Geoff Duke, one of the great figures from the world of Motorcycle Racing passed away earlier this month at his home on the Isle of Man, he was 92.
Geoff was a multiple motorcycle Grand Prix Road Racing World Champion.
In the 1950’s he won six World Championships and also Seven Isle of Man TT Titles. His name became synonymous with the famous “Manx Norton” motorcycle. He also was beloved in Italy for his rides on the 500cc Gilera, which gave him three consecutive world titles.
He was declared the first rider to lap the 37.73 mile Isle of Man course at 100mph, though this was later corrected to a mere 99.97mph!
Today, Geoff made his last lap of the famous Island Circuit when his coffin completed a tour around the roads on which he made his name. He was accompanied by his sons Mike and Peter, who followed the hearse on motorcycles, along with a whole procession of well wishers and supporters on all kinds of machines. It sounds like quite an appropriate send off, I trust Geoff approved!
Geoff Duke 29th March 1923 – 1st May 2015
Hogrider Dookes 
My neighbour is John Colter 🙂 you might have hear of him too 🙂 .. I just had a chat about racing some days ago, he’s retired now in his 70’s & more into making ukulele’s, but did really well in the Isle of man races & others…thought you might find that amusing 🙂 …A lovely man … I found this he’s in a fair few pics here :
http://www.bsabantamracing.com/bantamracer/historic_race_page.htm
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Wow that’s very interesting Mia. Those old BSA Bantam Racers were, being polite, a bit bonkers!!!! Great exciting racing though and some of the mechanical innovations pure genius.
One of my friends is the son of the legendary Geoff Monty another brilliant engineer and crazy racer, I wonder if John knew him?
Thanks for sharing that news. Dookes
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I’ll ask him when I see him & let you know 🙂
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Thanks, I should have said, “the late Geoff Monty.” 😦
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nodding acquaintances apparently, so I guess not really, he stopped racing when he and the missus were expecting I guess … Hmmm I seem to have been hearing that a lot lately .. talents not used .. dreams walked away form on life’s journey …. but more interesting I find there seems to be 2 distinct ways of looking at it … regret .. & my favourite .. new adventure in a long line of choices that life offers 🙂 .. but I guess that’s the same with everything in life … Have a magical day / week .. enjoy the sunshine we have been promised 😉 .. well its always the other side of the clouds ..right 😉 LOL
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Thank you, have a great week yourself too.
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A reminder of a name I’d practically forgotten. I was more into four wheels – we lived close to Innes Ireland, Jim Clark’s team mate at Lotus, so bikes never really got a look in!
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Two more legendary Motorsport names from my youth!
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