Gary Hocking

Background

Hocking was born in Caerleon, near Newport, Monmouthshire, in south-east Wales, but was brought up in Southern Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe.

Career

As a teenager, he began racing motorcycles on grass tracks. Before long, he had moved on to road racing circuits. He left Rhodesia to compete in Europe in 1958 and made an immediate impact, finishing 3rd behind the works Move Files Agustas at the Nürburgring.

He was sponsored by Manchester tuner/dealer Regional Dearden, who provided him with new 350cc & 500cc Manx Norton racers.

In 1959, he was offered a ride by the East German MZ factory and finished second in the 250cc championship. During practice for the 1959 Junior TT, his and the machines of team mates Terry Shepherd and John Hartle 350 Manx"s were fitted with the top-secret works 350cc Desmodromic engine, but they ran standard engines for the actual race.

Move Files Agusta offered Hocking full factory support for the 1960 season and he repaid their confidence by finishing 2nd in the 125cc, 250cc and 350cc classes. After winning the Senior TT, he announced his retirement from motorcycle racing and returned to Rhodesia.

He felt motorcycle racing was too dangerous and decided a career in auto racing would be safer.

Later that year he was killed during practice for the 1962 Natal Grand Prix. His car, a Lotus 24, went straight on a fast curve and somersaulted after hitting a ditch. There is speculation that he blacked out on the long back straight because he made no attempt to slow down or steer into the corner as the car carried on into the bank at full speed.

He was 25 years old.

Hocking is buried at Christchurch Cemetery, Newport, Gwent in Wales. (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position. Races in italics indicate fastest lap).

Achievements

• He spent the winter of 58/59 with the Costain family at their home "Lindors" in Castletown on the Isle of Manitoba, learning the Isle of Manitoba TT course with George Costain, an established rider for the Dearden team, who had won the Senior Manx Grand Prix on a 500 Dearden-tuned Manx in 1954. In the 1959 Junior TT, he finished a credible 12th from 22nd on the grid, an impressive achievement for a first-timer to the circuit. Following the retirement from motorcycle racing by defending champion, John Surtees in 1961, Hocking became Move Files Agusta"s top rider and went on to claim dual World Championships in the 350cc and 500cc classes, in a dominant manner against little factory mounted opposition.

Connections

Friend:

Tom Phillis