PastImperfect: The Duke - 'like water flowing from a tap'A baker's son from Lancashire born in 1923, Geoff Duke, contested 87 world championship races over 10 years, winning 33, and being placed second or third in another 17, in the process winning six world championships. On the Isle of Man he started the Tourist Trophy races 13 times, winning six, placing second twice and fourth once.
It was the great Stanley Woods who likened Duke's style on a racing motorcycle to "water flowing from a tap" reflecting his incredibly smooth style of riding.
Like several of the great motorcyclists of his era, Geoff Duke also tried his hand at racing cars, driving Aston Martins, single-seaters and even tackling the Monte Carlo Rally in a Sunbeam Talbot. At the height of his motorcycle career in the 1950s, Duke was a sporting superstar rivalling soccer's Stanley Matthews or cricket's Denis Compton.
Overcoming parental opposition to his acquiring a motorcycle - his elder brother had been seriously injured on one - Duke purchased an old Raleigh, soon afterwards replacing it with a 500cc Triumph, which gave him his first taste of competitive riding.
Duke spent the second World War instructing riders for the Royal Corps of Signals and also performed on the RSC's display team. He became an outstanding trials rider, which led him to go to work after the war in Norton's competition department, becoming a member of their trials team.
He also made his racing debut in the Junior Manx Grand Prix of 1948 on a 350cc Norton loaned by his employer.
If there was a single characteristic that set him apart from his rivals, it was his meticulous approach. Before that first race on the island, he spent a week learning every element that went to make up the 37.7-mile circuit. In the race, his first lap, from a standing start, was four seconds faster than he had managed in practice. Forced to retire on the fourth lap when an oil tank split, he was astonished to learn that he had been leading when he retired.
In 1952, legendary team manager John Wyer gave him a trial in an Aston Martin racing car at the MIRA test track. Despite Duke requesting that he not be timed until he "got the hang of the car" - he had never driven a racing car previously - Wyer recorded his second lap as only one second slower than the car's best ever time, and Duke easily smashed the team's lap record.
Duke rarely seemed to have fortune smile upon his efforts when he raced cars and showed little reward for his efforts in various sports and single-seater race cars. When he retired from motorsport it was as one of the most successful and well-respected riders that ever sat on a fast motorcycle, famous for his style of riding and his attention to the minutiae of racing.