BOB WRIGHT

Running a works team in a number of disciplines is never easy. Resources are often stretched, certainly as far as the European factories were concerned as without the vast sales of small capacity machines to various Asian countries that the Japanese factories enjoyed income was often limited. When speaking to Bob Wright who joined Montesa in 1974, he felt the motocross effort was second to the trials scene. “Don’t get me wrong there, the factory and Sandifords were brilliant to be with and all sides did their best for me in particular but they had a massive trials team and were riding high with that at the time. I was directly linked to the factory in Spain, full works rider but as Sandifords were close to me in Lancashire it was logical to be linked with them too. I initially rode the 250 which was a good bike and then came the 360 which was the pre-production prototype. At the outset it was a decent machine and needed development which is what I was involved in and we did all sorts to it to modify and improve it, exhausts, carburetion which is what two strokes need.” Bob carries on to say the 360 had real potential but sadly was not to be. “I really liked Sandifords, my sort of people,” he finishes.