By 1929, CJP Dodson was a bona fide top level road racer, pretty much unbeatable on the sand, too.

The diminutive Charlie Dodson was the last man to win a TT, the 1928 Senior, on a ‘flat-tank’ machine, then the next year became the first (and only) winner of a TT on a saddle tank Sunbeam, as well as recording the last ever success in the Island for the Marston maker.

- CHARLIE DODSON

Charles Joseph Pearson (though ‘Pownall’ has also been suggested) Dodson was born December 6, 1901, youngest of four boys, in Didsbury, near Manchester, son of a successful barrister, who died when Charlie was just five years old.

Schooled until the age of 17, he was then apprenticed to Royal Ruby at Altrincham – he’d cycle the seven miles there and same back, daily. Always an advocate of personal training and fitness, some attributed his determination to succeed to his height; it’s reckoned he was but 4ft 11in (though other sources have him at 5ft 3in) and a couple of pounds under nine stone.

Dodson started competing on a specially-built – largely by himself – Royal Ruby, finding some success in local sprints, before his employer folded and Charlie swapped to a 350cc Sunbeam – but not just any old Sunbeam, but one which had previously been campaigned by experienced old hand Pa Cowley, while Charlie’s mother also bought the young racer (who was starting to show real promise) a brand-new 492cc Longstroke Sunbeam.