Champion Sidecar Racer Looks Back on a Thrilling Life | Short Film Showcase
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Way sidecar racing on the high-speed surface of the Grand Prix circuit is a job for exceptional men. 70 M of hair-raising work for drivers and passengers alike. But passenger is scarcely the word for the man in the chair at these events.
"My name is Stan Dibben. I'm 86 years of age, coming up 87 actually. I was a world champion sidecar racer in 1953. At the end of the war, I was told to make my mind out: What do you want to be? Do you want to be a W or an insulation inspector or what do you want to be? And I sat down to say that I want to ride motorbikes. The freedom of riding around on a motorbike is fantastic. Sidecar racing in particular is addictive, joyous to see. If you like, if you look up the word passenger in the dictionary, it bears no resemblance to what I used to do on a sidecar. One had to move around with very precise timing. If you got the timing wrong, of course, you all too could go to orbit, which wasn't the thing to do."
"We were just in time for a spectacular error of judgment; here it comes. I was never frightened of speed. Courage never came into the picture really; it was something that we just did. The fear factor never comes into [Music]."
"I.R. 1953 was quite something. There was a lot of rivalry with BMW; they were just coming to the fore. We needed to win the last race of the year. This was a Grand Prix; this was a big one [Music]. The big league of motorcycling is played on the shimmering road of the Grand Prix. Here, the great crowds, the color, the excitement; here, if you like, is the glamour of the game with British riders and British machines defying the concentrated challenge of the world."
"I knew exactly what I had to do. I anticipated what was likely to happen. I never made any [Music] mistakes. Now, the BMW tried all he knew for the honor of the Fatherland, but Britain's aces worked like Trojans to keep the flying three-wheelers on the road. That struggle had the crowd holding its breath. We had a German very close on our tail, and I just rubbed my shoulder on the road and shot him with stones. He very quickly disappeared from behind; not the done thing really, but all part of racing."
"He held it through the final swinging curves on the shuddering braking to Lorus and over the line to victory once again. The great crowd had seen a famous British victory. To stand in front of 200,000 people in Germany without our national anthem being played, one could very easily get very emotional about that, you know. We hadn't been back to the Armed Forces very long; I can remember it very well, very well indeed."
"Eric received his gold medal, and me as the inverted Comm passenger received a silver one. They even got my name wrong, but I was a bit upset about that; it hurt my [Music] ego."
"As far as getting onto a sidecar now at my age, I see birthdays back from 100. I'm 14 this year; I'm 13 next year, and I try to behave that way."
[Music]
"We have a world champion in our presence, the passenger of the world sidecar champion from 1953, Stan Dibben."
[Music]
"World champion! I was never frightened of speed. If you got frightened, you wouldn't do it."
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[Applause]
"He held it through the final swinging curves on the shuddering braking to Lorus and over the line to victory. During my life, I've been given many offers of things to do, places to go, and I have never ever said no. If someone said to me tomorrow, 'We've got an expedition—ever you want to go,' I would say yes. That's been my philosophy always: always say yes and stay for you."
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