Five dealers pass away: tribute to George Petch

Recently retired dealer George Petch of Grimsby (pictured top), John Smith of Huddersfield Kawasaki, sales manager Ron Welling of south London dealer Elite Motors, Malcolm Morris of Crewe Honda, and off-road dealer Doug Wheeler (pictured) have died and BDN sends condolences to their families and friends.

Ron’s funeral will take place at Croydon Crematorium’s East Chapel (CR9 3AT) at 2.15pm on 10 February.

BDN plans to carry obituaries in the March issue. Below are tributes to George Petch, Doug Wheeler and John Smith.

George Petch 1943-2017

Honda and Suzuki dealer George Petch (74) has died after enjoying only six months of retirement. Possibly the UK’s tallest dealer, George’s 6ft 6in height was exaggerated by a shock of white hair, writes Brian Crichton.

Friendly and enthusiastic, George (pictured top) loved bikes, and was famous in Vincent circles for owning for 42 years the V-twin that took speed records at Montlhery, France, in 1952. It was one of 23 Vincents he owned over the years.

A pupil at Oundle school, George joined the motorcycle trade in 1974 as general manager for road race world champion and five times Isle of Man TT winner Freddie Frith, in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. On Saturdays the shop would be packed, and these pre-computer and pre-paper mountain years would form George’s fondest memories of an industry he was to be saturated in for 42 years.

In 1982 George was knocked off his motorcycle returning from the British GP. The accident was serious and George was not able to work for 16 months. Hospital staff praised his positive attitude and willingness to help other patients as he recovered.

Looking for a fresh start, George took over R&M Grommett of Grimsby on New Year’s Day 1984. He later added BMW to the Honda-Yamaha-Suzuki dealership, and he would enjoy several dealer trips, especially with Honda and BMW. Among fellow dealers he formed a strong bond with Scottish Honda dealer Victor Devine.

George had married in 1969 and enjoyed long-distance touring with Anne as pillion, including touring New Zealand. In later years, for medical reasons he had to give up riding.

Last year he retired after selling his solus Honda and Suzuki dealerships, GP Honda and GP Suzuki, which stood side by side at Brighowgate, Grimsby. These are now run by Robspeed Motorcycles.

His best year was in 2004 when he sold 600 new and used machines, wife Anne running the financial side of the business. In 2015 he sold 375 new and used, a very good performance. But by this time, aged 72, he was looking to retire to enjoy wind-in-the-hair sports car motoring with Anne and spend “more time with my model railway and chasing steam engines”.

Full of humour and fond of a practical joke, he said with a smile: “When you are older you can misbehave if you fancy it, and get away with it!”

Regarded by all as a gentleman, George’s main concern on selling his dealerships was for his staff of seven, making sure they could remain in employment with the new owners.

Doug Wheeler 1934-2016

The funeral of off-road dealer Doug Wheeler of Garsington, Oxfordshire (second picture), was held on Friday 9 December. He was 82.

The ceremony was well attended by members of the motocross and enduro fraternity. Eulogies were given by Roger Harvey and Peter Griffith. Harvey, head of Honda’s world motocross programme, was motocross sponsored by Wheeler from 1971 to 1976. Griffith is an event organiser and active motocross rider since the 1950s.

As a 14-year-old Wheeler built his own scrambles bike, moving on to a BSA single. Other marques he would race included AJS, Bultaco, factory Cottons, DMW, Greeves, Husqvarna, Maico and Triumph. He was South Midland ACU 250 motocross champion in 1967 and 1970.

At 18 he joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) for two years. He was posted to Germany where he rode trials. In 1955 he set up Doug Wheeler Auto Engineers at Garsington, repairing all types of machinery including cars, motorcycles, farm equipment and lawn mowers.

His love of off-road sport led to him to specialise more and more in motocross. He would make himself available at any hour of the day or night so that riders from all parts of the country could collect a bike. This willingness to serve was a key factor in him becoming a leading off-road dealer.

The heyday of the business was in the 1970s.

In 1971 he sponsored Harvey and in 1972 Rob Hooper on Husqvarna and AJS. These young aces became two of the fastest riders on the UK motocross scene, both winning the under-21 British title, Harvey in 1971 and Hooper in 1973. Other riders he sponsored included the late Vaughan Semmens, Michael Watts, Simon Wyse, Eric Deeley and Steve Barnwell.

In 1974 Wheeler added Yamaha to his list of agencies. Leading make Maico of Germany was also added to the portfolio.

Concentrating on business and sponsorship, Wheeler took on other duties to foster the sport. These included becoming South Midland Centre team manager, president of the Oxford Ixion MCC and helper at club and national level events.

His commitment, enthusiasm, knowledge and permanent big smile resulted in the business building up an international clientele. And Doug never really retired. The locals wouldn’t let him. He leaves wife Jean.

Tribute to John Smith of Huddersfield Kawasaki

I was sad to hear that my old boss from Huddersfield Kawasaki Centre (premises pictured above) passed away over the Christmas period, writes Rob Hobson. He was just 69. I worked for John from around 1979 to 1990 and was a spotty teenaged customer before that, staring through the tiny shop window at the early Kawasaki triples and, of course, the Malaguti and Garelli mopeds on show. John was one of the very first Kawasaki dealers in the UK. Dealing initially with Agrati the independent importer before the official network was set up.

We often talk about characters in the bike trade and John was certainly one of them. For those who crossed his path and are reading this, then they will certainly have a story tell and not all of them complimentary!

John could be abrasive, but always engaging. He was a natural entrepreneur, full of plans and ideas. I may well get corrected by my memory of time-lines but while I was in the Albert Street shop memories include John returning from a trip to America with a van load of Arai helmets and Bel Ray oil (both unheard of in the UK before this). He announced he had signed a deal to be the official importer. As with many of these ventures, it didn’t last long as he had moved on to something else and failed to return the guy’s call in America I think.

Reps will commiserate with one poor chap who, after waiting two hours to see John,  was asked to return later in the day, only to be told they didn’t need anything!

As far as bike sales go, I remember one 1 August when we were doing midnight handovers! We had to hire short-term premises for all our workshop and used bikes to make room for the line-up of shiny red GPZs from 305cc, to 550, 750 and 1100 models. Soup and sandwiches were offered as we processed the handovers through the night.

The big change came when he decided to go into parts in a big way. We placed a two-page advert in MCN saying- from now on spell Kawasaki Parts this way– Huddersfield Tel. 01484 ….. And the next day the phones went berserk! Remember, these were pre-computer days. We were processing an inch-thick pile of hand written orders – picking and invoicing by hand, while also working the kardex stock system.
 

We went on to be one of the five UK parts distributors in the mid 80s, along with the likes of Clay Cross Kawasaki, Cradley Heath and Daytona. On the back of this, we moved into vast new premises -an ex-Renault car dealership with an impressive showroom and three-storey parts warehouse. Parts supply became big business for John. Being an ex-HGV driver he would hire an artic and collect his own orders from Kawasaki HQ in Bourne End.

Often there would be some additional cargo! One being the Z1 900 and exploding sidecar from the James Bond film – The Spy who loved me! It had been lying around the Kawasaki UK warehouse and John made an offer they couldn’t refuse. We used to charge to take it to shows etc. Another time a delivery of KR250 tandem twins arrived – a bike not available in the UK. A couple were sold until John was informed he would have to stand the warranty himself! They were then consigned to the depths of the warehouse for a number of years!

I lost touch with John in recent years. I did meet him a couple of times in local supermarkets and he was always enthused about another venture which he was about to embark on. 

I write this because I wanted to remind us all what the industry is about. Men like John were the mainstay of how the industry worked. Great ideas, loads of enthusiasm and some great laughs along the way.

Rob Hobson

Valuation Manager

CDL Vehicle Information Services

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