done I went down a side road near where I lived and tested it by flying up and down awhile, making sure I cleared off home before anyone complained and a policeman came. Later I had a 350cc BSA special which I obtained from the Minion brothers, another motorcycle-dealing family in Derby. Bob Minion was the father of the family and he started the firm in 1925. By the mid-1950s it was being run by his sons Lionel, Peter and Rob. Peter used to race a Norton and then he had a Gold Star which he rode in Clubmans TTs in the mid-1950s. I went along with the family the year I was called up. Peter’s brother Rob used to be the mechanic at Minions and at some point he had got hold of a Manx Norton rolling chassis after its engine had been sold for 500cc car racing. He put a 350cc Gold Star engine in it for Peter to race and eventually that bike was bought for me to race by a chap called Russ Warren. In the end I left Wilemans and went to work for the Minion family instead
Mallory Park hairpin, 1960. John Cooper (James Club) inside Percy Tait (Brearley Cub) (Cooper Collection)
because they were always very supportive of my ideas about racing. The Wilemans were never particularly interested; in fact, I once asked them if I could have time off to ride at Scarborough. They agreed reluctantly and Ken scornfully said: “Who do you think you are, John Surtees?” Anyway, I won the 350cc final which of course was reported in the papers. Nothing was ever said about it afterwards. It was never acknowledged. The silly thing was, I earned more money that weekend than I’d get in two months at Wilemans. I won about £60 and I was only getting about £7 a week at Wilemans at the time, and the foreman there was only on £8.10s a week. Mind you, I thought that was a fortune. I thought, how can anybody spend £8.10s a week? A haircut was about 6d and a pint of beer was a shilling back then.
NSU Quicklys on tour. Fun and games with the Minion family on Skegness beach, John aboard PCH 297 (Cooper Collection) 12 MOON EYES - JOHN COOPER: The Man Who Beat Ago
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