Spent the day reading The Noel Harris Story - harry the ride of my life.
What an awesomely put together book. Wally O'Hearn did a fab job on writing this with Noel. Love the way Noel's sense of humor and his directness comes through. Please ... Please ... Please ... go buy this book and read it.
The Harris family were no strangers to tragedy as they had a rider death in their family. Jock Harris, Noels dad lost his brother Des (Dodo) Harris in an accident at Marton RC on New Years Day 1952 when Des was only 18 years old.
I was interested to see the other names of riders Noel mentions as losing their lives at the time they were riders. I have a couple of new names to follow up. The guys who are riders who die off the course are often forgotten as their names aren't attached to a racecourse and can easily slip into oblivion. I'll update you when I discover more. Des Tucker & Mark Heaney were the names mentioned in the book. I also have a Murray Alexander (Pedro) who died in a car accident in 1958 found his name in a newspaper article.
If you do know of anyone else that should be on my list, give me a bell and I'll look them up. Rather waste some time researching than let someone remain unidentified.
