Whatever happened to? Dave Chadwick

Born in Manchester on September 24, 1930, Dave Chadwick started racing in 1951, riding Velocette and Norton machines at English short circuits, with Altcar, Rhydymwyn and Silverstone being the more prominent.

Another look at a racer who you know, but might not be familiar with in terms of his racing story.

In his first Manx Grand Prix, the 1953 Junior, young Dave Chadwick’s Velocette was lapping within bronze replica time when he was forced to retire. His fast and smooth riding, particularly on road circuits, brought him to the attention of Reg Dearden, who was then establishing his Norton dealership, also in Manchester. Dave was one of the first riders supported by Reg, who would go on to help many famous names well into the 1960s.

Entered by the Cheadle Hulme club, Dave finished seventh in the 1954 Senior Clubman’s TT, the first Norton home, and put this course-learning experience to good use later that year by finishing second to Derek Ennett’s AJS in the Junior MGP.

1955 brought a move up to the International TT, with three rides on Reg Dearden-entered Nortons, finishing fifth in the 250cc class, but then while running 11th in the Junior race he came off in Glen Helen, escaping with minor injuries. In the 1956 TT Dave rode an LEF (Lewis, Ellis, Foster) Special to fifth place in the 125cc race, and gained silver replicas in both Junior and Senior events on Nortons.

For the 250cc race he rode a 203cc MV Agusta, but unfortunately this ended in retirement. However, this MV association continued for 1957, Dave riding for MV Distributors (later Ron Harris), and it resulted in leaderboard placings in the TT and Ulster GPS – in the latter finishing second to eventual 250cc world champion Cecil Sandford’s Mondial.

Dave’s performances on the MV and his Nortons led Ducati to draft him into their works team to compete in the 1958 125cc world championship, and this, together with his MV and Nortons in the bigger classes, brought about his most successful season. In the world standings at the end of the season Dave finished fifth in the 125cc, 10th in the 250cc, fourth in the 350cc and 15th in the 500cc classes. Leaderboard finishes in the Formula 1, 250cc and Junior TTS augured well for the 1959 season, but a fall in the 125cc race resulted in injuries which sidelined him for much of the year.

Unusually for those days, Dave spent three ‘close-seasons’ racing in South Africa, beginning in 1956/57. For the 1957/58 trip, he was accompanied by a 17-year-old Mike Hailwood, and in his 1963 book The Art of Motorcycle Racing, co-written with Murray

Walker, Mike said: “Dave was a mature, polished and very capable rider, and I learnt more by following him round the circuits and studying his cornering lines and riding tactics than I could have picked up by myself in a couple of seasons.” The pair remained good friends and when in March 1960 Dave married Judith Stoney, Mike was best man.

SEASON OF PROMISE

The 1960 season promised much for the newly-wed Mancunian, not least because he had signed to ride Walter Kaaden’s MZ two-strokes in GPS alongside Ernst Degner, with freedom to ride his Nortons as he wished. His first rides of the season in Spain and Austria showed him to be in good form, although his first ride on the MZ at the nonchampionship Saar GP on the St Wendel circuit in May ended with brake trouble.

Tragedy struck on the 15th of that month at an international event on the 8.5 kilometre Mettet road circuit, when Dave, leading comfortably near the end of the 500cc race, collided with a slower rider being lapped, and both fell. Accounts vary as to what then happened, but the result was inescapable, Dave Chadwick had suffered fatal injuries. Some reports put the terrible consequences of the accident down to spectator incursions into restricted areas, one of whom also died.

David Vincent Chadwick’s grave is in St Wilfrid’s church, Northenden, Manchester.