Aboard a Honda RC162, Jim Redman wins the 1962 250cc French Grand Prix over Bob McIntyre and Tom Phillis.
Before there was Mike Hailwood, Barry Sheene or Valentino Rossi there was Jim Redman. The man who helped to guide Honda, now the world’s most successful racing manufacturer, into Grand Prix racing.
Jim Redman’s parents were running a newspaper and tobacco shop when he was born in West Hampstead, London, in 1931.
During World War II his father was a dispatch rider in North Africa with the British Army, but the experience left him mentally broken and in 1949 he committed suicide by laying his head on the railroad tracks.
Not even a month later, Redman’s mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Jim and his 18 year old sister Jackie, were left to care for their 11 year old brother and sister.
When he was 20 he emigrated to Rhodesia, where he met up with John Love who was changing from motorcycle racing to single-seat cars. Redman jumped at the chance to help Love prepare and maintain his Cooper F3 with a Manx Norton 500cc engine. In return for his mechanical assistance, Love offered Redman his Triumph Grand Prix twin for his first race. He finished seventh but, he knew he this was his calling. And was it ever.
He would go on to claim four consecutive 350cc World Championships from 1962 to 1965. In 1962 and 1963 he claimed double championships winning both the 250cc and 350cc World Championships. In 1964, he became the first rider in history to claim 3 Grand Prix victories in one day.
Redman was also a six-time Isle of Man TT winner, taking double wins in 1963, 1964 and 1965 in the Lightweight & Junior TT Races. He achieved a total of 45 Grand Prix victories.
James Albert Redman was awarded the MBE for his achievements.
