Norton motorcycle Development Engineer and motorcycle racer. Born in Ballymena, Ireland. Four times winner of the Ulster Trial, he later took part in road racing, joining the Norton racing team in 1925. Craig, although a very good rider, never had the same successes as his team mates Stanley Woods and Jimmy Guthrie, but he did excel at tuning and organisation so became head of the Development & Racing Department. He designed a new overheadcamshaft cylinder head for the Norton and tweeked it each year until the end of it's reign. The Manx Norton was an integral part of road racing both in UK and Europe both before and after the war. In 1945 he went to some races at Bangor Castle, saw the McCandless Brothers, and witnessed how good their home-built framed-Triumph was. Craig bought the frame and it was adapted to suit the Manx. After it's first test ride, Harold Daniell said "It is like a feather bed" so the name stuck. Norton gained more successes but eventually the power of the four cylinder engines told, and Nortons had no money to develop a competitor. Craig was a dour, gruff man and not easy to work with. He left Norton in 1955 and came to Holland where he married the widow of Piet van Wijngaarden, the Norton road racer and owner of 'Het Motorpaleis'. He died as the result of a road accident in St.Anton am Arlsberg, near Landeck, in Austria. His grave is enscribed "The race has run, the conqueror rests".
Norton motorcycle Development Engineer and motorcycle racer. Born in Ballymena, Ireland. Four times winner of the Ulster Trial, he later took part in road racing, joining the Norton racing team in 1925. Craig, although a very good rider, never had the same successes as his team mates Stanley Woods and Jimmy Guthrie, but he did excel at tuning and organisation so became head of the Development & Racing Department. He designed a new overheadcamshaft cylinder head for the Norton and tweeked it each year until the end of it's reign. The Manx Norton was an integral part of road racing both in UK and Europe both before and after the war. In 1945 he went to some races at Bangor Castle, saw the McCandless Brothers, and witnessed how good their home-built framed-Triumph was. Craig bought the frame and it was adapted to suit the Manx. After it's first test ride, Harold Daniell said "It is like a feather bed" so the name stuck. Norton gained more successes but eventually the power of the four cylinder engines told, and Nortons had no money to develop a competitor. Craig was a dour, gruff man and not easy to work with. He left Norton in 1955 and came to Holland where he married the widow of Piet van Wijngaarden, the Norton road racer and owner of 'Het Motorpaleis'. He died as the result of a road accident in St.Anton am Arlsberg, near Landeck, in Austria. His grave is enscribed "The race has run, the conqueror rests".
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