Pat’s Venom

Seeing the picture of the late and great Pat Wise ( OBA 71, Norton 88) brought back happy memories. In the late ‘fifties I bought a Velocette Venom Clubman from Geoff Monty & Dudley Ward, famous racers and tuners, and was told that it was raced by Pat Wise who was well known for her exploits with Eric Oliver in that chair. Her old details were on the logbook as a previous owner – also Eric Oliver’s – so I got in touch with her and she invited me around to her and husband Les’ for a chat. On

arrival on the Velo I was made very welcome with lots of tales about racing. I left for home with two large packages of tuning parts for the Velo which I was told was tuned by Ray Petty. This bike I used very successfully in Production racing. My first race was at Silverstone and Pat and Les came along to advise on gearing and lines through the corners and set me on my way in racing.