On two wheels
Mick ran a successful race school at Darley Moor for many years – editor Carter being among its alumni – but there were competitive solo race rides too. He did the Formula TTS 1978-82, kicking off with a very respectable eleventh in the 1978 F3, but it all started back in Small Heath, in his earlier BSA days. “I did the Thruxton 500-miler with Les Mason, when it was at Brands. Every time it rained Les came in, but I was riding faster than him anyway and I’ve got a picture somewhere of Les Graham coming round the outside of me, on a 250 Suzuki that day. But we still came fourth in class, even if well down in the overall results. I then rode a Yamaha at the Brighton Sprint, but when I took it to Mallory I just couldn’t ride the thing. So, someone lent me an Aermacchi, the same day, and I was miles quicker. I lapped the TT at 97mph on that, until one of the head studs sheared on it, but it was a super bike and one of the best things I ever rode round the Isle of Man. It got me out of more trouble than I ever got myself into. “With BSA I’d been doing loads of testing at MIRA but oddly I’d never really thought of doing solos. Then one year Graham Wylie, of Wylie and Holland, said: ‘How do you fancy if we build three bikes and put three sidecar races on them, and send them to the Isle of Man?’ ‘Suits me,’ I said, so he built three F2s and I was the only one to finish. I won a replica, a bronze replica, which stands out as all the rest are silver. Funnily enough I learnt loads on that bike at the TT, as I went round and round, much more than I did on the TZ sidecar. You were frightened to death on that and it cost money every time you went round as well – but you could get frightened to death on the solos too. That happened to me one year on a TZ. The front wheel was up in the air all the time, I got as far as Kirk Michael and lent it against a wall. I fancied myself on a solo until I really had a go. I enjoyed the dabble but don’t think I could ever really have done it successfully.”