THE OXLEY INTERVIEW
This month Mat talks to Clive Padgett, doyen of the TT pitlane.
Motorcycle racing paddocks are full of largerthan-life characters: muscled riders buzzing on adrenaline, megalomaniac team owners basking in reflected glory and bike-loving celebrities fooling themselves that they some how matter.
Clive Padgett isn’t one of them. The pale, slight Yorkshireman doesn’t stand out in a crowd, at all. He goes about his business quietly, humbly even, always in the background, fettling bikes, mentoring riders, bringing the whole show together. There’s no angle or artifice; just a man living his racing obsession 24/7 and loving every minute of it. ‘Honestly, I live to go motorbike racing,’ he says.
Padgett is best known for his work on the Isle of Man – where Padgett-prepared bikes have won so many TTS that he’s lost count – and for the part he plays in the family-owned motorcycle dealership in Batley, West Yorkshire.
What many people don’t know is that Padgett should’ve been the next Barry Sheene. He entered his first roadrace in 1976, aged 17, won the British 250cc championship the following summer and made his Grand Prix debut in 1978. By the end of that year Honda, Suzuki and others were chasing his signature on a factory contract.
There was little doubt Padgett was going to go all the way and those in the know were sure he had the skills to be a world champion.
He still remembers his first international meeting at Cadwell Park in April 1977, when he battled for the win with reigning
500cc world champion
Sheene, riding a factory RG500 alongside Suzuki team-mate Steve Parrish. Padgett rode an over-the-counter Yamaha TZ350. It was his 17th race meeting and his first weekend on slicks.
‘Barry thought he was on pole, but I’d won my heat with a faster time,’ says Padgett. ‘When we came to the final I rocked up on the grid to find Barry on pole, so I had to kind of elbow him out of the way. I finished the race just behind him and Parrish. On the podium Barry says to me, “You little wanker!” I said, “What’ve I done, mister? I’m sorry”. He says, “Me and Stavros had that all planned. We were going to tootle around and then decide who was going to win during the last couple of laps, but every time one of us popped our head up you passed us, you fuckin’ little wanker”.’
Three months later Padgett made his street-racing debut in the Southern 100. ‘I was leading the 250 race and this bloke comes past, so I follow him, finish second and get the newcomers award. I didn’t realise the bloke was Joey Dunlop – he’d won his TT three weeks earlier.’
The following spring Padgett contested his first GPS, travelling around Europe with girlfriend Sue and youngest brother Allen, who should’ve been at school.
‘My mum and dad weren’t with us because dad was building up the business, so there was two 19-year-olds and a 15-year-old driving all over Europe in a van and caravan. People like [three-times TT winner] Tom Herron used to take us under their wing, because we were so young. ‘I got my first GP points in Sweden that July, beating the reigning world champion Mario Lega and finishing behind John Ekerold and Tom. After the race Ekerold came over and said: “That’s a fantastic result,” because I hadn’t done many meetings.’
And then a few weeks later the dream was over, all in flash, as is often the way in motorcycle racing.
In August 1978 Padgett entered a street race at St Joris in Belgium to earn some extra cash. He was leading the 250 event on a soaking track when his TZ seized its engine.
‘People didn’t know how bad I was hurt. On the Tuesday Honda Japan rang, offering me factory bikes for 1979’
‘The rain was throwing it down, so I didn’t catch the seizure in time. I was in top gear, on this kilometre-long straight, out in the country, nothing around for miles. But I’m sliding down the road at a fair old rate and I can see I’m aiming for this big concrete thing, so I’m squirming around, trying to miss it. I hit it straight on, bust open my helmet, break all three bones in my right arm and I need 16 stitches in my head. It was my first crash that year.
‘That night the doctors wanted to take the arm off, because I’d broken the humerus, the ulna and the radius. I was in and out of consciousness, saying, “Sue, don’t let them take my arm off”. When I woke up I’d got my arm but it was paralysed, because the radial nerve had been cut.’
To add insult to injury, the phone started ringing a few days later. ‘People didn’t know how bad I was hurt. On the Tuesday Honda Japan rang, offering me factory bikes for 1979. A few weeks later Kawasaki offered factory bikes to team up with Kork Ballington [who won four 250 and 350cc world titles with Kawasaki], Suzuki offered factory bikes to be alongside Barry and Yamaha were interested too.’
Of course Padgett wasn’t finished yet. Over the next year or so he did everything he could to keep racing.
‘We tried Velcro on my right glove and the throttle, so I could work the throttle. Then we tried putting the throttle and the front brake on the left handlebar, with the clutch on the right. Then we tried two rear brake levers – one working the front brake, the other working the rear.’ Padgett started the 1980 season still hoping against hope. At the season-opening Cadwell meeting he finished seventh in the 250 race, some way behind the winner, his younger brother Gary.
‘The next week Big Mal Carter [dad to world speedway champ Kenny Carter and the man who helped Ron Haslam make it] comes into the shop and says, “You wanker, look at you! You’re fucking about in seventh place when you should have lapped the field. You want to get your leathers, hang them up and leave them there!” I needed someone to tell me that. So that was it, I packed it in. Racing was never going to be the same again because I simply could not use the front brake.