Derek Minter 1932-2015
Road racer Derek Minter, five-times British road race champion (1962-64-65) and the man who inspired the King of Brands road race meeting, died in a Kent care home on 2 January, aged 82.
Dubbed ‘The King of Brands’ so often by commentator Murray Walker because of his supremacy at the Kent circuit, Minter justified the moniker by winning the 350 and 500 race at the first meeting to be held under that title, on Good Friday 1965. The crowd was almost 50,000 strong that day, and that year Minter held lap records at most British circuits.
He was the first man to achieve a 100mph lap on a single at the Isle of Man TT (Norton, 1960).
A full obituary will appear in the February issue of BDN.