Legendary engine tuner Steve Mellor passed away on 8 December. Steve’s tuning expertise brought huge success in the British championships and in road racing events in the Isle of Man and Ireland.
He was best known for his partnership with former drag racer Jack Valentine. The pair formed V&M racing in 1982 and, in 1990, when Valentine decided to quit his career as a rider, grew the V&M name working on the engines of Carl Fogarty, James Whitham [both pictured] and Robert McElnea.
Then Valentine and Mellor established V&M as a high-profile team with a good partnership with Honda UK. This was interrupted in 1999 when Valentine opted for Yamahas and the rising star David Jefferies.
In the book Guy Martin: My Autobiography, the Grimsby-born lorry mechanic/motorcycle racer wrote that the ETI Ducati team in British Superbikes was “a very successful Rochdale-based tuning and race team firm started by Steve Mellor and Jack Valentine. They'd had TT wins with David Jefferies and John McGuinness but split to run their own projects.
“Mellor was a clever bloke when it came to engines … his bikes always went like shit off a shovel."
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