Biking Legends: Roger Marshall

Born and raised on a council estate on the outskirts of Grimsby in North-east Lincolnshire, Roger Marshall first saw a bike race at Cadwell Park in 1960 as a nine-year-old.

From that moment on, all he wanted to do was race motorbikes.

At 15 (the legal age to ride on UK roads at the time) Marshall had saved up enough of his apprentice electrician’s wages to buy a 250cc BSA C10, but his first ride didn’t go exactly to plan.

“My dad watched me as I rode off down our street and disappeared from sight,” recalls Marshall.

“But less than a mile from my house, at the very first corner I came to, I didn’t even know to shut the throttle and I went over a kerb, through a hedge, and all I could see was sky, grass, hedge, sky, grass, hedge… I pushed the bike home, and both it and me were pretty beaten up. My dad was waiting for me. He just looked at me and said ‘Didn’t
take you long, did it?’”