Classic camera

Tony Godfrey, who has died recently aged 86, at the 1963 Lightweight TT. A crash in the race effectively ended the top-line career of the man from the south coast.

he common misconception was that Tony Godfrey's crash in the 1963 250cc TT, when he became the first non-Japanese works Yamaha rider, ended his career. In fact, he did make a racing comeback, and raced at the TT several more times, but he never scaled the heights (sixth in the 1961 Senior, seventh in the same race 1960) of the pre-accident days.

Godfrey had a one-off deal with Yamaha for the 1963 TT races, arranged through Shell. He was determined to make the most of his chance - there was no fee for his ride, but he reckoned a good showing and he'd have a works contract.

And he was going well, running second, when the gearbox locked at 120mph plus.

The crash was catastrophic but the Isle of Man had a new medical innovation - the helicopter. That Godfrey was quickly taken to hospital saved his life - and incidentally he stayed in touch with nurse who cared for him, meeting her again over 40 years later.

The racing career of Godfrey started on an ex-Tommy Wood KTTVelo, bought direct from Tommy, the father of Tony's work pal, with Wood senior acting as mentor to Tony - then Manx Nortons, winning the 1958 ACU Star/

British Championship. Tony excelled in production racing too, with several big wins, and he was the winner of the US

GP at Daytona in 1961, on Geoff Monty's Matchless GS0.

After racing, Tony - who served an apprenticeship as a draughtsman at Folland Aircraft - played as a drummer in jazz bands, then in the 1980s set up a driving school.

The irony of his accident was that he wasn't even first choice for the ride; that was Percy Tait, but after he turned it down, Shell's Lew Ellis was recommended Godfrey. In a parallel universe it would've been the making of a long and glorious GP racing career and he'd have become a Yamaha legend, but, alas, it proved not to be so.