Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/976068
EHRET VINCENT SERIES C BLACK LIGHTNING P112 Feature previous starts on his Australian tour, but on his home track, Ehret was fired up for action, and fancied his chances in the Unlimited TT. Reporting on his tour in the British motorcycle press, Duke wrote: "Ehret made a poor [push] start in the Unlim- ited event, whereas I was first away, and piled on the coals from the beginning. Thereafter I was able to keep an eye on the Vincent rider approaching the hairpin as I accelerated away from it. Although he was unable to make up for his bad start, Ehret rode to such purpose that he equaled my fastest lap, and we now share the honor of being the lap record holders." After this scintillating performance, Jack then bolted on the chair for him and Blundell to win the Sidecar race! One win that had eluded Ehret was the Australian TT at Bathurst, but he put that right in Easter 1956, winning the Sidecar TT with passenger George Donkin. Perhaps with this goal achieved, Jack and the Vincent became less frequent competitors, and when Mount Druitt closed in 1958 the Black Lightning was mothballed for 10 years. In 1968, Ehret made a comeback of sorts at Oran Park, with the Lightning now fitted with 16-inch wheels and John "Tex" Coleman in the chair. Despite the long layoff, Ehret didn't disgrace himself, finishing third in the Sidecar race. But a further decade passed before he brought the Black Lightning out for one more outing, again at Oran Park. By this time, the Vincent was in a different class— Historic—and Ehret demolished the field to win both his races by almost a complete lap. Its last appearance was at the Eastern Creek circuit in 1993, where Ehret lapped the entire field, winning both Historic Sidecar races passengered by his son John, then removed the chair for John to ride it in two solo races. According to Jack, the Vincent finished on the rostrum in 80 percent of the races he entered during his 40 years of racing it. Thereafter, the Lightning began a long hibernation in a Sydney shed while Jack Ehret started a different life running nightclubs in the Philippines, before it was put up for sale in 1999, not long before Ehret passed away unexpectedly on July 7, 2001, aged 78. The new owner was Franc Trento, owner of Melbourne- based EuroBrit Motorbikes, and a noted Vincent enthusiast who fortunately determined that the Lightning would not be restored, but would be kept in exactly the same "as used" condition he'd acquired it in. It had been returned to its original specification with 21-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels, with a very rare big-fin drum front brake and a double-sided rear one for sidecar use. Far from becoming a static piece, the Lightning was regularly displayed, including taking to the track at the Broad- ford Bike Bonanza in 2009 and 2010. In 2014, Trento sold the bike to French collector Nico- las Dourassoff, who shipped it to France, where local Vincent expert Patrick Godet recommis- sioned it. But after barely three years of ownership, in January 2018, Dourasoff offered the Vincent for sale at the Bonhams Auction in Las Vegas, where it went under the hammer for $929,000 incl. buyer's premi- um, making it the most valuable motorcycle ever sold at a public auction at around twice the price that Dourasoff paid Franc Trento for the bike in 2014. The winning bid was placed by Australian collector Peter Bender, owner of a prized collection located in Tasmania of British motorcycles led by an array of Brough Superi- ors, which the Ehret Vincent has now joined. CN Its last appeance was at the Eastn Creek ccuit in 1993, whe Ehret lapped the ente field.