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1928: Johnnie Hoskins Writes from England. |
Following are extracts from a letter
written in England by Johnnie Hoskins in 1928. The communication arrived in
Australia during July 1928.
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“Charlie Datson, Sig Schlam and Ron Johnson are doing well. They are still
racing at the Crystal Palace, London. Charlie has a wonderful motor and last
Saturday he put up what was described as a ‘most lurid ride.’ He holds the track
record: in fact, I think it is the fastest time yet recorded on a small track
here. He is quite an idol. Sig was in a scratch race last week and he was going
so slowly round a corner that he fell off and his opponent passed him with one
lap to go. Sig jumped on again and you know he goes when anyone is in front. He
simply flew down the straight and just passed his man at the gun. The crowd of
20,000 went crazy. Ron has been having a lot of trouble with chains, but is
riding wonderfully well. There were about 70,000 people at the Palace at a big
sports gathering and Ron gave a wonderful exhibition of cinder throwing. The
crowd gave him a great hearing. The boys are at present in Brighton among the
local lads waiting for the opening of our first track on June 23. As all of the
tracks were held up pending my arrival we have been slow getting under way, but
it is all for the best as we are profiting by the advertising and the mistakes
of those earlier in the field.” |
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| Johnnie Hoskins |
A Young Ron Johnson |
“By the way, Ron Johnson raced Miss
Fay Taylour last Saturday night at the Palace. The racing starts at 7 o’clock
and finishes at nine in the day light. Ron’s motor was ‘packed up’ and he rode
Lionel Wills’s Rudge. He gave her three-quarters of a lap start and gained about
50 yards in the four laps. Miss Taylour is not only the greatest woman
motor-cyclist in England. She is one of the greatest motor-cyclists. She
broadsided round the corners and was winning easily when, through being
over-cautious at the last bend, fell off, turned a couple of somersaults, jumped
up, grappled with the motor and with the help of Charlie Datson jumped on again
and rode in over the line to the cheering of twenty thousand people.
“The exhibition was very fine. Charlie holds the track record and went out in an
endeavour to break it but missed by one second. Sig gave an exhibition of
painting the fence with cinders and thrilled the crowd with the best show I have
seen him put up yet. Some of the English riders have come along wonderfully
well, and though they are not yet, in my opinion, up to the Australian, they are
not far from it: in fact, we have to keep the motors in the very best condition
to stand them off. On other tracks English riders have been beating Australians
in some events. No doubt the English motors are good and now that the T.T. is
over we expect the manufacturers to put something specially good under our
boys.”
“I went to the Isle of Man to see the T.T. races and the excursion trains were
absolutely packed. Over 12,000 people went over on Thursday night and stayed
till Friday night as I did. The Isle of Man is one of the prettiest places I
have seen. We had to walk four miles away up into the hills before we could get
a sight of the course. Every vantage point at the different corners was crowded
with people. I am glad of this as we finally found ourselves well up in the
hills with a good view of Caution Corner and a couple of other bends. Gradually,
just as we heard the big boom of the starting rocket, the fog began to come down
the mountain, and before half a dozen riders had passed our corner, the fog was
so thick that it was impossible to see more than the width of the street. I
believe the fog was even thicker higher up, and yet the riders drove through the
fog at 60 miles per hour. You could hear the roaring of some speedy machine,
sometimes two or three almost together. Gradually it would come closer and
closer and still nothing was visible through the fog. Then a ghostlike
apparition would emerge and in the twinkling of an eye it would be abreast and
one had just time to see the numbers when it was lost in the fog again. There
were 15 spills in the first lap.
“I was hoping that we had some West Australian representatives over again. The
course is such a difficult one that a first year man has practically no chance
against the old hands who know the course so well. I was pleased to hear the old
hands speak so well of the boys who came over last year. Aubrey Melrose came in
for quite a lot of praise and they still remembered some of his tall stories
about the West. Dirt track racing seemed to be almost as much talked about on
the train as the T.T. races but there was nothing but motors talked all the way
there and back again.
“As a spectacle, however, I must say that at the risk of being thought
prejudiced, the T.T. is not in it with the dirt tracks. Of course, one realises
that he is watching the world’s great motor-cycling classic, one knows something
of the trade importance of a win in this great event, one feels with all those
fine fellows who have spent months of preparation for this one event, and this
all helps to make the visit worth while.” |
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Thanks to Ross Garrigan for this report. |
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