfortunate accident. My understanding is following the accident the FIM made a ruling that in international meetings the sidecar race had to be run last on the program to prevent excess oil and rubber being deposited on corners which they believe caused Keith’s crash. Regards the V8 Guzzi, a lot of work had been done at the end of 1956 on both the crankshaft and weight distribution to improve handling. The testing was done by Bill Lomas, who was to ride the bike in 1957. He said in his book that engine reliability and handling had been vastly improved, but unfortunately injuries prevented him from riding the V8 in 1957. He said Keith’s retirement in the 1957 Belgium GP was caused by broken wire to the battery not a crank failure.
Certainly Guzzi treated their riders the best, followed by Gilera with MV trailing a long way behind. MV were incredibly arrogant and reneged on an agreement made with Guzzi and Gilera to abandon racing in 1958. There is no doubt that the 1957 350cc Guzzi was the greatest single cylinder racing motorcycle ever produced. Keith’s results in 1958 proved what a great rider he was. He split the MVs at the Belgium 500cc GP in 1958 in his last meeting before Cadours. Of course the British motorcycle press gave little credit for these results. In the same issue of your fine mag is reference to New Zealand’s Geoff Perry. I have been an enthusiastic follower of road racing for nearly 60 years and I can say that no other NZ rider exhibited the huge potential to go to the top of the sport that Geoff did. Not only was he stunningly fast, he had common sense as well. All the people who were associated with him agree with this and he is spoken of in the highest terms by those who knew him, even today some 44 years after his death. In the picture of Geoff on page 16 on the fairing of the bike are the words Lawton and Boyle; behind every great racer there are people in the background. Lawton and Boyle were the Wellington Suzuki agents. Dick Lawton ran the service department and was a truly great tuner. He was known for tuning 4 stroke engines but had the ability to turn his hand to 2 strokes as well. On the Suzukis he used to remove the metal from the inside of the cylinders and alter ports and put in additional ports if required, then cover his work up with a mixture of araldite and aluminium filings which were mixed up in a big pot. Like a lot of tuners Dick did not suffer fools lightly but he had great admiration for Geoff because of his mechanical sympathy. In 1972 Geoff rode a factory TR500 at Daytona, however he took a Lawton engine with him. In practice he found the Lawton engine quicker than the factory engine and it was this engine he used in the race, retiring on the last lap with a broken chain while leading. Rod Coleman who sponsored a lot of racing and riders said the greatest project he was involved with were the Roberts framed TR 500s and the best rider was Geoff Perry. Ross Charlton New Zealand