After wins in the important Sunbeam point-to-point and Wessex National, May 1960 saw the Metisse make its overseas debut in, quickly followed (the next month) by its first appearance in a Grand Prix. Under the Italian sun at Imola, both brothers were in terrific form and at the end of a gruelling day’s racing – won overall by Sten Lundin – Derek was second and Don third, while the works BSAs languished in sixth, seventh and ninth places.
A week later, there were two more impressive second places in the West German GP, but, unlike the Small Heath men who were paid to race their works bikes, the Rickmans had a business to run and, as Don recalled, there was precious time to draw breath or enjoy the sights on their travels: “A typical Easter would see us racing in the Hants GN on the Friday, work on Saturday morning, then home to prepare the bikes before loading the pick-up and heading off to Belgium for a race on Sunday. Sunday night we would sleep in the pick-up and do a meeting in France on the Monday, before catching the late-night ferry back to Dover. We then had the drive back to Hampshire for work on Tuesday morning. We wouldn’t take our socks off for three days. It was all pretty exhausting.”
This story is from the November 2020 edition of The Classic MotorCycle.
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This story is from the November 2020 edition of The Classic MotorCycle.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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