Tony Jefferies has died

Tony Jefferies, multiple TT winner and prominent member of a great Yorkshire motorcycling dynasty, has died.

He was 72, had been seriously ill for some time but insisted, against medical advice, on attending the recent funerals of his two great friends Paul Smart and Peggy Appleyard.

It was typical of a man whose life was a mixture of triumph and tragedy, the former his success on the Isle of Man and short circuits including the famous Transatlantic series; the latter a tragic accident during TT practice in 2003 which killed his son David; few years later, the death of his wife Pauline; and his own paralysing handicap from a crash in 1973 at Mallory Park.

As the tributes poured in to daughter Louise who now runs the BMW dealership, his younger brother Nick, also a TT winner, told bikesportnews.com: “His visits to those funerals knocked him back a fair bit but he was determined to live as ordinary life as he could. But for the last 12 months Louise had been looking after him with us doing our share. He had a problem with his aesophagus but didn’t like the idea of intravenous feeding saying ‘No, I want to eat normally’. If anyone had half the resolve he had they would be better people.

“He was a tremendous rider but he never really had the big chance and if he had got the opportunity of riding a TZ700, which he just missed, he’d have shown how good he was. He was a big lad and big lads needed the 700s. What happened was an absolute tragedy.

“I last saw him on Sunday in Bradford Royal Infirmary. He had fallen out of bed but wanted some eggs and I had to go out to Tesco’s. In the next two days he was lapsing into unconsciousness and the end came suddenly. It was a great shock but I think both Louise and I would not have