2003 December - Uncle Jack as NZ Champion TT rider known as John David 1926/8/9

From: Margret

Sent: 5/12/2003 9:53 p.m.

December 2003  Nearly 80 years ago a TT WinnerNEW ZEALAND TT WINNER 1926, 1928 AND 1929  Mari has reason to be proud of her father's motorbike racing as it was an essential part of her growing up.  Mari says of her Dad:  I saw a lot of him during my teen years and he used to take me to play badminton at the Army Hall in Wellington.  He had always loved the motorcycles, so started to race out at the Taita Speedway under the name of 'John David".  He didn't use his surname because of his position in the Army.  He used to take me all the time to the Speedway and every Sunday morning I had to clean the very dirty bike and he would give me two shillings. Contained in Uncle Hip's Coronation diary are the following:  '7th March 1953, Saturday.  To speedway to see John David.  Got a thrill.  The buggers burl up to the bend, flop bike over and around.  Good.   15th March.  Sunday 1953.  Rang Johnny from Trentham about 2130 hours.  Speedway that night.' Uncle Jack, as written in brother Hip's story called 'Granddad's Tale' reports:  'Jack got a job going to New Plymouth every day on a variety of motorbikes.  An EW flat-topped two opposed Douglas 350cc, a Rudge Whitworth 350cc, a New Imperial, sunday BSA's, Villier two-strokes, Harley's, Indians, Chatea Lea Levis, to mention some of them.  Uncle Jack turned to racing and rose to the top, the New Zealand Lightweight championship 350 cc.'  When Jack became the Lightweight Champion, Hip said that Jack imported and had the only cammy Velocette in New Zealand. A newspaper article written when Uncle Jack raced under the pseudonym as "John David' described one race:  'Boyle received his greatest ovation for the manner in which he deliberately threw his machine down to avoid colliding with JOHN DAVID.  So close was he, in fact, that the wheel of his machine actually came to rest against David's machine just as momentum had been lost.  DAVID, by the way, was responsible for one of the best displays of cornering seen at Taita.  Unable to get his motor going in a heat of the Taita Handicap, he eventually got under way after conceding about 100 yards more than the handicapper had allowed.  He set after Eric Chown and Norm Bishop and, keeping his front wheel on the chalk line, overhauled Chown in the last lap, and finished right up with Bishop.   After that display he was looked on as a certainty to win the final.  However, David Croft, whose improvement has been most marked, led from start to finish to beat Arthur Ambler and JOHN DAVID