Aaaaah! How the mists of time cloud our memory's.

"The Jury upheld the decision of the Clerk of the Course to exclude F. Launchbury from the results of the 125c for having an engine 1.2cc oversize".

Fred had achieved a race average speed of 84 mph,only beaten by the late Dave Simmons on the works Kawasaki and Kel Carruthers in the worls Aermacchi,I gotta say that must have been one quick bantam.

Actually the highest place Fred ever achieved on a Bantam was 20th in the 1967 125 at a race average of just over 73mph.

It definitely was a TSS watercooled Bulto, the pity for Fred was that probably most of them were a bit oversize, mine included, because the bores were near to the bone if not a tad oversize when brand new and they were notorious for wearing cylinder bores.

Fred was another dedictated rider with 28 T.T starts under his belt a and smashing modest bloke.

He had a bike shop as well in Raynes Park, London and had a greyhound or wippet that went everywhere with him.

Sadly Fred died from injuries received in an accident at Glen Trammon while having a good race for a leaderboard position with Tommy Robb on the third lap of the 1979 Formula 111 race.