Jerez de la Frontera’- Spain 

With start and prize money gained from all four races since arriving in Spain and with the 125 and 250 Parillas continuing to prove reliable, I was beginning to really enjoy the Spanish series, not withstanding my earlier encounter with the Spanish ‘lurgi’ from which I was now beginning to fully recover.

With more time and less financial pressure, I was looking forward to the remainder of the races with much more optimism than I had when leaving the UK. The almost constant sunshine was also most welcoming, particularly after the adverse conditions experienced earlier at Dundrod, in North Ireland.

Leaving Valladolid and our idyllic location, we headed South West in convoy taking the scenic rout to Jerez through the heart of Spain via Salamanca, Caceres, Merida, then spending some time in the city of Servilla, a city which I consider to be one of the worlds finest, before we all moved on to Jerez de la Frontera.

It is perhaps time I feel for me to explain how our group of riders, ‘the Colonials’ and I, had on our arrival in Bilbao come to unanimously adopt Ramon Robinson to be our de facto leader and spokesman when it came to seeking directions, ordering meals and negotiating, when necessary, with race organisers in Spain.

Apart from being a very level headed sort of guy, Ramon and his parents had lived for a number of years in Venezuela where he had attended the local school and as a result spoke fluent Spanish, a unique accomplishment within our group! Ramon also knew his way around Spain, having previously travelled throughout the country when visiting to purchase and collect his 125 TSS from the Bultaco factory.

Ramon & Andy Rickman with the Parilla 250

The first time I met Ramon and his travelling companion and fellow racer Andy Rickman, was at the Capriolo/Parilla UK Importers, service and parts Workshop in Croydon, south London, back in October 1963. Here they were preparing their bikes including their shared 250 Parilla and planning their campaign for riding in the Circus the following season

Ramon and Andy had apparently come to a deal with Cyril Ashford whereby he allowed them to use the Capriolo/Parilla Workshop in exchange for them agreeing to service and repair (unpaid) some of Ashford’s customers motorcycles.

On our arrival in Jerez, Ramon led us to a bar fronting a very dark warehouse, full of large casks of various grades of ‘Fino’ being kept cool out of the heat of the Spanish sun. Here Ramon was greeted like a long lost son, I never found out how this came about, but it turned out that the Bar was owed by the Club secretary and/or one of the organisers of the races. Having had a good meal and now more than announced our arrival in town, we moved on to a camp site some way out to the South East of Jerez, here we were to be based for the duration of the races.

Again in the 60’s the Jerez street circuit was situated very close to the centre of town and was very similar in shape to the Valladolid circuit. Up one side and down the other side of a dual carriage way connected by a sharp hairpin bend at one end and then at the other end, around a block of buildings including a small open air market before returning onto the dual carriage way and the start and finish line once again.

As in the case of the Bilbao and Valladolid races, the Jerez circuit races were also run in an anti clockwise direction. As in Bilbao and Valladolid, there was a tremendous atmosphere in Jerez during the ‘Feira’ and throughout the practice sessions and races. Indeed it was as if the whole town were involved, one way or another, with the races and in supporting the riders of all nationalities.

The enthusiasm of the spectators was so high that there was a serious risk of injury at times to both riders and spectators when they pushed forward against the barrier ropes around the circuit to such an extent that on some occasions they were actually sitting or standing on the circuit whilst the racing was in progress!

On more than one occasion I came around a bend to find that the straw bales which had been placed on the outside of the circuit bend, had been pushed further in during the race! This all made for exciting racing and fortunately, to the best of my knowledge, nobody was seriously injured during the races on this occasion, although one or two of the riders who did fall, claimed they were brought down by spectators.

My practice sessions on both the 125 and 250 went quite well all though, once again, I was finding that my standard Parilla front brakes were not up to stopping the bikes quickly enough at the extremely sharp hairpin bends on these short circuits. This allowed some of the riders with better brakes and/or lighter bikes, to pass me when we were approaching these tight bends. This was something I had not been accustomed to before coming to Spain!

Once again under a clear blue sky the 125 race got under way. Starting from the 3rd row of the grid, I had a reasonable start and was running in about 10th place at the end of the 2nd or 3rd lap. From this position I only managed to pass 2 or 3 more riders during the rest of this 20 lap race, however, with some of the riders ahead of me sliding off or pulling out for one reason or another, my position kept improving and I only just missed out on another podium finish when taking 4th place, after what I thought had been, for me, a fairly steady race.

The 250 race turned out to be more of a struggle when after a fairly good start from again the 3rd row of the grid, I soon became mixed up with a group of 5 or 6 riders including a Montesa, an Ossa and a Ducati, in addition to two hot Bultacos.

Ramon Torras on his Works Bultaco and Barry Smith on his Aermacchi had very good starts and were well out ahead of our group.

Slipstreaming down the straights and then trying to out brake each other at the hairpin bends, I cannot now remember just how many times we changed positions in our group as we all battled to get ahead, during the whole of this 25 lap race.

At about half way distance through the race our group had been reduced to only 3 or 4 riders. We were very close together rounding the square, with its open air market, when suddenly without any warning a Bultaco seized up right in front of me. Fortunately the rider and I were both at the point of changing down to 3rd or 2nd gear and leaning over as we were diving into the right hand bend leading onto the start and finishing straight. One second he was there and in the next he was gone, hitting the straw bales and Armco type barrier dividing each side of the dual carriage way just at that point. I must have come within inches of hitting the rider and his bike but the incident was fortunately, for me, all over even before I had any time to react to the situation.

By the time we came around on the next lap the rider and his bike had been removed but there was still straw all over the place at the point of the incident and for more than 100 m’s further down the circuit!

At this point of the race I had already worked out that the only chance I had of beating my close companions to the finishing line would be if I could slipstream and pass them down the long straight on the last lap and stay in front of them as we went into the square and market section for the last time. For once my plan and the execution of it all came together and I crossed the finishing line in 3rd position just feet ahead of the other finishers in the group.

In addition to the prize money I was later presented with the most impressive silver ‘Valdespino Trofeo’ for I assumed my 250 race finish.

With Barry Smith also gaining, a podium place finish in one or more of the races, the Colonials and I along with our local supporters had quite a party in Jerez de la Frontera that night, the details of which I had conveniently forgotten by the morning!

It was at about this stage through the Spanish Series that my close friends noticed I often repeated the phrase "this is the life"..... and it was.

With a break from racing RM relaxes at the Jerez camp site with his 125 and 250 Moto Parillas,

There had been another meeting originally planned following the Jerez meeting for Malaga or Valencia, I cannot now remember in which of the cities it was to have been but in any event it was cancelled (claimed at the time for lack of funds). This left the non-Spanish international riders with time to kill before setting off to Montjuic Park, Barcelona. Some of us drove down to Gibraltar whilst others, it seems, made for Mallorca for the final event in the European Hill Climb Championship.

I went with the group to Gibraltar where 3 or 4 of us took the ferry across the straits to Tangier for a day, my very first of many visits to come to Africa.

Returning from Tangier to "The Rock" late in the evening of the same day we stayed the night in our vans before setting off for Barcelona the following morning.