WORLD champion side car racer from Atworth, Kenny Williams, has been contacted by a ‘big fan’ from Germany asking him to autograph photos from his racing career.
Dieter Ullrich from Friedrichsdorf, Germany, has been searching for Kenny Williams, hoping for his autograph.
Not knowing exactly where he lives, Dieter sent a letter addressed to Melksham Town Hall. Inside it said ‘I have a big request and you are my last hope’.
The Town Hall then contacted Melksham News asking if we knew of a Kenny Williams. Luckily, our employee, Chris Harvey, knew of Kenny’s sister and the message finally was relayed to Kenny who went to the Town Hall to pick up the letter.
Kenny Williams said, “It used to happen quite a lot, people asking me to sign autographs, but not so much now. I didn’t even know what the letter was until I opened it. But I signed them straight away and sent them back to him in Germany.”
Kenny first started his racing career riding solo bikes from July 1964 for seven years and won a few races.
Kenny added, “It was an expensive sport and I pretty much ran myself to bankruptcy! But during one race, over the tannoy, they announced that a guy from Marlborough needed a passenger for his side car so I thought, I could do that.
“The opportunity then took me to multiple races. I moved to Switzerland for three and a half years where I met my driver Rolf Biland. We then went on to win the world championship in 1978. We were both reunited last year at the sidecar revival meeting held at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. We were racing against other former world champions and we were the fastest!”
Picture: Kenny Williams with the signed pictures he has sent to German fan, Dieter Ullrich.
