Percy Hunt

Percy "Tim" Hunt (* 1908 in Manchester or Heywood ; † after 1937) was a British motorcycle racer .

Tim Hunt's greatest ability was a natural ability to drive. Despite having little experience with motorcycle technology compared to other riders, he rarely had to deal with technical problems.

Career

Hunt was born in 1908 and was baptized Percy , but was quickly nicknamed Tim after the cartoon character Tiger Tim . His parents were wealthy and his mother enthusiastically supported his career financially.

Norton CS1 racing machine from 1931

Tim Hunt took his first major road win in 1927 on Norton in the senior amateur TT race on the Isle of Man . In 1928 he won the race again on a new Norton CS1 , breaking Stanley Woods' existing lap record . He also won the Scottish Six Day's Trial on his CS1 that year . At the 1929 European Motorcycle Championship held in L'Ametlla del Vallès , Spain , about 30 kilometers north of Barcelona , in October 1929 , Hunt won the European Championship title in the 500cc class on Rudge . He prevailed in the half-liter against his compatriots Graham Walker (also Rudge) and Charlie Dodson ( Sunbeam ).

Because of these successes, Hunt was hired by Norton as a works driver . In 1931 he became the first rider in the history of the Isle of Man TT to win both junior and senior races in one year . In both races he prevailed against his Scottish teammate Jimmie Guthrie . In Junior -Lauf Hunt succeeded the fastest race lap . In the senior race it was teammate Jimmie Simpson who set the fastest lap on the first 80 mph lap in TT history. However, Simpson did not achieve the goal. A few weeks later, Hunt won the half- liter run at the 12ème Grand Prix de l'UMF in Montlhéry ahead of Australian Arthur Simcock ( OK-Supreme ) and his team-mate Jimmie Guthrie, thus securing his second European title in this displacement class.

In continental Europe races , Hunt and Woods used to drive the 500cc machines, while Guthrie and Simpson drove the 350s. Norton was extremely dominant in both categories at the time. Hunt won the 1931 half-liter run of the Dutch TT and the 350 race of the Swiss Grand Prix . In 1932 he again won the 500 cc race on the Circuit van Drenthe in Assen .

In the 1933 racing season, the Norton team started with an unchanged line-up. Again the victories were split between Hunt and Woods. Percy Hunt won the 350cc race in Switzerland and the half-liter races at the Grand Prix de l'UMF and in Belgium .

For the Ulster Grand Prix of the 1933 season, the stable order of the Norton team stipulated that Hunt should win the 500cc race. The Irishman Stanley Woods, whose home race was the Ulster Grand Prix was angry. He ignored the team order and took an early lead in the race. Hunt caught up with him and the two fought a wheel-to-wheel duel over several laps. Eventually Hunt had to retire due to a defective steering damper and Woods won the race by a large margin.

The Norton team traveled from Ireland to Saxtorp , where the Swedish Grand Prix , at which the European Championship was held this year , took place on September 3rd . The event turned into a disaster for Hunt. The Swedish Husqvarnas with the works drivers Ragnar Sunnqvist and Gunnar Kalén were expected to be the sharpest rivals . Woods and Hunt pulled away from the start. While refueling, they were overtaken by Sunnqvist. Then Woods, Hunt and Sunnqvist fought a slipstream fight on the start-finish straight . When the local Eric Lundberg, who had to be lapped, suddenly slowed down his pace due to a technical defect, Woods and Sunnqvist were lucky enough to avoid it. Hunt, lying flat on the tank with his torso, saw the driver too late and hit him. Lundberg was thrown into the air, hit the asphalt head first, and died on the way to Landskrona hospital . Hunt suffered a broken thigh and hip, among other things. He spent the first three months in the hospital in Sweden . Then he was brought to England by plane . In the first five years after the accident, Hunt had to undergo repeated operations. As a consequence of the accident, the injured leg was permanently shortened.

Percy Hunt never competed again after the accident at the 1933 Swedish Grand Prix. Contemporaries attested that if he had followed racing activities more seriously, he could have become one of the best drivers of his era. More than two decades after Hunt's serious accident, Norton's longtime race director Joe Craig said he'd only looked after two drivers with a natural racing talent - Tim Hunt and six-time world champion Geoff Duke in the 1950s.

statistics

title

• 1929 - 500 cc European champion on Norton
• 1931 - 500 cc European champion on Norton

Isle of Man TT victories

year	class	machine	Average speed
1931	Junior (350 cm³)	Norton	73.94  mph (118.99  km / h )
	Senior (500 cm³)	Norton	77.90 mph (125.37 km / h)

North West 200 Victories

year	class	machine	Average speed
1930	350 cc	Norton	66.37  mph (106.81  km / h )
1933	350 cc	Norton	71.04 mph (114.33 km / h)
	500 cc	Norton	73.62 mph (118.48 km / h)

More victories

(colored background = European championship run )

year	class	machine	run	route
1927	500 cc	Norton	Amateur TT	Mountain Course
1928	500 cc	Norton	Amateur TT	Mountain Course
1929	500 cc	Norton	VI. FICM Grand Prix	L'Ametlla del Vallès
1931	500 cc	Norton	12ème Grand Prix de l'UMF	Montlhéry
	500 cc	Norton	VII. Dutch TT	Circuit van Drenthe
	350 cc	Norton	VIII. Swiss Grand Prix	Bremgarten
1932	500 cc	Norton	VIII. Dutch TT	Circuit van Drenthe
1933	350 cc	Norton	X. Swiss Grand Prix	Bremgarten
	500 cc	Norton	14ème Grand Prix de l'UMF	Dieppe
	500 cc	Norton	XIII. Belgian Grand Prix	Spa Francorchamps

References

Web links

• Percy Hunt on the Isle of Man TT official website.
• Percy Hunt on the Manx Grand Prix Official Website
• Vincent Glon: Tim Hunt. www.vintagenorton.com, December 8, 2009, accessed March 31, 2019 . 
• Murray McLeod: Norton's Tim Hunt - A Talented Tearaway from the 1930s motorcycle-racing.suite101.com, June 9, 2009, accessed March 31, 2019, available at https://web.archive.org/web/ 20090615222206 / http: //motorcycle-racing.suite101.com/article.cfm/nortons_tim_hunt

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vincent Glon: L 'HISTOIRE DU GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE. racingmemo.free, accessed on March 31, 2019 (French). 
2. ↑ Vincent Glon: L'Histoire de la course moto; 5th partie: Les Grand Prix d'Europe. (1924-1937); 1931. racingmemo.free, accessed on March 31, 2019 (French). 
3. ↑ Eric Lundberg. motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on March 31, 2019 .