Derek Yorke

Record type: Motorsport Biographies

Biography: Age 33, D.R. Yorke is a welder and panel beater, and comes from Chelmsford, Essex. He was National Grass Track (Sidecar) Champion in 1953 and has several times been Eastern Centre Sidecar champion. He has already ridden in five sidecar T.T.'s - those of 1954, '55, '57, '59 and '60 finishing 14th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 10th respectively. His speed last year over the Mountain Course was 72.72 m.p.h., and he won a Bronze Replica.

Hobby: "Record collecting" - opera. (TT Special, 16 June 1961, p.27.)

Sidecar - Norton

Age 27, Derek Yorke is a welder and panel beater, from Chelmsford, Essex. His sidecar racing experience began in 1951 at Boreham Airfield, with a Rudge-J.A.P. out-fit - and it was at Boreham the following year that he scored his first victory, winning the sidecar handicap after a hard scarp with Ernie Walker.

During 1952 and ’53 Derek had various successes on the “grass,” including winning the Eastern Centre Sidecar Championship in both years, and the National Grass-Track Championship in this class last year. In last years Sidecar T.T. he was 14th, at 55.41 m.p.h. Earlier this year he was third in the Crystal Palace handicap sidecar race.

His hobby is music, and he has a fine collection of gramophone records of operatic and classical scores.

The machine he rides started life as a pre-war Norton, but it was completely rebuilt in 1951, and is now coupled to a sidecar built by the driver.
(TT Special, 10 June 1955, p.25.)

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