Vince French Mechanic to the superstars
Way into the Seventies even world champions usually only had a single mechanic assigned to each of the bikes they were riding in the various Grand Prix classes and, in the cases of privateer riders, there was quite often just one man for all available bikes.
Those were the days when the riders themselves expected to get their own hands dirty! Not for them the brigade of crew chiefs, computer technicians and ‘engineers’ that fill the pit garages at a MotoGP. More often back then it was a luxury to even have a pit garage. Bikes were worked on either in the open air of the paddock, maybe under an awning or even in the back of a van if the weather was bad.
Note the use of the word ‘engineers’ by the way – there is no such thing as a lowly ‘mechanic’ these days! And back in the days when engineers were ‘mechanics’ they were also essentially invisible men when it came to press and public recognition of their long hours of labour. There were no backroom boys in those days enjoying the guru-like reputation that Jerry Burgess did during his days with Valentino Rossi. In fact, I can only think of two truly famous ‘spanner men’ from the Sixties and Seventies – Nobby Clarke, who was Mike Hailwood’s right-hand man and the only Westerner that Honda would allow to delve into the internals of its complicated six-cylinder GP racer, and Arturo Magni, who managed the MV Agusta race team and helped prepare the bikes. Kel Carruthers fulfilled the same function with the Kenny Roberts Yamaha team, of course, but he had already achieved his personal fame by winning the 1969 World 250cc Championship as a rider.
But many other names could, and perhaps should, be added to what would still be a relatively short list and most assuredly, one of those is that of Vince French.
How many other people can possibly say that they have prepared bikes as the Yamaha factory-designated mechanic for no less than five world champions – Giacomo Agostini, Jarno Saarinen, Barry Sheene, Johnny Cecotto and Rod Gould – plus other Yamaha team riders and Grand Prix winners, Tepi Lansivuori and Hideo Kanaya?
Not only that, but Vince also stood proudly in Victory Lane with a machine and its rider at the Daytona 200 on three occasions in four years! He prepared the bikes that were ridden to victory in America’s greatest race by Saarinen in 1973, Agostini (working along with Nobby Clarke) in 1974 and Cecotto in 1976. All in all, it’s a success rate that few, if any, of the hard-working men who wield the wrenches have matched.
“DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT VINCE RIGHT NOW, JOE, HE SAID. THE SILLY YOUNG BUGGER HAS LEFT MY EMPLOY FOR A DEAD-END JOB… JUST FOR THE SAKE OF A PALTRY SHILLING AN HOUR!”
Even in his pre-teen days, Vince was fascinated by motorcycles – both as mechanical entities and the opportunities they offered for speed and excitement. And as a jockey-sized 13-year-old he came close to having a massive crash on one, even though he had not even learned to ride by that point and the machine was still on its stand!
For what he had learned was (a) that he could switch on his brother’sTriumph Bonneville with the aid of a screwdriver in the ignition switch and (b) despite not even being tall enough for his feet to reach the ground, he could kick-start it into life when the bike was on the centre stand.
Next, he worked out that with the bike on the stand, the rear wheel was in the air and by selecting first gear he could watch the speedometer needle climb upwards as the wheel spun free. Then the obvious thing was to go up through the gears and see how far round the dial he could get the needle while the bike was still
