Tinker brothers
Continental drifters
Suppose you were a budding privateer road racer in the mid-1950s and looking for your next ride. Easy: why not just write to the imperious Count Corrado Agusta in Italy and ask to buy two works replicas of his company’s first world championship-winning motorcycle? Of course he would say no. But what if you wrote to him again and he said yes?
Brothers Len and Neil Tinker from Warrnambool, Australia were the two lucky privateers in this unique and happy position. Slight of stature but strong and fit from years of manual labour, they were ideally suited to compete in the 125 and 250cc classes of the Continental Circus. The normal career path for Commonwealth riders usually led to a British 350 or 500cc production racer but the Tinkers took a different tack. Being smaller of build and having pockets full of cash meant they could afford a pair of jewel-like MV Agusta single-cylinder grand prix bikes, each of which cost more than half again as much as a Manx Norton.