Harold Daniell Norton Teamster
The Postwar Career of H.L. Daniell Triple Senior TT Winner
Mar 2, 2009
When racing resumed in 1947 Daniell was able to continue as a Norton teamster. His teammates, Artie Bell, Ken Bills and Ernie Lyons all had pre-war experience, but it was Bell who presented the greatest challenge to team leader Daniell. In his very first Senior TT, Bell took the lead halfway through the race. It was a remarkable effort for a newcomer to the Island, but at his pit stop Bell was ordered to ease his pace; enabling Daniell went to win his second Senior TT with Bell in second place. .
Daniell and Bell were the winners of most of the early postwar Continental Grands Prix. Harold enjoyed particular success at the Swiss Grand Prix, pre-war and post-war, but one event was an ongoing nemesis for the bespectacled Londoner. He contested the Ulster Grand Prix from the mid-30s until his retirement from racing in 1950, and every year he was sidelined with either mechanical problems or illness.
A Third Senior TT
For the 1949 season Norton did not support a works team; instead they loaned their 1948 machines to a syndicate composed of Daniell, Bell and Lockett. At the Isle of Man TT series Norton’s biggest challenge was expected to come from the AJS works team. Their ‘Porcupine’ twin was originally designed as a supercharged unit, but with the postwar ban on superchargers the design was severely handicapped.
But it was Bob Foster on the lone Moto Guzzi V-twin who startled both Norton and AJS camps and seemed poised for a Senior victory.
The race looked a certainty for Foster, but it was not to be. Transmission problems caused a retirement at Sulby, giving the lead to Graham’s AJS; with Daniell inheriting second place. But Harold was experiencing severe vibration problems that brought him to a temporary halt on the final lap. He restarted and continued to the finish line; unaware that Graham had broken down at Hillberry and was pushing his machine to the finish. Thus; Harold Daniell won his third Senior TT, with Lockett second and Bell fourth.
Enter the Featherbed
Throughout 1949 Norton persisted with their outdated works machines; unwilling to follow the Italian trend of multi-cylinder design It was the introduction of the McCandless frame that enabled Norton to remain competitive for years beyond what should have been a total eclipse; and it was Harold Daniell who actually coined the phrase ‘Featherbed’ for the new design; an appellation that endures to this day.
In 1950 the Norton ream was revitalized with the introduction of the ‘featherbed’ frame and the signing of Geoff Duke. Their TT results were reminiscent of Norton’s glory days of the early 1930s, with a Bell, Duke, Daniell 1-2-3 in the Junior and a Duke, Bell, Lockett 1-2-3 in the Senior. Significantly it was Duke who finally eclipsed Daniell’s 1938 record lap of 91mph, with his own at 93.33.
A New Champion
Without doubt their rising star was Lancashire’s Geoff Duke. Only for tyre failure which eliminated the entire Norton team in the Belgian GP and Dutch TT, Duke would have certainly become 500cc World Champion in his first Grand Prix season. It has been suggested that Daniell never quite came to terms with the ‘Featherbed’, or the phenomenon that was Geoff Duke. One suspects that he considered himself equal in ability to Bell and superior to Lockett, but this new arrival simply outclassed everyone.
The Final Season
Daniell’s impressive record spanned two decades and apart from three forgettable seasons with AJS, it was exclusively on Nortons. His final Grand Prix placing was sixth in the 1950 Junior Ulster Grand Prix. It was a modest result but it did represent a finish at a venue where good fortune had never gone his way.
Read the first part of H.L. Daniell's story H.L Daniell Norton Stalwart
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