Fast Eddie: Mondello to Macau!
Motorcycles came to Eddie Laycock at an early age, in fact he had just turned 11 when he got his hands on a BSA Bantam.
He enlisted the help of a neighbour, who was a spannerman for racer Denis Clancy, to check it over and get it started. Eddie’s maiden run was outside the house with mum watching: the throttle stuck open and he shot forward, completely out of control and ended up smashing into a tree.
Eddie was soon back in the saddle, scorching a Honda 50 around a local farmer’s field, with his mates in tow – Eddie was by far the fastest.
His first decent machine was a Bridgestone 175. Most of his mates were riding the larger and fasterYamaha 350cc R5s, but Eddie found that despite their advantage he could beat them easily.
As a 16-year-old, the weekend usually involved a bunch of the lads heading off together to Wexford, 100 miles south, where the bikes were used on makeshift dirt tracks, or beaches.
A trip toThe Skerries 100 was Eddie’s touchstone moment. It was his first experience of road-racing and he was transfixed by what he saw: “I really have to do this!”
Within a few short months Eddie had bought an RD350, and, being too young to obtain a race licence, forged his dad’s signature on the application, got himself a licence and headed to Mondello Park. This was 1979 and on Eddie’s first outing he was delighted to take home a trophy for a 3rd place finish. The rest of that season saw Eddie taking a series of 3rds
