The Place

I remember when I was passengering racing against Frank Wrathall, always had a 'very' quick and superbly turned out 700/750 Yamaha. I think he was passengered by Phil Spendlove at the time.

Frank is somewhere north of Bolton still tuning engines.
Didn't Phil Spendlove passenger for Mal White? Mal made a chassis out of fibreglass.

Frank has a successful tuning business has helped with Paul Bird's Stobart Hondas
http://www.fw-developments.co.uk

Could he be dad to the "Frank Wrathall Junior" that did quite well on Go Karts a few years ago ?

PS That Web site cant be an ex slidey racer, workshops far too clean and tidy :badgrin:

I am sure this Frank in action at the Elbow at Mallory.

Fab picture Jim ........ all I remember is seeing the back of it !! :lachtot:

Marks sat with me and says his dad Roger Keen prepared all Franks 700/750 tz engines No wonder they were fast

Frank used to do Vics 700..and that was very quick

We bought Franks Shellbourne that he used in GP`s, we still had Roger Keen do the motors. That bike had loads of nice ideas on it, acres of room in the chair so you could tuck out of site, in fact it was the best outfit i have been on, by far.

phil spendlove used to passenger mal white,they used to stay at my parants house in hatfield on there way down to brands in the late seventies,with mals wife,dot and daughter tracy,dot married rex white of team suzuki after mals tragic accident at silverstone in 1980,phil then teamed up with frank wrathall

bluemartincbx wrote:We bought Franks Shellbourne that he used in GP`s, we still had Roger Keen do the motors. That bike had loads of nice ideas on it, acres of room in the chair so you could tuck out of site, in fact it was the best outfit i have been on, by far.

I agree, fabulous outfit and always immaculately turned out, what happened to it ??

We sold it to the Andrews brothers from York, they had a bad smash on the mountain at the TT, it then had a 350 slotted in, and i think it ended up with N Smith putting a Ducati V twin in. Don`t know any more than that.

phil spendlove lives up near heysham and used to come with a mate who was riding solos in the earlystocks club, last time i saw him to speak to was about 2003

bluemartincbx wrote:We sold it to the Andrews brothers from York, they had a bad smash on the mountain at the TT, it then had a 350 slotted in, and i think it ended up with N Smith putting a Ducati V twin in. Don`t know any more than that.

Was speaking to Mal Andrews the other day. The outfit was straightened after the TT accident in 1988, and a swap deal was done with Mick Hudson for a 350 Windle. Mick used the TZ750 engine in his long outfit and put a 350 into the Shelbourne, but passed it onto Neil Smith in 1992. From the sounds of it, Neil just used various parts of the outfit such as wheels, swinging arm etc to build the Ducati, and didn't use the actual chassis. That was back in 1993 I think.

I know Frank very well, holidays, weddings, best mates etc, runs a very sucessful tuning business, and is the owner of dynojet UK, Frankie junior competing in the Will Hoy sposored Ginnetta 500 lying second I believe in the British Championship,Frank also involved with Paul Bird in world Superbike, with Lavilla and Chris Walker, Tuning their Vent Axia Honda, but previous, Stobart Ducati, winning a few British titles,
Tells me he is to busy nowadays to watch sidecar racing, but still tunes Dave Holdens outfit engine for him, including Daves two strokes, more as a labour of love than a labour of cash, Dave been a long standing customer of Franks, probably got invoice number 1.
Frank has done several tours of the USA mainly for Dyno jet, lecturing on the art of tuning the racing engine and the engineering of such projects.
Lives near Garstang in Lancashire, I also add with great pleasure he reached the age of 50 the other week, and still ocassionally, see's his ex passenger Phil Spendnowt, as we know him, for pretty obvious reasons, Phil has his own plumbing business in the Lancaster area, Phew, how time rolls on!!