Eric Fernihough
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Eric Crudgington Fernihough (17 February 1905 – 23 April 1938) was a British
motorcycle racer The motorcycle sport of racing (also called moto racing and motorbike racing) includes motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Other categories include hill climbs, drag racing and ...
. He was born in Liscard, Cheshire, United Kingdom in 1905 as the ninth child of Jane and John Fernihough. Eric’s mother was at the time recorded working as a stewardess for the Cunard steamship line and It appears that all but Jane’s grown-up children were then in care. Of the father there is no trace at the time and Jane was to die giving birth to a daughter in December 1908. Eric was chosen for adoption by Mrs Emily McCalmont at a Merseyside children’s home about 1910. He retained the Fernihough surname. Eric spent two years from 1920 boarding at Clayesmore School then near Winchester and three years at Cambridge University studying chemistry, engineering and economics. He graduated BA in June 1926 and later acquired an MA. At Cambridge Eric took up motorcycle racing. From 1926 he had a successful motorcycle racing career on a variety of makes but mainly Excelsiors with JAP engines, initially at Brooklands Motor Course, in Ireland and on the Continent.


Career

In the first half of the 1930s, Fernihough took part in many international races for the Excelsior Motor Company. In April 1930 he won the
North West 200 The International North West 200 is a motorcycle racing, motorcycle road racing, road race first held in 1929 on a street circuit known as "the Triangle" between the towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush in Causeway Coast and Glens. It ...
race in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
in the 175 cc category. In the Belgian Grand Prix of the same year, Fernihough finished second to the local rider Yvan Goor. In September 1930, he won the 175cc UMF Grand Prix in Pau,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. In June 1931, Fernihough won his second UMF Grand Prix in the 175cc category and with it the title of European Champion. That year he also won the Belgian Grand Prix and the 250cc category races at the North West 200 and Swedish TT. l Late in 1931 he married Dorothy Penrose from Shirley in Hampshire, and took over the Tower Garage next to Brooklands Motor Course where he developed a tuning and motor engineering business. In 1932, Fernihough won the 175cc races at the
Dutch TT The Dutch Tourist Trophy, also known as the ''TT Assen'', and also sometimes known as the Dutch Motorcycle Grand Prix, is an annual Dutch motorsport event established in 1925 for road racing motorcycles held on the TT Circuit Assen, also known ...
, the UMF Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. That year Fernihough recorded 18 firsts and 13 lap records. In 1933 he had 14 firsts and 17 records. In 1934 he had 16 firsts with 18 in 1935 and 10 in 1936. In 1935, using a 996cc
JAP ''Jap'' is an English abbreviation of the word " Japanese". In the United States, some Japanese Americans have come to find the term offensive because of the internment they suffered during World War II. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, ''Jap ...
-engined
Brough Superior Brough Superior ( ) motorcycles, sidecars, and motor cars were made by George Brough in his Brough Superior works on Haydn Road in Nottingham, England, from 1919 to 1940. The motorcycles were dubbed the "Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles" by H. D. ...
, Fernihough improved the Outer Circuit lap record at the
Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...
, one of the fastest tracks of the time, to . In 1936, Fernihough set a new flying mile motorcycle speed record for solo motorcycles on his Brough Superior at a speed of . The following year, he improved on this speed, upping the flying kilometre record to . He also set a new record for
sidecar A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, Scooter (motorcycle), scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. The combination of a motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''rig'', ''outfit' ...
motorcycles at .


Fatal accident

On 23 April 1938, Fernihough crashed and was killed while attempting to break the world's absolute motorcycle speed record at Gyón,
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
.


Statistics


Title

* 1931 – 175 cc European Champion on an Excelsior


Race wins

''(yellow background denotes that the race determined the European Championship)''


References


Websites


Eric Fernihough at MotorsportMemorial.org


Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernihough, Eric 1905 births 1938 deaths English motorcycle racers Motorcycle land speed record people Sportspeople from Birkenhead 20th-century English sportsmen