Goodbye Gordon
By TMX Archives on 13th Feb 06
The sad, sudden death of Gordon 'GC' Jones in January has deprived us of a wonderful man whose wit and infectious grin lit up British motocross for almost three decades.Most of that time was devoted to KTM, GC remaining loyal during its The sad, sudden death of Gordon 'GC' Jones in January has deprived us of a wonderful man whose wit and infectious grin lit up British motocross for almost three decades.Most of that time was devoted to KTM, GC remaining loyal during its barren times and helping nurture the Austrian marque back to the health and splendour it enjoys today.Born to a farming family in Hewlesfield, Gloucestershire, Gordon Christopher Jones (I never really knew his middle name!) hated grammar school with a passion. Finishing at 16 in Ledbury, Herefordshire, where his farm-managing father had settled, Gordon went on a five-year tool making apprenticeship in Cardiff. Already married to a local Ledbury girl and racing motocross - and an outstanding engineer - he loved knocking stuff up on a lathe but took over a car business near Stroud in 1973 when a bad knee injury stopped him riding.Gordon had moved back to Ledbury, doing repairs, when he latched on to an outstanding young local prospect, buying CZs and spannering for Dave 'the Dog' Tomasik. It was to prove a long and fruitful partnership.He bought a motorcycle shop in huge, rambling premises on Worcester Road, Ledbury, in 1977 and retained its unlikely name, 'H C Cecil'. This was typical GC - understated and modest almost to a fault.Initial contact with Don Howlett at Comerfords, then the KTM importers, led GC and the Dog into a career-long association with Katoom which continued when Bryan Goss took over in the early '80s.The 1980 season proved a prime year for the pair, the effervescent Tomasik and his HC Cecil KTM taking the British 250 championship down to the wire against Jonathan Wright's factory Kawasaki and also winning the final round of the British Open at Newbury to clinch second place in the series.They also occasionally ventured abroad, David missing out on 10th place and a point in the 1981 Austrian GP when passed on the last lap by his works team-mate Gerard Rond. And they finished second again in the inaugural Weston Beach Race of 1983, the same year they began a serial domination of the Haynes four-stroke series.In 1984 GC built Kurt Nicoll's very special short-stroke air-cooled engine and in '85 unexpectedly hit the 500cc grand prix trail when Danny 'Magoo' Chandler arrived in the UK and promptly switched from Kawasaki to KTM. They were the only non-Honda winners that year when Magoo stormed to victory in the French GP at Thouars.Besides managing the UK-based race team and spannering every weekend for Tomasik, Gordon took over importing KTMs in 1987. A constant and popular visitor to the factory, he chain-smoked his way to Austria and back picking up vanloads of bikes!In 1990 interest in the brand new 250 - developed during the 1989 GPs by Broc Glover - produced their best ever UK sales figures. Typically, GC had driven to Austria to pick up a pre-production model for his rider (and current supercross entrepreneur) Matt Bates. "I won a British Support Championship race at Foxhill first time out," recalls Matt. "Gordon and his wife Jenny looked after me so well when I came out of schoolboys. I virtually lived with them. He was the nicest, nicest man in motocross."'GC' was also involved over the years with stars like Bryan Wade, Vic Allan, Stuart Coyle, Mervyn Anstie, Dave Watson, Brian Wheeler, Jeremy Whatley, the ever-present Russ Jarman, Rob Hooper and Ulstermen Stephen Russell and Laurence Spence, who both fondly remember living at Gordon's house and using his workshop. In fact GC and his wife and longstanding working partner Jennifer kept a virtual open house at Ledbury where many of us bedded down beneath those draughty rafters!When KTM went bust in the early '90s Gordon never wavered and picked up the pieces, buying and selling - according to his son Simon - "whatever bikes we could get whenever we could get them."It was good fun," adds Simon, a real chip off the old block, "because every bike sold was an achievement in itself."KTM pulled through and even when they departed the Ledbury fold Gordon remained a dealer until a couple of years ago. Meanwhile, he'd teamed up with equally genial Italian John Boni's Wind Trading company in 1999. This maintained GC's love of being involved with teams through Wind clothing, WRP products and even LEM minibikes. And in recent years, racehorse owning had brought the sparkle back into Gordon's eyes!Truly a man of the people (and his sport), Gordon succumbed to pancreatic cancer aged only 61 and his funeral packed out Ledbury's huge church where many friends, riders and former rivals like Stephen Russell, Dave Watson, Rob Hooper and Roger Harvey enjoyed an address by Gordon's loyal lieutenant Russ Jarman.GC would have loved it!Our thoughts go out to his wife Jenny, sons Simon and Adrian and Gordon's three grandchildren. Their granddad truly was a sportsman, a gentleman and a cherished one-off.Words and photo by Jack Burnicle