Pamela Godwin is very proud of her late husband John who was a top motorcyclist back in the day.

So much so that she wrote a letter to The Local Answer asking us if we’d be interested in doing a story on him.

The answer was an emphatic ‘yes’, of course, not least because John, who died in January 2016 at the age of 80, was a seriously good race rider.

In fact he was one of the best amateurs around because he won the Skerries 100 Road Race in Ireland back in 1963, which was one of the biggest races on the circuit at that time.

“We as a family are so very proud of him,” wrote Pamela, who still lives in Winchcombe where her husband was brought up.

“We all forget these wonderful moments of glory.”

John Godwin first got into motorbikes back in his teens – he had a Norton Dominator back in the late 1950s and John and his bike were pretty well known around Winchcombe.

He was an amateur race rider but he did all the circuits – Silverstone, Thruxton, Donnington – and his finest moment came in that Skerries 100 in the early 60s.

And it’s easy to see why because winning that race was a major thing, it was like winning the TT on the Isle of Man.

And his achievement was certainly recognised by Jim Curry, who wrote in his book ‘A Lap of My Life’, “John Godwin cleaned up that year at the Skerries 100, on his first ever visit, winning both the overall handicap and the three-fifth scratch race, at one and the same time.

“Some ride that must have been on his Godwin/Dyde turned three-fifty Goldie. John could really ride!

“He became a legend in Skerries after his huge success that weekend, especially because of the scratch-race win on his Gold Star, in front of many Manx and 7Rs.”

John, a former design engineer at Dowty Rotol, passed on his love of bikes to his son – also called John – who lives in Dumbleton, although John junior never competed in any races.

John’s mum is relieved about that but even though she didn’t ride bikes herself, she knew about bikes and knows that her late husband was a very good race rider.

In her letter to The Local Answer, she said of the story, “I am sure it will interest your readers.”

She is absolutely right of course.