Whatever happened to? ROY FRANCIS
On July 10, 1999, Brands Hatch played host to the final running of the Bill Ivy Memorial Meeting, with the Bill IvyTrophy being awarded for the final time before being ‘retired’.
Many people helped to make that star-studded tribute/celebration happen, but one man who was instrumental in gathering so many stars together that day is the subject of this article, Roy Francis. It was fitting that Roy should have been so involved as he had been a friend to ‘Little Bill’ from primary school days right through until the day in 1969 when Bill crashed the four-cylinder two-stroke Jawa in practice for the East German GP at Sachsenring.
Roy’s own racing career began in 1962, three years after Ivy, riding his Honda Benly Super Sports road bike, at a time when Ivy had progressed from 50cc Itoms to
