The brilliant Benellis

World title success in 1950 was the highlight for the family firm from Pesaro, on the eastern Italy coast.

- RACHAEL CLEGG

It was the Gilera that did it. Tucked away, in a back street garage behind the promenade in Douglas, Florian Camathias and his passenger Alfred Herzig worked away on their Gilera-powered outfit ready for the 1964 Isle of Man sidecar TT.

Barely a stone’s throw from the garage, at the Pitcairn boarding house, stayed a 10-year-old boy called Raymond Ainscoe and his parents. Ray happened to be a huge Florian Camathias fan so naturally, when he learned that the Swiss racer’s garage was so close to his digs, there was no hanging about.

“Camathias’ garage was just around the corner in one of the now-demolished garages on Finch Road, which led to the Villa Marina gardens at the back of the Sefton Hotel. I knew that he had entered a Gilera-engined outfit so I wandered round and was hooked by the sight of the multi. I spent hours every day gawping at the outfit and must have been a real pain. Remember that in those days four cylinder engines, especially in a sidecar, were still relatively rare beasts,” said Raymond.

Raymond describes the sight of the Gilera multi as if it was yesterday: “It was a beautiful-looking kneeler in a sleek red-and-white fairing and as for the noise: you only need to find the Stanley Schofield recording of the 1964 TT and listen as Camathias drops down the gears as he approaches Governor’s Bridge…”

Little did Camathias know that his presence at the 1964 TT kick-started Raymond’s lifelong love affair with Italian machines. Barely two decades later, Raymond had published his first book: Gilera Road Racers.

The 1964 Gilera outfit was especially exciting, not least because of its tempestuous pilot, Camathias: