Ted Mellors

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A 350 cm³ Velocette KTT Mk8, built in 1939, as also piloted by Mellors.

Edward Ambrose "Ted" Mellors (born April 10, 1907 in Chesterfield , Derbyshire , † June 7, 1946 in Birmingham ) was a British motorcycle racer .

In 1938 he won the title in the 350 cm³ class of the European motorcycle championship on a Velocette .

Life

family

Ted Mellors was one of five sons of a wheelwright and the daughter of a clergyman. Two of his brothers drowned in a canal as children . From a young age, Mellors had a desire to become a racing driver and spent a lot of time riding motorcycles in the Derbyshire mountains. At the age of 15 he met his future wife. When he found out she was six years his senior, he pretended to be 17 because he was afraid she wouldn't go out with him otherwise. After just seven months, the two married.

In 1936, when Mellors became a factory rider at Velocette , the couple moved to Shirley, near Birmingham , where Velocette was based, and had two daughters.

Motorcycle racing

In 1927, around the age of 20, Ted Mellors finished tenth at the Manx Grand Prix on a P&M Panther . In 1928 he competed in the Isle of Man TT for the first time and immediately finished sixth in the senior race on his Norton .

Ted Mellors subsequently became one of the few British pilots before the Second World War who competed in races in continental Europe , among other things because of the prize money awarded . In 1930 he achieved his first Grand Prix victory in the 250 cm³ race for the UMF Grand Prix in Pau on New Imperial , which was followed by numerous other victories in major races across Europe by 1939 on New Imperial, Velocette and NSU .

From 1936 Mellors started as a works rider for Velocette , and when the European motorcycle championship in 1938 was not decided in just one run, as was the case up to then, but consisted of several races today, the big hour struck. The Briton mainly competed in the 350cc class and won the European championship races for the Ulster Grand Prix in Northern Ireland , the Dutch TT in the Netherlands and the Grand Prix of Nations in Italy . He also secured two second prizes and won the European Championship title ahead of his compatriot, the Norton works driver “Crasher” White , and Siegfried Wünsche from Germany on DKW .

In 1939 , Ted Mellors was again in the limelight in the 350 European Championship. He took three second places and won the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps . However, the championship was not ended because of the outbreak of World War II and canceled after seven out of nine races. At this point in time, the Briton was still in second place with a chance for the title, behind German DKW works driver Heiner Fleischmann , who was declared European champion.

At the Isle of Man TT, the largest, most prestigious and at the same time most difficult race of the time, Mellors were not granted such successes for a long time. Only in 1931 in the lightweight (250 cm³) and in 1936 in the junior race (350 cm³) achieved two podium places with third place. In 1938 he only had to admit defeat to his Irish team-mate Stanley Woods in the junior run . At the Isle of Man TT 1939, Ted Mellors competed in the lightweight class on an Italian Benelli and drove a single-cylinder machine with two overhead , spur- gear - driven camshafts . After seven laps with a total distance of 264.131  mi (425.078  km ) on the Snaefell Mountain Course and over three and a half hours, Mellors won his first and only TT race ahead of German DKW works driver Ewald Kluge and H. G. Tyrell-Smith ( Excelsior ).

In September 1939 the racing activities were stopped because of the Second World War. This also meant the end of Ted Mellors' career.

Second World War

During the Second World War Mellors worked for an ammunition manufacturer and was in the volunteer fire department . He also applied to the Royal Air Force , but was not accepted because of his poor eyesight, even though he already had a private flight license.

In the early 1940s, Mellors designed a rotary valve that was patented under number 559830 in March 1944 .

After his active career, Ted Mellors wrote the manuscript for the book Continental Circus . In this he describes the experiences of a group of racing drivers from Great Britain and the Commonwealth of which he was a member and who competed in the Grand Prix races in Europe in the 1930s . These pilots included, for example, Jimmie Guthrie , Wal Handley , Eric Fernihough , Jimmie Simpson and Graham Walker . After his death, this manuscript was completed and published by Geoff Davison. Ted Mellors also wrote articles for motorcycle and aviation magazines and worked on an unpublished, fictional biography .

death

Ted Mellors died on June 7, 1946 at the age of 39 of complications from poisoning . Two days after moving to a new house on Etwall Road , Hall Green, Birmingham , he was working on a car in the garage and choking on the exhaust fumes from poor ventilation . The day before, he had complained of being unwell after doing the same job.

He was buried in Robin Hood Cemetery , Birmingham.

statistics

title

Isle of Man TT victories

year class machine Average speed
1939 Lightweight (250 cm³) Benelli 74.26  mph (119.51  km / h )

Race wins

(colored background = European championship run )

year class machine run route
1930 250 cc New Imperial UMF Grand Prix Circuit de Pau
1931 250 cc New Imperial Belgian Grand Prix Spa Francorchamps
1932 250 cc New Imperial Belgian Grand Prix Spa Francorchamps
250 cc New Imperial Ulster Grand Prix Clady Circuit
250 cc New Imperial Dutch TT Circuit van Drenthe
1933 250 cc New Imperial Dutch TT Circuit van Drenthe
1934 350 cc Velocette Swedish Grand Prix Saxtorp
1935 350 cc NSU Eilenriederennen Eilenriede
350 cc NSU Hockenheim motorcycle races Hockenheimer triangle
1936 350 cc Velocette UMF Grand Prix Circuit du Comminges
350 cc NSU Eilenriederennen Eilenriede
350 cc Velocette Belgian Grand Prix Circuit de Floreffe
350 cc NSU Schleizer triangle race Schleizer triangle
1937 350 cc Velocette UMF Grand Prix Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry
500 cc Velocette UMF Grand Prix Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry
350 cc Velocette Ulster Grand Prix Clady Circuit
350 cc Velocette Swedish Grand Prix Saxtorp
350 cc Velocette Grand Prix of Nations Autodromo Nazionale Monza
1938 350 cc Velocette Ulster Grand Prix Clady Circuit
350 cc Velocette Dutch TT Circuit van Drenthe
350 cc Velocette Grand Prix of Nations Autodromo Nazionale Monza
1939 350 cc Velocette Belgian Grand Prix Spa Francorchamps

References

literature

  • Ted Mellors, Geoff Davison: Continental Circus . And Other Races Between the Wars. Birmingham 1949.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c cf. Biography on the Isle of Man TT official website
  2. ↑ MARRC 1927 MARRC Results. www.iomtt.com, accessed on September 16, 2013 (English).
  3. ↑ TT 1939 Lightweight TT Results. www.iomtt.com, accessed on September 16, 2013 (English).
  4. ↑ THE MELLORS ROTARY VALVE SYSTEM: 1940s. www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com, accessed on September 16, 2013 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Mellors, Ted
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mellors, Edward Ambrose (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British motorcycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Chesterfield
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 1946
Place of death Birmingham