McLeodart have compiled a range of CDs covering aviation and other topics.
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A review of the Australian Victoria Cross winners from the Boer War to the Vietnam conflict. Each recipient is displayed with his portrait with details of the date and place at where the action took place. There are feature articles of four significant World War 1 recipients and of the three air VCs of World War II. |
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Something for the vintage motorcycle enthusiast. A review of the greatest name in British road racing. Nortons were in the forefront of international road racing from the 1920s to the mid 50s. Here is a selection of bios of their works riders from 1930 to 1955 with photos and portraits.All the greats are there; Frith, Guthrie, Duke, Surtees and a host of others. A sample article is shown below. |
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Freddie Frith (Norton works rider 1936-39)
Lincolnshire stonemason Freddie Frith’s racing career followed a typical pattern to his contemporaries who aspired to a racing career. He was born at Grimsby in 1910 and became involved in trials and club events during the late 1920s. He was usually Velocette-mounted, and in 1930 he made his Isle of Man debut. It was a portent of a brilliant career when he rode a dealer-sponsored KTT into third place in the Junior Manx Grand Prix. In 1932 he switched to a Norton and gained fifth place in the Senior Manx. It was a commendable effort, for he was riding a 350cc machine in a 500 cc race. His perseverance in the Manx series culminated in 1935 with a win in the Junior event and second place in the Senior behind J.K. Swanston, a medical practitioner, and also a consistent Manx competitor.
Not surprisingly Freddie Frith was recruited into the Norton works team of 1936, along-side Jimmie Guthrie and John White. Frith justified his inclusion in the team with a win and fastest lap in the Junior TT, and in a hard-fought Senior he finished third behind winner Jimmie Guthrie and runner-up Stanley Woods (Velocette). Over the ensuing two years Guthrie, Frith and White featured strongly in the continental Grands Prix where the finishing order was usually Guthrie first and Frith second. It was an opportunity beyond compare for the Grimsby lad to serve an apprenticeship in the slipstream of the great Jimmy Guthrie, but It was Frith who scored a decisive win in the 500 class of the Ulster GP., and with a record lap of 95mph.
The 1937 TT series provided the usual surprises and excitement, with Guthrie heading a Norton 1-2-3 in the Junior event, but Friday’s Senior was packed with drama. Guthrie assumed a comfortable lead until lap five, when he was forced to retire at the Cutting, which later became the site of the Guthrie Memorial. . Woods was then holding second place, and with Guthrie’s retirement he inherited the lead. Try as he might he was unable to hold off a challenge by a determined Frith. His final lap was a record-breaking 90 mph, which was sufficient to beat Woods by a mere 15 seconds, after three hours of incredibly close racing.
Following the TT, the Norton team made its regular foray to contest the continental events. In August of that year the German Grand Prix was held on the fast Sachsenring circuit. During the 500 cc race Guthrie held off a strong BMW challenge and was poised to receive the chequered flag when he crashed fatally on the final bend. It was a shattering blow for the team, and as a mark of respect it was withdrawn from the forthcoming Ulster Grand Prix.
It was left to the Norton team to uphold British prestige in the 500cc class during 1938 and 1939. By then BMW had achieved the reliability to win Grand Prix events, with Georg Meier becoming European Champion for 1938. In 1939 he became the first foreign rider to win a Senior TT on a foreign machine. In second place was an Englishman, the burly Jock West, also on a BMW; and in a race that he described as his toughest ever was third-placed Freddie Frith. The 1939 Ulster TT was a resounding success for Serafini on the supercharged Gilera four that was miles an hour faster than the opposition. His greatest challenge came from a gallant Freddie Frith who brought his Norton home in second place. It was the final road race in a fabulous decade and apart from an entry at a post-war Shelsley Walsh hill-climb it was Frith’s last race appearance on a works Norton.
Following army service as a riding instructor he returned to racing in 1947. Fred was entered on a potential TT winner with a 500 Moto Guzzi sponsored by Stanley Woods, but a practice crash sidelined him from the TT and other classics. He made a return to racing at the 1947 Ulster Grand Prix but in his efforts to hold off a strong Norton challenge his Velocette suffered a broken valve. On works-supported Velocettes he scored victories in the 1948 Junior TT, and in the memorable rain-soaked Ulster TT. In 1949 he gained another victory in the Junior TT riding the new twin camshaft Velocette. It was also the first year of the official World Championships, which resulted in significant British awards. Les Graham was crowned 500cc champion for AJS, while Eric Oliver and Denis Jenkinson became inaugural sidecar champions for Norton.
With victories at the TT and in every classic 350cc race Frith and Velocette were undisputed winners in that category. At the end of the season he announced his retirement, and the following year he was awarded an OBE for services to motor racing. The modest Grimsby man opened a successful motorcycle business in that area, while still maintaining his interest in the racing scene, particularly the Isle of Man. A measure of his reputation was Joe Craig’s offer of a post-race gallop on Reg. Armstrong’s 1952 Senior winner. Fred’s comparisons between the current works model and the pre-war machines were pertinent. He considered their power output to be markedly similar, but the road holding and braking of the new model completely overshadowed its plunger-framed ancestor. Craig’s offer was repeated in 1954 when Fred took Ray Amm’s Senior winner for a blast along the Mountain Mile. He demonstrated to his old team boss, and to motorcycling journalists that the passing years had not dimmed his abilities or his enthusiasm. Freddie Frith died in May 1988 following a brief illness; a respected member of that elite band of inaugural world champions |
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A selection of profiles of the leading aces of World War 1. Ball, Bishop, Mannock, Guynemer, Fonck, Rickenbacker and many more from the Allied side. Manfred and Lothar Richtofen , Immelman, Boelcke, Goring and others from Germany. |
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A review of the 32 air VC winners of World War II and their aircraft . Nineteen types were involved and their performances are analysed along with the account of the action that led to the VC award. Coloured art works accompany each article and these will be available for sale as fine art prints. |
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A selecton of accounts of pioneering flights by early Australian aviators beginning with the first England Australia flight in 1919. There are 12 articles and each one displays a coloured artwork plus black and white portraits. Individual copies of these colour images will be available for sale as fine art prints. |
CDs Available : $14.95 AU + P&P contact
