Ken Willis

Record type: Motorsport Biographies

Biography: Mount: Senior – Norton

Age 32, Ken Willis is a motor cycle mechanic and comes from Dunmow, Essex. He has had considerable experience of short circuit racing at meetings such as Blandford, Boreham, Brand’s Hatch, Silverstone and Thruxton, and has taken part in a number of races over the T.T. course.

The first of these was the 1950 Junior Clubman’s, in which he finished eighth on a B.S.A. at 71.47 m.p.h. He retired in the Junior Manx three months later, and packed up again in the same event in 1951, but in the following year he conquered his hoodoo and finished in both Junior and Senior Manx events – 29th (on an A.J.S.) in the Junior and 27th in the Senior on the same machine.

His first T.T. was in 1953, when he rode a 949 A.J.S. into 33rd place to gain bronze replica. On the same machine he retired in the 1954 T.T. but went on to finish 48th in the following Friday’s Senior race. He was not entered for the 1955 races, and this year he rides a Norton in the Senior event.
(TT Special, 8 June 1956, p.18.)

Age 27; a cinema projectionist, of Dunmow, Essex. Has had experience of grass track racing in the Eastern and South-Eastern centres, his first “road race” being at Silverstone last April, in which he finished fourth in the 350 Clubman’s event. Machine, B.S.A. Gold Star. Hobbies: “Gardening, though more as a necessity than a hobby – keeps one fit as well as helping to keep body and soul together.”

Entered by Chelmsford & D.A.C.
(TT Special, 7 June 1950, p.20.)

Competed in

Comments