Motorcycling was my only transport from 1955 to 1958. First one was a 198cc James Captain 2-stroke, after that a 350cc Royal Enfield, and Finally a 500cc Triumph Tiger 100 twin, on which I twice came close to buying the farm. After that I graduated to 4 wheels (a rusted-out 1939 Austin 8 stretches the definition "car.")
My older brother and I went to a lot of m/c Motor Cross and racing events, but after witnessing a fatal crash and being close to another, I developed a lifetime inability to watch anything like this, including air races or displays. Big Bro and I were at the Silverstone GP in 1955 and we knew something bad had happened during the Clubman event (amateurs on street bikes) when the marshalls all put out red flags ["All riders stop immediately."] We heard later that a young fellow had crashed and died. The most harrowing part was when the public address came on and asked if someone could give [name] a lift home. It was his wife - now widow.
The only time we went across to the IOM TT we were spectators on Bray Hill when one-time European champion Les Graham, who had almost won the previus year, and was favorite for this year, came down, full throttle as you had to do if you were to stand a chance of finishing high up the list, and lost it yards from us. There were no - repeat, no - crash barriers (there are only a tiny few today), so if you lost it you were probably going to hit a house, wall, tree, telephone pole etc. He hit a bridge abutment. It was doubly tragic as Les had been a Lancaster pilot in WWII, receiving the DFC for bravery.
Fast-forward to 1971(?) when the National Air Races were held away from Reno for the first (and as it turned out, last) time; at Cape May NJ. We were on vacation at the beach so I took my son to see one of the events, where almost all planes were souped-up AT-6 Harvards (SNJ to Navy guys) with the engines putting out over 1,000hp - three times the original. Rounding a pylon, one guy hit another's slipstream and augered in. The next time round the lead pilots must have been looking at the flaming pyre, as two touched wings and one more went down. That was enough for me.
