Dave Croxford racing the NVT Challenge at Brands Hatch in 1975. (Photo © The Graham Etheridge Collection)

Another photo from the superb Graham Etheridge Collection. This shot is Dave Croxford, one of the most popular riders in British road racing during the 1960s and ’70s. The carefree Cockney came into road racing in the early 1960s after losing his drivers’ license for being in too much of a hurry to get to the legendary Ace Café on his Manx framed Triton. “Crockers” won four British National road racing championships as well as being victorious several times at the Isle of Man.

Croxford was known as a crasher. He once said in an interview with Classic Racer, “I had 189 crashes mate and I never broke a bone. The worst I ever got was stitches, and a busted tooth.”

In 1974 Cosworth designed a 750cc engine to power a new Norton (aka NVT) superbike and a production racer. Croxford was one of the first to compete on the racing version dubbed the NVT Challenge. He crashed the Challenge in a multi-bike pileup in his first appearance on the on the bike. The Cosworth power unit, a bulky liquid-cooled dohc 750 cc parallel twin, was a stressed chassis member with the swing arm pivoted at the rear of its integral gearbox. The minimal frame consists of two pieces of triangulated tube work supporting the steering head ahead of the engine, and the twin shocks’ upper mounts, plus the seat. The unique wrap-around fairing was said to add 15 mph to the bikes top-speed. (Note the rear disc brake that is mounted on the same side as the chain.)

Despite the best efforts NVT’s main rider Croxford, and others, the Challenge flopped and the team disbanded at the end of 1976.