Denis Charles Minett
1915 - July 1989
Born in Hereford, UK, Denis Minett took to motorcycle racing in his youth using a Rudge as his main mount. The Rudge marque appealed to him and he continued to campaign this make. Unable to obtain special speed components from the factory, he set about tuning and Modifying his bike himself, to such effect that in 1937. at the age of 22. he won the BMRC 10-lap handicap race on the outer circuit of Brooklands at an all-time record speed for a Rudge of 105rnph. This won him the coveted Gold Star, awarded to anyone achieving a 100mph lap on the famous concrete bowl. Riding a 750cc Norton he broke 5 records on the Brooklands track and held the 750 In record of 118mph. In all Denis won Gold Stars in three different capacity classes and became .a known Norton rider.
Whilst he was at Brooklands. he met expatriate South Australian, Rex Tilbrook (1914-1997). who had journeyed to England in 1934 and set up a workshop near the famous circuit. Having gained much experience and made many contacts, Rex returned to Australia in 1938 and set up his motor cycle engineering business, first at the South Australian southern seaside resort of Victor Harbor (Goolwa actually), then later in metropolitan Adelaide. He sponsored Minett's migration to Australia in 1938. Both men were in their early 20s.
For a short period Denis settled in Adelaide. He was mate's with Rex Tilbrook in England and although he worked with Rex after the war he could have possibly worked with Rex when he first came here in 1938.
Denis was known as a competent Norton rider and this led him to meeting champion Norton racer Bruce Rehn (1906-1995). Bruce was a South Australian who had a motor garage at Houghton in the Adelaide Hills where his father was manager of the famed Glen Ewin jam factory. In the late 1930s Bruce sold up and went to Melbourne where he became a salesman for Norton distributor, Disney's of Elizabeth Street. Having annexed most of the South Australia records Bruce now tackled the Victorian records and became an ace competitor.
Minett entered the Australian Senior TT of 12 laps over 100 miles, held on Boxing Day 1938 at Lobethal in SA riding Bruce Rehn's rare racing 1934 Model 30 596c Norton International from which the sidecar had been removed. The 83/4mile per lap Lobethal TT has been compared by some as being the Australian equivalent of the Isle of Man TT with its surroundings, bends, curves and hills. Those who witnessed the race said it was the most thrilling event ever between George Hannaford of Melbourne, and Denis. The lead changed several times between the two and on the last six laps, it was wheel to wheel with George just pipping Denis on the line by half a wheel.
The race resulted in: 1st, G. Hannaford, Velocette, Victoria: 2nd, D. Minett, Norton, England; 3rd, Frank Mussett, Velocette, Victoria; 4th Clem Foster, 36P2 Norton, SA; 5th Doug Booth, Norton, WA. Hannaford and Mussett were riding the ex-Stanley Woods Velocette machines which Stanley brought out for the Centenary TT at Victor Harbour in 1936.
The finale of that Lobethal Senior was not without excitement. On their last lap, riders crossed the finish line by speeding straight ahead rather than brake and curve to the right around the hairpin to Charleston Straight. Approaching the finishing line, Jack Brown (SA) 348 Velocette KTT sponsored by Velocette dealer Lou Borgelt, who still had one more lap to go, found himself in a rather unenviable position, for hard on Jack's tail as they raced out of Lobethal, was Minett on his 596 Norton leading George on the 495 Velocette by 50 yards. The three riders blasted down the finishing straight at more than 115 mph with Minett and Hannaford rapidly overhauling Brown. As Brown was setting his line for the right hand comer hairpin for his final lap, the two leaders made a dash through for their finish.
Within 20 yards of the finishing line, the three riders were closely bunched together, George being the tail-ender. With Jack already on line, Minett, apparently forgetting in the heat of the moment that they had lapped the field, suddenly found his way blocked by Brown on his front left who, instead of going straight ahead, was obviously setting his curve into the hairpin and thus turning to the right in front of Minett. Denis braked hard to avoid a possible collision with Brown. Seizing the opportunity George raced through on the left verge and crossed the finishing line with a bare wheel to spare.
Minett lodged a protest against Hannaford passing him on the left-hand side to win, but the protest was not upheld. George won by one second. Immediately upon George dismounting from his Velocette, he apologised to Minett's team mate, Bruce Rehn saying, 'Really. Denis should have won but I had nowhere to go except take the line I was on.'
Speaking about the incident, Bruce related on 13/1/94. Minett should have won that race. George came over to me straight afterwards and said that he was really pressed hard to keep up with Minett, and but for Minett being blocked at the end and having to brake hard to avoid Jack, the race would have been ours. George was terribly apologetic about the incident and the decision giving him the win.
Minett's next feat was to take advantage of Bruce Rehn's attempt to annex records on the Pipe Clay track near Salt Creek on the Coorong in South Australia on Saturday, 11th March 1939. Speaking about the preparation of the Norton, Bruce Hector stated, 'Denis always did the work on the bike. Bruce would sort of let any knowledgeable person work on his bikes, although they would not just be anybody. He had the knack of perhaps 'conning,' if I might use that term, somebody to do the work, but they were always top people. Denis too, could use you up, he was a little mean that way, however, he was all right. He was a brilliant rider and he knew a lot about bikes.'
The Victorian entourage travelled from Melbourne for the weekend and set up camp in the bush on the edge of the Pipe Clay track, scene of a number of Australian and world records. Denis established eight records on the Pipe Clay track after having removed the sidecar, once more, from fellow Victorian and former South Australian, Bruce Rehn's record-breaking 1934, 596 International Model 30 Norton. Minett pressed the Norton to a Flying Start, Two-way, average speed of 124.1mph. Bruce had won the Sidecar TT at Lobethal in 1937 and 1939 and had gained wins at Phillip Island and Aspendale using the same outfit.
With sidecar re-attached after Minett's runs, and with diminutive SA racer Bruce Hector in the chair, Bruce Rehn then annexed several more records on the Pipe Clay. These records were established at the end of Adelaide's Les Fredericks' record-breaking 24-hour run on a Triumph Tiger 100 over the same course during which he had cut up the track quite considerably. 'We should have done better,' recalled Bruce, 'but Les had chopped up the track and it was very heavy going.' Les Frederick's partnered DKW's Ewald Kluge during the DKW team's visit to Australia in 1937 and 1939 with great rumours of espionage by team leader Baron von Oertzon.
Just prior to war breaking out Rex Tilbrook and Denis had dealer Sven Kallin sponsor them with a 250cc Zundapp two-stroke with which to attempt a 10,000-mile in ten days non-stop record. Denis took over the bike to begin running it in preparatory to the attempt. An accident on Main North Road, Adelaide, between his Zundapp motorcycle and a bus, in which he received two broken legs and a fractured skull, put an end to Minett's racing career.
'I believe,' said Bruce Hector in 1996, 'that Denis may have been run over by a bus and was badly broken up. Now why he manage to get run over by a bus we will never know, he was far too sharp for that sort of thing. He was on a little two-stroke, but he was too jolly sharp to just get run over by a bus, so something went wrong somewhere.' With the badly injured Minett in Royal Adelaide Hospital, where he would remain for quite some time, and the impending outbreak of war, Rex was having second thoughts about the record attempt. However, he partnered local motorcycle competitor Trev Richardson and tackled the record. Due to inconclusive recording and the outbreak of war two weeks after the record attempt, their feat of 10,000 miles in 10 days was never officially recognised. World War Two broke out on 3rd September 1939 when Britain announced that it was at war with Germany.
Bruce Rehn, speaking about Minett in 1994 said, 'We only learned much later, after he had been competing here, that Minett had been banned from racing whilst in England because he had suffered epileptic fits.' This explains the inexplicable accident with the Metropolitan Tramways bus. 'He was a bit of a ladies man,' recalled the late Bruce Rehn in 1994. 'Whilst in Adelaide he let the ladies escort him everywhere, they were buying him drinks and taking him out to lunch, he even stayed with various females. I said, 'Hey, you don't do that then:, you will soon wear out your welcome, the men pay to escort the ladies out to meals and so on.' Oh, he was a devil but he was becoming a bit wearying to the girls and so we told him to take it a bit quieter.'
Recalling Minett, Bruce Hector said, 'I knew Denis extremely well. He was Frances Beart's, the Brooklands man, top rider. Denis knew so much, of course he was a little cagey with his information, but nevertheless he told me quite a lot all the same, but he was still a little cagey.'
Eventually discharged from hospital, Denis relocated to Victoria where he worked for the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) at Fisherman's Bend in Melbourne where Bruce Rehn who was foreman, and Bruce Hector of South Australia who also worked in the factory.
Denis knew how to work his contacts. Bruce Hector enlisted in the RAAF and experienced the horrors of Pacific jungle warfare at Tarakan at the time of the infamous Japanese Sandakan forced march when some 2000 Australian prisoners lost their lives.
The later World Champion Speedway rider, Bob Bakey Leverenz, then only 17 years of age, purchased the Zundapp two-stroke from his employer, Sven Kallin, and rebuilt it. 'It was the sweetest bike imaginable,' remarked Bakey in 1999. Bakey, then joined the RAN in 1940 and served the duration of the war on the N Class Destroyers. Demobilised in 1946, the ever-smiling, tall, blonde, Bakey took on speedway riding and gained an illustrious speedway career both in Australia and England. A hero to many he now lives quietly at Aldinga alongside Sellick's Beach.
Until the day he passed away some 50 years later, Minett still suffered problems with one leg. This made him ineligible for armed-service call-up, for the war was gaining momentum, and he returned to England. The experience gained at CAC stood him in good stead for he apparently spent the war years with an aircraft firm. His knowledge and qualifications, whatever they now were, gained him admittance to the Institution of Aeronautical Engineers. Little is known in Australia of his services during the horrors of war but, sometime after the cessation of hostilities in September 1945, Minett found employment as a tuner with the Vincent-HRD firm at Stevenage. The Vincent factory were gearing up for production of the Rapide and required qualified staff. Toward the end of 1946 the firm placed half-page advertisements in The Motor Cycle and Motor Cycling seeking employees. Minett was one of many who responded and was initially taken on as tester. The Rapide had a long gestation period, from early 1944 to 1946.
At the factory Denis met the brilliant, but self-effacing Australian designer, Phil Irving. It is not certain exactly when he went to Vincent H.R.D., probably early 1947. An item in the South Australian The Express of 02/08/47 states: 'Denis Minett is now reported to be engaged in road testing by the H.R.D. factory. His many friends in this State will be pleased to learn that he is fit again after his Adelaide accident, and is associated with motor cycles once more.' Phil Irving had rejoined Vincent in 1945 having moved over to Velocette before the outbreak of war. He fell victim to a bomb in 1940 and was disabled with injuries for three months. During this convalescing period he drew the original layout for the LE Velocette. Back at Vincent in 1945 he was put in charge of design and development work for the Series 'B' Vincent.
Denis was obviously a capable person and before long was placed in charge of the Black Shadow assembly line. It was in 1948 that David Bowen began work at Stevenage and became associated with Denis. David is now resident at Glenelg, a seaside resort of Adelaide, and has acquired the reputation of being a Vincent specialist and aficionado.
Whilst at the factory Denis met visiting H.R.D. dealers from Adelaide, his old friends Sven and Ray Kallin in June 1947. Official H.R.D. factory documents show that Kallin's had gained the South Australian H.R.D. agency in 1946 for the proposed new 998cc HRD Rapide. Kallin's gained the agency in response to an advertisement for Australian agents that the H.R.D. Company had placed in Motor Cycling late in 1944. The H.R.D. name was not changed to the more modern Vincent until 1949. As I recall it coincided in Australia with the change from Brampton forks to the modem Girdraulics, but this is a generalism. Wal Murphy wrote in The Express of 09/12/49: 'The initials H.R.D. are to be dropped from the model name Vincent H.R.D. on 1950 mounts. The name Vincent only, will be used, as it has been found that the longer title has been causing some confusion between makes of machines in overseas countries. The name Vincent is more easily referred to in some foreign languages.'
Following Kallin's visit, Wal J Murphy, General Secretary of the Motor Cycle Club of SA, the governing body of motor cycle sport, wrote in his Motor Cycling Page in The Express of 14/02/48: 'Denis Minett has asked Sven Kallin to extend greetings to the many South Australian friends he made while in Adelaide. He is particularly grateful to the medical and nursing staff of the Royal Adelaide Hospital who were so attentive to him during his long stay at that institution following a serious accident. This English rider states that he is coming back to South Australia.'
Minett and his wife emigrated back to Australia, sailing on the Orion which arrived in Adelaide in mid-January 1951. Recalled Bruce Hector, 'Denis was a tester for Vincent in England. He came back to South Australia after the war and Enid and I went down to the boat to meet him. By this time Rex Tilbrook had started his engineering factory at Kensington and Denis worked for him, I think.' The visionary Rex had expanded his Kensington factory and his workforce were busy building Tilbrook motorcycles and the sleek Tilbrook sidecars which became so popular.
Denis maintained his association with the Vincent H.R.D. factory. In Adelaide he continued that association through Vincent-HRD dealer Sven Kallin.
However, he still had the wanderlust and, finding Adelaide to be far too quiet, he and his wife settled in Mildura where he worked as foreman, or manager, in charge of a new ladies knitwear factory, Prestige that was started in 11th Street. Whilst in Mildura he formed a friendship with motorcycle dealer, New Zealander, George Winton, and tuned George's racing bikes. Many are the anecdotes recounted in this remote, fruit-growing city.
In trying to trace his steps in 1997 I travelled to Mildura located in picturesque country on the River Murray in and far north-west Victoria. I took the opportunity for a quick photographic 'fang' around the circuit that was used for the Mildura Road Classics of our exuberant youth from 1954-56, and relived those heady, early years. Englishmen, Bill Lomas and Dickie Dale, raced on this circuit over Christmas 1955. I recalled the time a drunken, local orchardist somehow or other managed to get on to the main straight of the track with his new Riley saloon. In the face of oncoming competitors and ignoring shouts, abuse and thrown stones from spectators, he headed down the main straight to his orchard. At over 100 mph none of the leading competitors were game to stop for fear of being rammed from behind by other racers, hairy stuff indeed.
I sought out elderly Ron Olson, founder of the Mildura MCC and organiser of those Mildura Classics, and asked him about Denis. Long-retired businessman, Ron, still goes for a quiet blast on any one of his three Superbikes. 'Oh, Denis was manager of the ladies stocking and underwear manufacturer here for a couple of years. He formed a friendship with motorcycle dealer George Winton and Winton put him on his Grand Prix Triumph for the Ballarat TT at Victoria Park. He was a great disappointment to George with the way he rode it. George was expecting greater things. Denis might have been out of touch with racing by this time. Allen Melville, Winton's business partner whom you raced against, tuned the Triumph and Denis might have made a few last minute adjustments, I got to know Denis quite well in the couple of years that he was here. He even presented me with a couple of air intakes off Rollie Free's Vincent, they were an enormous size. I have them stuck in my workshop somewhere. Denis was a marvellous tuner, he had tuned Rollie's record-breaking Vincent.'
However, it was not long before he relocated to Melbourne, now the home of Vincent designer, Phil Irving, who had returned to his native country in November 1949. Denis found employment with car manufacturer VW Australia who were, in 1953, commencing to establish a nation-wide network of sales of what became the ubiquitous beetle car. Co-incidentally, this enterprise was being set up by the same Baron von Oertzon whom the English security service M15 had tailed during the 1938 and 1939 DKW team TT campaigns in Australia. No doubt Denis and the Baron would have swapped reminiscences. Interestingly this writer, just a mere minion, left GM-H and worked for VW from 1953 to 1959 meeting neither Denis nor the Baron.
Later, Denis joined that big steel-making Australian, BHP. All the time he retained his interest in tuning racing engines and maintaining his friendship with living. 'He was very good at tuning BSA Bantam engines,' recalled Bruce Hector who established a number of records at Sellick's Beach on his tuned Bantam in March 1950.
Finally, in retirement in Melbourne, Denis and Phil Irving became sought-after Dinner speakers and kept many an audience enthralled with stories and reminiscences of their motorcycling experiences.
Former General Manager of the AC-U of South Australia, Darrell Rowe remarked in August 2000, 'Rex Tilbrook and l went to Melbourne for a meeting and visited Denis just before he was killed. He was a jovial little bloke, it was the first time I had met him. We would not have got a cup of tea out of him but I could have stayed up all night chatting to him about motor cycles. He was just so interesting. Of course Rex would never ruin a good story for the sake of the truth neither. ' Tragically, Denis was killed in a car accident in July 1989 at the age of 74.
Somewhere, there is probably much that has been recorded and written about Denis for he is one who is surely deserving of a full book on his life.
By David C Spencer. (1934-2009) ©15/08/00
Motorcycle Historian and Founder of the Veteran Motor Cycle-Competitors Association of South Australia.
