JOINING THE CIRCUS
At the end of 1953 Dibben left Norton and joined Oliver in the Watsonian factory and the duo’s first race together was at Pau in the South of France. They won. “I learned a great deal then,” said Stan, “especially about not stepping off under acceleration.” The World Championship season that year was a close one. Oliver and Dibben diced with Cyril Smith and Les Nutt, as Dibben explains: “At Monza, the deciding race, we swapped laps with Smith and Nutt for the entire race.” Dibben and Oliver won. But in spite of these successes, the reception from the British motorcycle industry was poor and the money even poorer. Dibben returned to his working life, though not for long... Later that year he had heard that 1952 World Champion sidecar racer Cyril Smith was without a passenger for the 1954 season. Smith made Dibben an irresistible offer: £40 a week with Sunday lunches thrown in. It was also 1954 in which Smith, Oliver and Dibben were invited to test the short-lived TT Clypse course. “When it came to the TT that year, we were expected to be among the winners. We had an advantage over all other starters, except Eric Oliver/les Nutt, because we had been over at the request of the TT organisers to proof ride the Clypse Course. Of course, this meant we had course knowledge better than most, and had put in some leading practice times.” But things didn’t quite go to plan. “Like all mytt escapades. The adrenaline was certainly on the boil. Cyril was prone to get overexcited so he missed a gear and bent a valve or two when leading so we didn’t finish.” Dibben’s racing career took him all over Europe, aka ‘the Continental Circus’, taking in – among many others – Spa Francorchamps, Bremgarten and Rouen. But his favourite circuit was the Nurburgring. “I raced at the Nurburgring with Cyril Smith on May 29, 1955. We overdid it a bit in the banked corner – the Karousel. I was hanging out and suddenly found the sidecar way too far above the road. By dropping my whole body down to the road I got the whole outfit back to where it should have been and we won. But my one-piece leathers were two-piece leathers by the end of the race.” Dibben speaks passionately about racing, especially about the status of passengers. “There are some drivers who continue to use and see passengers as nothing more than ‘passengers’. Some passengers are happy with that – they just want the thrill of riding in a sidecar and they’re not serious about it. But with me, and particularly with Eric, it was a bit different because it had to be right. You didn’t extend your knee out if you didn’t need to because of wind resistance – that would slow you down. There were lots of technicalities to consider. Eric and I had long discussions about what was required.”
“THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON THAT YEAR WAS A CLOSE ONE. OLIVER AND DIBBEN DICED WITH CYRIL SMITH AND LES NUTT.”