SPIRIT
CHAS MORTIMER F
urygan’s love affair with racing started in 1969. In 1972, British racer Chas Mortimer fell under the spell of the panther brand. ‘I was 23,’ he recalls. ‘I’m 68 now, but I still wear Furygan gear to classic motorcycle events.’ There was no such thing as a written contract back in the day. A handshake sufficed to seal the deal – in Nîmes, where, between races, Chas was often a guest at the home of Jacques Segura, the founder of the brand. Chas Mortimer – full name Charles Summer Mortimer –breathed in Castrol fumes from a very young age. His maternal grandfather, Captain John ‘Mutt’ Mortimer, was one of the finest test pilots in history. He clocked up a record 5,600 hours’ worth of flight testing for Vickers-Armstrongs, in 366 different planes, including 54 prototypes. He was at the controls when the famous Spitfire took to the skies on its first-ever test flight on 5 March 1936. The man was a legend. Chas’s father was the proprietor of the Charles Mortimer Race School at Brands Hatch. He also raced cars and motorcycles on the Silverstone and Goodwood circuits.
53 Unflinchingly loyal to Yamaha and Furygan At 16, Chas became one of the school’s instructors, together with Paul Smart. He began racing on a 250 Greeves used by the school. Then he switched to Yamaha motorcycles, and rode as a privateer with the same brand until he ended his racing career in 1984. In 1972, he was the first rider to net Yamaha a GP 500 win. Chas Mortimer’s career spans 107 GP starts, 39 podium places and 7 wins. He is also the only rider to have won Grand Prix races in several different classes, at a time when riders could enter more than one category: 125cc (he finished second to Kent Andersson in the 1973 world championship), 250cc, 350cc, 500cc and 750cc. He tasted success 8 times at the Tourist Trophy, notably winning both the Production and Junior TTs in 1976. That same year, he also finished third in the GP 250 championship, and became the first European to top the podium at the hellish Macao Grand Prix. We have named the Fit-R UK glove from our 2017 collection after Chas Mortimer to salute his talent and bravery and to thank him for his loyalty to Furygan.