Family tributes as Wigan motorcycle ace Les Hurst dies aged 76

Les Hurst - who died on Monday from complications due to pneumonia with his loving family at his bedside – has been described as a truly remarkable figure in the sporting world.

And the Swinley 76-year-old’s absolute refusal to let ill health stop him playing as full a role as possible in the hobby and sport he loved was almost as impressive.

A former skilled welder and industrial plumber who would develop profound COPD chest problems, Les became an outstanding Clubmans, National and Isle of Man TT Races sidecar driver, particularly with his long term “passenger,” RAF engineer Eric Ammann.

In the mid-1970s and 1980s, after graduating from a BSA twin-powered outfit, his fast four-cylinder, 1000cc Suzuki in its striking red and yellow livery from Rogerson's of Orrell Post became one of the best known in the paddocks.

The duo would garner shelvesful of TT replicas, trophies and titles.

And he would prove such an inspiration that his daughter Sadie and son-in-law John Childs would take up sidecar racing with great success ...and for many years Sadie held the title of fastest woman “passenger” ever around the challenging TT circuit. Grandson Robert also raced in the British Superbike Championships (while granddaughter Katie is a rugby union star with Leicester Tigers who is playing at Twickenham this weekend!)

His nephews Gary and Lindsay - sons of late brother Observer chief photographer Gordon Hurst - also became International sidecar racers with great success, enthusiastically mentored by their Uncle Les.

When he finally hung up his own leathers in sidecar racing, Les would ride his beloved Maico and Ariel vintage solo racers at bike shows and demonstrations around the country. There was no shortage of volunteers to ride them for him when he became too ill to bestride them himself.

And then a new chapter opened when he formed a Classic Motorcycle Racing Team with Wigan rider Mark Farrimond astride Les's beloved Ariel and Maico 1950s and ’60s machines.

Indeed Les had only just made a genuine return to the Classic Racing scene, helping to form a new team in 2020 - Ruthless Racing - with Gary and Lindsay, based around Bryn star Rob Hodson and their highly tuned 40-year-old former Honda roadbike. Ruthless is an anagram of Les Hurst, if you hadn’t noticed.

However in the last three decades Les garnered a whole new circle of fans with his steadfast refusal to allow increasingly serious chest and breathing problems - always born with self-deprecating humour - to stop him playing as full a life as possible in his beloved sport and hobby.

When latterly largely confined to a wheelchair due to his increasingly challenging health, the skilled motorcycle engineer bought a modern-day motorcycle to which he attached a modified car roof rack as a sidecar-type stabiliser when balance was no longer so easy.

And he carried on riding it to twice-weekly “meet-ups and brew-ups” with biking buddies and admirers during which he recounted countless endless racing tales and stories.

Typically, although already seriously ill, Les contracted and beat Covid during the pandemic when he would also make strong recoveries from a heart attack and a stroke in rapid succession.

Indeed, he only gave up his motorcycle licence - after 60 years - at Christmas.

A highly skilled miniature and model railway locomotive builder, Les will also be mourned by the Leyland Model Engineering Society that he and wife Julie regularly attended.

There he helped to delight thousands of children over the decades by giving them free rides through the woodlands on the long established miniature train track at Worden Park.

Julie, with whom they also had another daughter Trudy, said: “Les loved to talk. He was a friendly, warm, generous man and I loved him.

"He was jovial, he liked a bit of fun but he also inspired people and chivvied them along to do their best in whatever they were doing.”

Funeral arrangements have yet to be made.