Whatever happened to? Eric Hinton
A talented member of a racing dynasty, Australian Eric Hinton enjoyed life and no little racing success as part of the ‘Continental Circus’ on a variety of machinery from Nortons (like his dad rode), through to Bultacos and Kawasakis.
Aussie star Eric Hinton – maybe you’ve heard of him?... If not, you have now, and you’ll enjoy this profile.
Eric Hinton was the second of three sons born to one of the great names of Australian motorsport, Harry Hinton, and his wife, Vienie. Harry was born in Aston, Birmingham, in 1909, but his family emigrated to Australia soon after the end of the First World War. Despite losing the sight of his left eye in 1931, Harry’s successes in national road races led to his selection by the AutoCycle Council of Australia as an official representative for the 1949 Isle of MANTT.
Further successes in Europe led to factory rides for Norton, but an accident at Laurel Bank in the 1951 Junior TT, when lying second to Geoff Duke, ended his international career. Once back home and recovered, he continued to race successfully until his retirement in 1955, recording five Australian championships and 17 Bathurst wins.
Harry died in 1978, but his sons Harry Jnr, Eric and Robert inherited his racing genes.
Harry Jnr was a couple of years older than Eric, and started racing first, but a leg injury in 1952 set his career back just as Eric was getting started.
Nortons formed the mainstay of these early efforts, no doubt influenced by father’s Norton connections. For 1954 the Hintons built two pushrod racers, and 20-year-old Eric’s riding impressed the most celebrated rider of the era, Geoff Duke.
‘Wintering’ in Australia in early 1955, Duke was beaten by Eric, albeit in a handicap race, but it was enough for Geoff to write in his column for Motor Cycling: “This serious young man has the makings of a top-flight rider, despite his youth. He is already way out of the Clubman class, riding with more finesse than many of Europe’s experienced riders.”
Lacking in experience Eric may have been, but his father’s racecraft and knowledge were being put to very good use, as were, after Harry Snr’s retirement, his ex-factory Nortons.
Eric’s Australian double TT win in 1955 at the Southport Road Circuit in Queensland helped earn selection for the 1956 Australian team for the Isle of MANTT, where a promising debut in the Junior ended with Eric in hospital after a broken con rod threw him down the road leaving Ballaugh.
In his four seasons in Europe he won 11 international road races, including four nonchampionship Grands Prix, and with good placings in world championship rounds, he must have been close to a works ride. But, apart from assistance with a works-supported NSU Sportmax, Eric remained a ‘privateer’.
An interesting slant on this comes from Don Cox’s superb book Circus Life, in which he says: “The Australians who raced in the 1950s were men of their time. It was considered un-australian to self-promote.” Better awareness by the riders of their commercial value, and the self-promotion necessary to be able to negotiate decent start money, would come later.
1957 brought Eric’s best TT result, a fifth place in the Junior behind four Italian works machines, but brake problems in the Senior led to a dramatic retirement after a ‘close encounter’ with the door of the Ballacraine
Hotel! Sadly, on April 12, 1959, his brother Harry sustained serious injuries in the Coppa d’oro at Imola, and in hospital developed pneumonia from which he died.
Eric returned home later that year, but there is a story to that. His wife Kathleen was expecting their first child, and travelling back through Switzerland they spotted exactly the baby pram they had wanted, and spent their boat fare to buy it. The end-of-season Aintree ‘Century’ race came to their rescue, the prize money for Eric’s win replacing the necessary funds, and the couple arrived home in time for the birth of son Peter.
In 1965 the family Hinton, now with second son Tony, returned for another ‘tour’ of Europe, this time with Eric’s younger brother Robert acting as ‘spannerman’, the old Nortons gradually giving way to Bultaco and Kawasaki ‘strokers’.
Back home for good in 1969, Eric still enjoyed success into the early 1970s, his last national title podium coming in the Australian 500 TT at Phillip Island in 1970.
Even after retirement from competition, he helped prepare race-winning bikes for brother Robert, for his sons and top Australian riders.
Eric Hinton died in a Sydney hospital on December 17, 2015, aged 81, after being in full-time care for several years.
He was inducted into the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame in 2019.
To quote Eric (again from Don Cox’s Circus Life): “People would not believe half the stuff that happened to us. And we had a bloody good time.” That says it all, really.