We were all ready to depart to the 1979 T.T.Races when I received a telephone call from my friend Doug Randall; Would I pick up Eric Oliver from the airport when I had arrived on the Island...
Yes, Eric Oliver, THE Eric Oliver !!! He was to participate in the Millenium Parade Lap with his famous Norton Sidecar outfit and while the oufit had gone on ahead, he was to fly to Ronaldsway and I was to transfer him to his hotel in Central Douglas.
And that is what we did. We arrived on the Island as usual, signed into our hotel and then set out down to the south to meet Eric off his aeroplane.
He was easily recognisable and luckily I had a large roof rack so I could load up not only his suitcases but also his leathers and boxes of bits. We chatted and the trip into Douglas was very quick.
"See you in the morning" says Eric...!
Mmmmmm says the wife, did you agree to this ?...
It turned out that I had been "volunteered" to escort Eric, his son and the outfit round to Jurby for testing.
taken from super-8 film - vast collection I jumped at the chance and hitched my car to his outfit with a length of rope and towed Eric from his garage, round the course in reverse direction, over the mountain to Ramsey, them out to Jurby Airfield. At the Bungalow the rope snapped so we spent some time trying different knots to rejoin the frayed ends. When we got to Jurby Eric tutted at the amount of surface gravel on the runway. Within minutes he had negotiated with my wife to have her tights !!
taken from super-8 film - vast collection They became air filters for the carb to prevent the gravel being sucked into the engine...
Eric, his son and the outfit blasted up and down the runway a number of times until Eric was satisfied and then we set out back to the garage, via the lower part of the course, in reverse direction again, down Crosby and up Bray Hill and then back to his garage.
In the Millenium Lap, Eric did almost the full lap but broke down up on the Mountain, coasting back.
It was a great experience as Eric told me about some of experiences and what he did while setting up the outfit for the lap.
Eric died two years later.
