John
Steve Lancefield had assistance from a racer who had a business nearby, George Cant, especially with the man handling of engines and the like. George eventually became a sort of unnoficial right hand man to Steve, and in his will, Steve left George his Manx Norton - the first 500 Norton to have lapped the I,O.M TT circuit at a race speed in excess of 100 mph.
A friend who knows George well put the question to him about any connection with a Model 25, and George said he does not recall Steve ever mentioning anything involving this machine, but he George, figures there must have been some involvement as it was right in the middle of Steve's own racing period.
Steve Lancefield had some considerable success racing a side valve machine, but when the first CS1 appeared, Steve bought the machine direct off the show stand.
He had a short period with the factory, and was also involved with Nortons visit to the USA with Dominator machines, but was probably best known for the Nortons he prepared for many of the top riders on the European and World scene.
Steve Lancefield did much testing for Nortons, aand also had a close connection with Amal, who at different times made a number of special carburettors for him.
When he died, the family seemed unaware of his standing in the racing world, and cleared out his workshop of all his tooling and equipment, including his very comprehensive notes on all the work carried out on customers engines. Apart from George and his memories of a remarkable racing engineer, it seems very little else has survived
Of top name riders who at one time raced a Lancefield Norton, Phil Read is probably the last of the top men still around who could talk about him.
