Gordon Blakeway – the star all rounder

Attempting success in several disciplines can dilute a rider’s performance to the point where a lot of fun but little success is gained... nobody told Gordon Blakeway that theory though.

Born in Stockton-on-tees in 1935, Gordon Blakeway was one of that rare breed of true motorcycling allrounders. He was equally at home keeping his feet firmly on the pegs while cleaning a tricky section in the Scottish Highlands, winning gold medals in the International Six Days Trial, or riding to victory at a championship scramble.

A self-effacing and modest man, the former Ariel, Triumph and AMC works rider is not one to brag about his achievements. But just a glance at any results from the long-faded pages of the Blue Un or Green Un between 1952 and the end of 1966 will see the name of Blakeway sharing column space and accolades with his rivals and team-mates Sammy Miller, Ron Langston, Ken Heanes, John Giles and Roy Peplow.

In the history of off-road sport there can be few competitors who won their first trial – and even less who managed to land a works scrambler before they had ridden in a race. But back in the 1950s it all happened to the young Yorkshire man – a lad who was born with motorcycling in his blood. Gordon takes up the story...

“My dad was a founder member of the Stockton-on-tees club and competed in all of the local trials, so from an early age bikes were part of my life. On reaching 16 I bought myself a second-hand 125cc BSA Bantam which I rode to compete in the Stockton club’s Linfoot Cup Trial for my first competitive event. I can remember that the Bantam was absolutely gutless and wouldn’t pull your hat off but my dad kept encouraging me to keep moving and when the results appeared I was amazed to see I’d won the novice award.”

To show that his win was no fluke, a month later Gordon competed in the Weardale trial, which he won outright. Still on the gallant little BSA, in March 1952 he sampled his first national – the Travers – but was excluded for finishing outside the time allowance in this super tough event.

With a change to a more competitive 197cc James, Blakeway started the 1953 season in fine style when he pipped Gordon Mclaughlan for the premier award in the Middlesbrough Winter trial and later that year he finished a creditable 18th out of only 29 finishers in one of the trials world’s most arduous events, the Scott.

Keen to expand his riding horizons, May 1954 saw the youngster make his debut in the Scottish highlands. But after a promising start he was forced to retire when the little two-stroke developed gearbox problems.

In major trials the big four-strokes still ruled the roost and by the end of the 1954/55 season Gordon had abandoned the lightweight James in favour of a 500cc BSA Gold Star. It didn’t take him long to adapt his riding style to the heavy Goldie and on this machine he notched his first major win when representing Yorkshire in the 1956 inter centre team trial where he achieved best individual performance.

Gordon’s impressive victory caught the eye of one of the sporting motorcycle world’s great talent spotters – Ralph Venables – and for the 1957 season he was signed to ride a works Ariel HT Single, alongside Ron Langston and Ulsterman Sammy Miller; he takes up the story again...

“Ariel’s old guard of Bob Ray and David Tye had decided to call it a day,” said Gordon, “and thanks to a recommendation from Ralph Venables – he knew all of the important and influential people in the British industry – I was approached by Ernie Smith and invited to join the works trials team.”

Needless to say, it didn’t take long for him to make up his mind and he was allocated the factory HT5 wearing the numberplate GOV 131. With Langston on 130 and Miller on the now legendary GOV 132, Ariel carried all before it and in 1958 was virtually invincible winning no fewer than eight team prizes in the

important trade supported trials.

Although he’d been signed to ride the works bike in one and six days trials it didn’t take Gordon long to show his talent at speed events. In only his second season scrambling, he grabbed the local centre’s motocross championship and won the first of his four ISDT gold medals in the mud at GarmischPartenkirchen.

“When I signed as a works rider they paid me a £50 retainer – good money in 1957 – and on top of that I received all of my travelling expenses plus bonuses from the plug and chain companies.”

The power delivery of the HT Ariel was ideally suited to the slippery rocks found in the Wye Valley national trial and it proved to be one of Gordon’s favourites as he scooped the premier award three years on the trot. However, by the end of 1959 the ailing Selly Oak factory abandoned the manufacture of its competition machines in order to concentrate on the Ariel Leader. The new decade saw the Yorkshire market gardener mounted on a 199cc Triumph Tiger Cub. He took to the little Cub like a ‘duck to water’ and for the next three seasons there were scores of important trials where Blakeway and the little Triumph featured in the results. Not just in the UK – by now he was spreading his wings to the continent. A typical weekend in November 1960 saw him finish runner-up to fellow Yorkshire man Bill Wilkinson in the British Experts on the Saturday; then he loaded up and headed off to France where he won the tough International St Cucufa trial near Paris on the Sunday.

The Cub was also ideally suited to the rocks in the Scottish and after finishing a close fourth in 1961 he looked to be going one place higher the following year. Sadly, however, after six hard days battling with Miller and Gordon Jackson, the Triumph man was thwarted, when a mere 10 miles from the finish the distributor seized, leaving the hapless rider kicking his heels at the roadside.

At the start of his career as a works Triumph trials rider he was still scrambling his old Selly Oak single. Although there had been no development to the big four-stroke with Blakeway in the saddle it was still seriously competitive. After some stunning performances in his home centre he was appointed captain for the 1960 North versus South scramble and justified that honour by being top scorer on the big Ariel. This in turn prompted Henry Vale to supply him with one of the works 500cc scramblers, which, as he recalled, led to some successful and memorable trips to the continent.

“Living in the north of England meant that just getting to Dover to catch the ferry was a trip of around 300 miles – a long day’s drive in the pre-motorway days – and I covered countless thousands of miles in my Morris Oxford pick-up. I especially loved racing in France as the meetings always attracted huge enthusiastic crowds, there were some terrific circuits and the organisers always paid some decent start and prize money.”

The combination of skills Gordon had honed competing in both trials and scrambles were ideally suited to the long distance endurance speed events like the Welsh – which he won two years on the trot – the three day Tatra in Poland and the ISDT. The strength sapping International became one of his all time favourites and the event centred on Llandrindod Wells in 1961 saw the works Triumph man at his scintillating best. As a member of the Silver Vase team he powered the 500cc twin to a glorious gold medal winning ride through the Welsh mud

I especially loved racing in France, there were some terrific circuits and the organisers always paid some decent start and prize money.

Gordon Blakeway

and in doing so accumulated the highest amount of bonus points obtained by any British competitor. Triumph was quick to capitalise on his stunning ride, with several full page adverts in the weekly Blue Un and Green Un, but 12 months later as a member of the British Trophy team, a poorly prepared, uncompetitive machine led to retirement in West Germany.

“It was Triumph’s policy to allocate bikes of 350, 500 and 650cc to all of its works riders for the six days and for the 1963 trial in Garmisch I was allocated the smallest of the twins. As I’d discovered in the Welsh three day, the little 350 had to be ridden virtually flat out to keep to a gold medal time schedule, but the engine in the bike for the International was absolutely gutless; the overall gearing was too high – after nursing it for five days I eventually had to retire on the last day when the clutch burnt out. Needless to say, I was less than pleased to be supplied with a sub standard machine and after a harsh exchange of words with Henry Vale it was the end of my days as a Triumph works rider.”

However, as one door closed another quickly opened for the talented Yorkshire all-rounder; for the 1962/63 winter season he found himself a member of the AMC factory team.

“Gordon Jackson had decided to retire at the end of 1962 so I was approached by Hugh Viney and asked to take over the vacant place in the works team on the AJS – 187 BLF – which Jackson rode in the Scottish with his famous ‘one dab’ victory in 1961. It was certainly very different to the lightweight Tiger Cub I’d been riding for the last three years but I eventually got to grips with it and registered my first win in a Yorkshire open to centre event.”

In May it was time for the annual trip to Scotland and, on the bike, which had won the event two years earlier, Gordon ran in the top 10 all week. Along with Mick Andrews and Gordon Mclaughlin he was part of the AJS trio that scooped the prestigious team award that year. After a season scrambling the works 500cc Matchless – remembered as not his most favourite machine – autumn saw the Yorkshire all-rounder off on his travels behind the Iron Curtain. But both the Tatra in Poland and the International Six Days in Czechoslovakia ended in frustrating retirements on the factory Ajay.

“For those of us who had been brought up in the West travelling into and through the Soviet controlled countries in Eastern Europe was a real eye-opener. We quickly discovered all of the media was controlled by the state and the average person had little idea of what was going on in the world outside the Eastern bloc.

“Nearly all of the buildings were grey and although the people were keen to talk to us and find out a little about our lives they told us that every move was monitored and police informers were everywhere.

“The Tatra trial itself was extremely well organised with soldiers at all of the road junctions making sure we didn’t deviate off the route but it was also extremely hard going and on the second day my AJS developed engine problems and I had to pull out.”

With the engine gremlins sorted, Gordon and the same AJS were chosen to represent the British Trophy team for the 1963 ISDT in Czechoslovakia; a super tough event which in an interview Sammy Miller was quoted as saying ‘that parts of the course would do justice to a national one day trial’.

After their heroic efforts the previous year, the British Trophy team were optimistic they would be able to challenge the East Germans on their quick and ultra reliable MZS, but sadly their hopes were dashed early on day one. Firstly, they lost John Harris when his oil pump packed up; the BSA man was soon joined by the unlucky Blakeway when the lower eye of his rear suspension was snapped off after being struck by a broken brake anchorage arm.

At the end of six hard days the

East Germans narrowly beat the Guzzimounted Italians to scoop the International Trophy – a win that meant that 12 months later it was another trip behind the Iron Curtain. Based at Erfurt, in the forested mountains of the Thuringa Wald, it was the first and only International run in East Germany and an event now famous for the first appearance of two American Vase teams – including Hollywood legend Steve Mcqueen – mounted on 500 and 650cc Triumph twins.

“The road trip from the UK was trouble free but our arrival at the border coincided with that of the American team. It took ages while the guards checked with their superiors in Berlin to see if it was okay to let them in and if Mcqueen had made any anti-communist films. Every car, van and pick-up was thoroughly examined inside and out by sombre and sour faced guards. After several hours we were eventually given permission to enter, with strict instructions not to stop or to take any photos in the heavily fortified no-man’s-land.

“The difference after driving through West Germany was quite staggering; other than Army wagons there was virtually no traffic and most of the roads had a green strip of grass growing down the middle.

“The food the organisers had brought in especially for the event was pretty awful and we just longed for some simple bacon and eggs. Some of the fruit had previously never been seen in the East and when Olga Kevelos offered a child a banana they had no idea how to peel it; needless to say she was immediately pounced on by a policeman and given a stern lecture and told that offering fruit to children was forbidden.

“We had little contact with the ordinary people but spent many hours with the Americans drinking tea supplied by the Reynold chain rep Vic Doyle and his wife. These gatherings not only enabled us to relax and compare notes but to listen to many of the hilarious stories which Steve Mcqueen had to tell about his experiences on the film sets and racing his bikes in the California deserts.”

Blakeway’s 350cc AJS was unable to match the speed of the two-stroke MZS but, despite heavy rain and thick fog on Tuesday’s special test hill climb, the AMC single performed faultlessly and at the end of a hard week his total of just over 604 points gained was enough to secure yet another gold medal. With the British finishing runnersup to the host country, the Isle of Man was the venue for the 1965 ISDT but sadly there would be no G S Blakeway in the line-up.

“My parents had always been hugely supportive of my competition career, but by the mid-sixties I decided it was time to give up the six day events and concentrate on the business. I continued to compete in national trials on 187 BLF and also on a 250 James but it was obvious that AMC was in serious decline and it came as little surprise when I was told that the competition department was being closed. I bought my famous Scottish winning AJS for £100 – they owed me £65 in outstanding expenses so it only cost me £35. During the following winter I had a few rides on one of the first production Bultacos, but an old scrambles injury necessitated the removal of a cartilage and I decided it was time to call it a day.”

It brought the curtain down on 14 glorious years; but the name of Gordon Blakeway will be forever inscribed in the annals of motorcycle sport – not just as a brilliantly successful competitor but for all who met him as a true gentleman.

The food the organisers had brought in especially for the event was pretty awful and we just longed for some simple bacon and eggs

Gordon Blakeway