Beyond holding on PART 2
By the early 1950s, Stan Dibben was fully entrenched in the motorcycle industry – both racing and manufacturing. He worked in Norton’s experimental department and had dabbled in solo racing on several occasions. But it wasn’t until Dibben was asked to be passenger to world champion sidecar driver Eric Oliver that his racing career truly took off, although, as we’ll see, not quite in the way he wanted. A new, fascinating book, ‘Enterprise on the Edge of Industry,’ tells the story of how Dibben entered the heart of the sidecar racing elite, along with less well known details about the industry itself.
In this feature – the second of a two-part series – we reveal new insights into significant racing relationships and the cut and thrust life of the man on whom the book is based: the indefatigable Stan Dibben.
Welcome to part two. It’s winter 1952, and Stan Dibben is sent to the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) test track on behalf of Norton to meet Eric Oliver, the ex-world champion sidecar driver. “He needs some ballast,” said Stan’s line manager, Joe Craig. Once at MIRA, instructions from Oliver himself were soon to follow: “I want you to watch the swinging arm rear suspension and tell me what the movement is.”
Stan had never been on a racing sidecar before, although he had used Norton’s delivery outfit to take solo bikes to races. He thought nothing of the request and just did as he was told. There was only one way to go about this, as Stan said: “I put my feet in the nose of the sidecar, rested my head on my right arm by the rear wheel and watched the suspension. After about half a dozen laps, we stopped. I
