Conquering Europe England, 1960-1962 For the 1960 season, Jack kept the 500 Manx he''d bought a year earlier, and acquired a new 350 to replace the older one. His friend, Bob West, who''d found a good job in England, bought two Manx Nortons on which to try his luck at European circuits. The two friends decided to pool their resources for the season to make their adventure more cost-effective. They managed to acquire a practical truck tall enough to install bunks above the bikes. Bob, who passed away in 2009, shared some memories of that time with Don Cox. "Jack helped me a lot that season, teaching me all the tricks to get entries, sending all those letters to organisers to get start money. We did a bunch of races together, including in the Eastern bloc where it was easy to get entries, and we made the most of it. But we travelled a lot, too, going from Holland to Yugoslavia with a detour in Austria to get visas, then heading quickly to another country.
It was really a great season. When I returned to Australia, when I raced in local meetings I achieved my best results there, thanks to that experience in Europe." The 1960 season started for Jack with a few meetings in England and on the Continent. After two respectable finishes in Mettet, Belgium, he attended the French Grand Prix in Clermont-Ferrand, where a series of incidents would profoundly influence his life. This first GP of the season was supposed to be a chance to get noticed, but after achieving the third fastest time in 350 practice, behind John Surtees'' MV Agusta and Franta Stastny on a Jawa, Jack crashed at the end of the session and ended up in a ravine. What should have been just a bad memory led to a double encounter that changed the course of his career. After his fall, while waiting to be evacuated to the Clermont-Ferrand Hospital, the organisers searched the paddock for someone to act as an interpreter between him and the doctors. Nanou, the partner of Jacques Insermini, the French champion entered in the race, volunteered.
Her real name was Andrée Lyonnard. She had been with Insermini for several years and spoke perfect English. She accompanied Jack to the hospital where, after lengthy discussions, the doctors agreed to discharge him because Jack was determined to race the next day. This was a bad idea and, after a few laps, feeling dizzy, he wisely decided to pull in, ending a Grand Prix that had been a fiasco for him. However, this incident led to a close friendship between Insermini, Nanou and Jack, who from then on spent a lot of time together. The French rider had an apartment in the very centre of Paris, and the use of his father''s house in Saint-Raphaël, on the coast of the Var region of Provence. Insermini was not an ordinary man: as a youth, he competed in athletics, wrestling and weightlifting, even being part of the French team in these different disciplines. He was a force of nature and an accomplished sportsman.
He was a trained mechanic who started racing by chance on a bike he prepared for a friend, who loaned it to him when he couldn''t take part in a race himself. Quickly, Insermini became one of the top French motorcycle racers, winning several French championships. In 1957, through Jacques Collot, his friend and on-track rival who was also a French champion, he met Nanou, an energetic and independent woman who shared his life for nearly seven years. Having lived in the US, she spoke perfect English, helping to strengthen ties between Insermini and many English-speaking riders. "My apartment in Paris and the house in Saint-Raphaël became places to stay for many riders," said Insermini. "Paddy Driver, Rob Fitton, Bob Brown, Ralph Rensen or Mike Hailwood would often come to sleep at my place. One summer, half a dozen trucks were in the villa''s garden in the south of France. The guys had taken out the bikes and pitched their tents there.
" After their meeting, Jack became a regular at their Paris apartment. He even used it as his mailing address and, later, due to its proximity to the headquarters of the French Motorcycle Federation, he obtained a French licence. After his fall at the Charade circuit and this decisive meeting, Jack continued his tour of European race circuits with Bob West, relentlessly criss-crossing the continent from Germany to Holland, Austria, Yugoslavia and Italy, achieving good results here and there, which allowed him to compete in more Grand Prix races. He raced in the World Championship GP races in the Isle of Man, Holland, Belgium and Germany, but each time it was a struggle with the organisers - convincing them to give a start to a young rider was far from easy. After the Ulster GP, Jack managed to get an entry for the Italian GP at Monza. Finishing eighth in the 500 race secured starts for the following season in Italy, where people had started talking about him. In total, that 1960 season included about 20 meetings and nearly 40 starts; Jack was now fully immersed in the Continental Circus. But at the end of it, Bob West decided to leave England.
"It was exciting to discover Europe and all those circuits, but the moment I realised it wasn''t for me was during the Belgian GP at Spa. I''d made a pit stop during the race, and the leaders passed me just as I rejoined the circuit. After following them for a while, I realised that if I had to ride like that all the time to have any hopes of winning, I''d rather go back home to Australia. So I did!".