Caption:

Mallory Park’s favourite son John ‘Mooneyes’ Cooper in typical pose

as he rounds Gerard’s Bend during the 1971 Easter Sunday meeting ahead of Lincolnshire ace Steve Machin (Padgett Yamaha) and Jim Curry on the 350 Honda twin. An unlikely looking hero, with his studious John Lennon glasses, on this occasion Cooper heads the field on his 350 Yamsel, the product of joining one of Colin Seeley’s fine handling chassis with the, by then, dominant Yamaha engines. For a decade or more Cooper was the man to beat at Mallory Park, whether Manx Norton, BSA Rocket 3 or Yamsel mounted.