BROOKLANDS, 1925

This is my new favorite Brooklands photo. It's from 1925, and shows two anonymous racers 'down to it' on the Member's Banking, riding low on the fast inside line. Both riders are on single cylinder machines, both are wearing boots and helmets, but the standard of protective clothing ended there; woolen jumpers and trousers were perfectly acceptable. It must have been a coldish day as both riders are wearing more than one layer of wool up top. Number 30's machine seems to have a Blackburne engine, but the make of the bike is impossible to tell.

The scale of the track is clear; it dwarfs the riders, and the patchy quality of the concrete surface is readily apparent. But the photographer's position, right on the edge of the track, really brings the viewer into the action.

BROOKLANDS CENTENARY #1

April 20, 2008 was 100 years to the day of the first official Brooklands motorcycle race. There had been a match race the previous February, between Oscar Bickford and Gordon McMinnies (both Oxford undergrads at the time), on a Vindec special and a Triumph. McMinnies won the race on his TT Model Triumph, and later was founding editor of Motor Cycling magazine. Racing hoodlum goes legit!
This is the fourth Brooklands event I've attended, and dwarfed all previous with the number of entries and bikes on display, and the crowd milling around. The old motto, 'the Right Crowd and No Crowding' certainly didn't apply on the day, but I didn't mind a bit. It was all crackling noise and excitement from the moment Dai pulled the car into the lot, very early in the morning. Someone was firing up an alcohol-burning veteran in the parking area, with all attendant smoking and noise. We got distracted at the entry by the autojumble stalls, especially a scrapbook of original racing photos from ca 1934-36... lovely to look at, but at £3000, it was waaay out of my league. I'd rather have another motorcycle!

The giant grassy outfield was host to several one-make clubs (Scott, Douglas, Vincent), but the Velocette club dwarfed them all with a huge entry of machines from 1913 - 1971, including the Roarer, and the oldest known Velo of Dave Masters, recently featured in Classic Motorcycle. See photo of Dai sitting on the 1913 Model A Velocette, which was fired up by Tim Simkins, who looks after the two-stroke side of the Velocette Owner's Club. Velo made their early reputation on excellent little 'strokers, before they leapt directly to ohc bikes (the 1926+ K series), and went 'one step back' in '33 with the introduction of the ohv MOV 250cc. Their last tw0-stroke was the GTP of 1948 - I used to own one, and it was a lovely little bike, but too slow for my tastes! See movie of the Model A being fired up... with a kiss to the petrol tank!

Graham Rhodes was tending the Roarer, which everyone was hoping would be fired up, but this wasn't to be as Ivan was busy, and Graham is unable to ride since his 2005 Manx TT win (he has developed MS). His father Ivan raced around the grounds on the '26 Alec Bennett TT-winning ohc 350cc K model (pre KTT, this was a hotted up standard roadster). The bike is in original paint and plating, and has a rustic patina for sure, but is all the more compelling for it. See the video of Ivan not slacking up the Test Hill. He has been racing old Velocettes since they were barely old at all!

I'll have to make another post with more individual bike photos, as there were so many unique or very rare machines being ridden around. Several collectors brought out their best hidden gems, including a New Imperial 250cc with a LeVack-created dohc JAP engine - one of 6 built. This same fellow has two of the six Sunbeam Crocodiles built in 1926, and was kind enough to let me sit astride what is, for me, a personal dream machine; no I didn't make brrrb brrrb noises. I had actually arranged to meet this fellow beforehand, as we have a mutual friend, and he graciously invited me to visit his collection in Austria (subject of another post!). The Crocodile is called thus as, like the Croc in Peter Pan, it goes 'tick tock', unlike the traditional silence of the ohv and sv Sunbeams. A close look at the bike reveals the cylinder barrel which is cast for an ohv machine, and still has the indents for the two pushrods. Clearly, not ready for production - all these ohc 'Beams were factory experiments, which they dropped when performance proved disappointing (they didn't use a strobe light to see how the valves were bouncing around with different cam shapes - that took Harold Willis of Velocette to sort out).

There were racing Douglas' from the 20's which ranged from scruffy and original to ultra-resplendent in nickel plating and silver/blue paint schemes. The sounded phenomenal, and looked so fast just sitting there. Each of them seemed to be different as well, with changes to carbs, airboxes, wheels, tanks, etc, even though they were from the same small factory, and within perhaps only 4 years of production range, 1925-29.

Chris Illman, whose Norton-JAP sprinter was featured in an earlier post, brought along some of his 'gear' (knowing how much I like Really Cool Gear) - here's a photo of a watch which was presented to Freddy Dixon, after winning 4 classes at a race meeting in 1921, on his Harley-Davisdon. He got the watch on ebay, and was I kicking myself while vowing to find a search engine for ebay Brooklands stuff? He also has a copy of my favorite book in the world, Joe Bayley's 'The Vintage Years at Brooklands", which was the personal copy of Dr Bayley, and was signed by all the surviving racers who he mentions in the book. Now, I believe there is only one left, featured in my previous post on Dennis Loveday.



George Cohen showed up with his vintage Norton equipe, a camper truck with a host of really good racing bikes, ranging from early 20's sidevalvers, to late prewar ohc Model 30M. He's pictured astride his latest creation, a flat-tank special Model 18, which is a mix of old and new parts, including new alloy tanks and a freshly made frame. He's almost finished the detail work, and thinks it should do 100mph on the road. "After all, if Rex Judd can do 100mph for an hour on his in 1924, I should be able to as well..." Go George Go!

I heard a rumor that the fellow in the vintage tweed suit pictured near the Roarer, is the grandson of Locke, who built Brooklands in 1907; can anyone confirm this? We spoke of course about vintage clothing and period-correct clothing, as the and the ladies pictured are part of an 'art deco' society which has gatherings totally in time-specific dress. Check out this video of one of their gatherings at an estate in England. It's almost totally perfect, bar one or two things, like modern spectactles and the odd digital camera or cell phone!

Enjoy the rest of these atmospheric photos; if you've never been to Brooklands, and are interested in older racing motorcycles, I can't recommend it strongly enough.

Brooklands History in Postcards

Dai sent me scans of some old postcards depicting Brooklands in use and under construction. You'll have to click on them for a better look, but they show very early scenes of the racetrack. The top photo shows the bridge near the Test Hill, which is still extant, and the cars look like 'teens models to me - they aren't going fast enough to utilize the banking.

When the course was built in 1907 by Hugh Locke-King (on his own property, using his own money), the speeds possible for cars and motorcycles would barely top 60-70mph, not enough to justify the near-vertical banking at the top of the track. Clearly someone envisioned higher speeds necessitating the banks - it took until 1913 for a car to reach 100mph on the track, and 1921 for a motorcycle. Too bad they hadn't built the track in a manner to ensure it remained smooth - the track was notoriously bumpy on the joins between the concrete paving. There is a good timeline on the construction and history of Brooklands here.
The second photo shows the Clubhouse with its charming green bell-dome, which now holds a museum and the offices of the Brooklands Society. Those low lean-to sheds to the left of the clubhouse are surprisingly still there as well, and now shelter racing cars before they enter the track on demonstration days. Third photo shows the 'public enclosure', which nowadays is overgrown or built over with new construction. If you click on the pic, you'll see the Victorian outfits (those hats!) and a sporting runabout parked on the grass. Anyone for a picnic? By 1909, an aerodrome was built in the middle of the track, but I don't see it these color postcards, so they must be ca. 1908 - certainly they're pre-WW1. The trees have grown considerably since then as well, and now a shiny Mercedes Benz delivery center/test track sits across the river, just behind the Clubhouse, which would sit right between those two trees.

The construction of the track was a feat in itself, as the banking was created by moving earth to create huge berms 30' high. The concrete track is 100' wide, and the circuit was ~2.8 miles long; all this cost £150,000, representing an enormous sum in those days. The bottom 3 postcards show the method of constructing the banking and laying the concrete, which was mostly done by hand, although a small railway was installed temporarily to help remove or create earthen hills. Clearly the name 'Brooklands' hadn't been applied to the nascent circuit, as it's still called 'Weybridge Motor Track' in these 1906 postcards. (As an aside, these photos look incredibly bleak to me, as do many from the turn of the century - is it the muddy hard work and animal smells which show through, or crude photographic composition, or?).





All this is in total contrast to the construction of the Montlhery circuit in France, which rivalled Brooklands for speed events. Montlherys is an engineered concrete and steel structure - no earthen banks, just a lot of reinforced concrete beams and posts holding up the banking (ah, another post subject). Not enough of Brooklands remains to give a riding impression, but I've ridden the Montlhery banking at speed on a mkVIII KTT, and I'll write about that another time.

The bottom photo was recently sent to me, showing some of the serious horsepower used to haul material and grade the banking here as the Railway Straight. This part of the track, while badly decomposing and covered in moss, can still be seen across the road from a new shopping mall in Byfleet.




And here, for a bit of contrast, is a modern simulator of the Brooklands track, which gives a decent idea of a lap of the Outer Circuit, ca. 1930's. The sound isn't nice, and needs to be changed to a basso profundo
v-twin!

Dennis Loveday

In my previous post on David Vincent, I couldn't recall the name of the 'other' Gold Star winner at the Brooklands Velocette Centenary in 2005. Dai asked Michael Sands, who filled us in on Dennis Loveday's background. Here is Michael:

"The Gold Star holder to whom you refer is Dennis Loveday who won his Gold Star on a Velocette, although most of his Brooklands racing was on Ariels. Denis told me that one of his techniques was 'grass cutting'. He said, 'If I could keep as near the bottom of the track as possible, I would be going round a smaller route than those riding way up on the banking, so I might save a bit of time and that meant that some of the time I had my elbow in the weeks. I fitted a pair of bicycle drop-handlebars to get lower [note -see top photo of 'getting lower'!] and one time Noel Pope said to me, 'That looks a bit agricultural' (meaning the Ariel) but I beat him in one race and he never forgave me!'
"Dennis is now a very keen carp angler and although he cannot see the float on his line, he has an electronic bite detector so he can fish day or night. He is still driving short journeys on very familiar local roads because his sight is too poor for general driving....so just beware if you are on the road in south-east Devon!!"




I found some great photographs in 'A Clubman at Brooklands' (AC Perryman, Haynes, 1979), where Dennis is mentioned ten times.
Top two pix show Dennis on his mkI KTT Velo, during the Brooklands Clubman Junior GP, August 31st 1935 - which he won. Bottom photo shows, l to r, Dennis, John Bottomley, Paul d'Orleans, David Vincent.

Dai Gibbison, Sprinter

These images are from the Velocette Centenary celebration at Brooklands Relived, 2005. Dai brought his '37 Velocette MSS sprinter for a few blasts up the Test Hill (built as a technical challenge for early motorcycles - which often had no clutches and little power in the early years - all part of the 'racing improved the breed' philosophy). The Brooklands Association used an image of Dai being push-started by Bob, for some advertising - doesn't he look formidable! The bike is really well sorted, running on methanol, and plenty fast. Enjoy the video, and turn up the sound! The 'yeehaw' you hear is the film-maker, a bit of a yahoo himself!

Brooklands Centenary

The Centenary (100 years since the track opened) celebration at Brooklands racecourse took place last June, I'm finally posting some pix of the collection of racing cars and motorcycles which were present, all of which (with the exception of the works MBZ's) had raced at the track from 1907-1940.
Mercedes-Benz now 0wns the bulk of the land on which the track is found, and have built a large 'Mercedes World' facility, plus their own test track on site, which in fact connects with parts of the original, bumpy and badly decomposed concrete track. One the day, the MBZ presence was heavily felt, as their new facility dominates the landscape, and under an attached marquee pit area was a mouthwatering selection of their factory race cars, from an '07 big banger GP car to the Carrera winning 300slr. The track was full all day with cars and (briefly) motorcycles, with the Brooklands cars taking pride of place. Curiously, the center of the test track has a smaller track on which AMG-tuned Mercedes were sliding and roaring around all day, taking passengers willing to pay £20 for a few minutes of thrills (or terror!). My favorite was the slithering silver station wagon, just like mine, but looking a lot quicker around the corners.

The motorcycles and original Brooklands clubhouse sit on the other side of a branch of the river Wey, across a bridge, past the autojumble dealers under their own marquee tents. Top pic shows the infamous Copperknob, a 1930 Chater-Lea racer with JAP 500cc ohv engine, which had a great run of wins at Brooklands.

Second pic shows a Zenith-JAP (owned by Chris Illman). Freddie Barnes owned the Zenith marque and can be seen hovering over many Brooklands racers in period photographs - he certainly had a personal interest in their success. Zenith had in fact the greatest run of wins at Brookland in terms of Gold Stars earned by its riders (lapping at over 100mph during a race was rewarded with a 'Gold Star', a small medal to be worn on the lapel. A few riders won 'double Gold Stars' for laps at over 120mph during a race. For a pic of the medal, click here). Like Copperknob, it has a JAP engine, but of 350cc ohv capacity - JAP provided many manufacturers with their engines during the 'teens thru the thirties, and during the twenties especially were at the forefront of engine tuning, using the talents of Bert LeVack and others to build the fastest engines in England.












I have a soft spot for Sunbeams, pic 3 shows a rare '23 Sunbeam race car against the bricks of the Clubhouse. No doubting the make.

Pic 4 shows a green Morgan Beetleback sportster, with a twist. A close look at the engine by shows two Scott twin-cylinder two-stroke engines doubled up with a common crankcase. A very unusual car; I didn't see it fire up, but I'm sure it's a smoky affair.
Pic 5 gives the paddock lineup (one of them anyway) with a set of GP cars ready for a lap of the track. Closest car is a blue ERA.

Next two pix show an oddity, a Francis-Barnett Brooklands machine. F-B are best known for their lightweight two-stroke commuter machines, so this bike was quite a surprise, and very purposeful looking. Separate tanks for fuel and oil (plenty of both, from the looks of it), and the engine closeup shows the exhaust pipes which bulge out in a crude form of resonance chamber, still with 'Brooklands Can' mufflers on the end (the 'Cans' were required of all cars and motorcycles racing on the track). I didn't catch the history of this machine, but will add details when I know them.
Next pic shows a real survivor, an original/unrestored Brooklands Cotton, again with JAP engine. It lives in the Brooklands museum, and I love the disc wheel covers, fork shrouds, and battered large-capacity fuel tank. Note the huge car-style Andre fork damper sticking out of the nose shroud.
An Excelsior-JAP with interesting Bowden carb looked clean enough to eat from. The Bowden has a butterfly-type throttle, and gives a nice clean intake tract. I have one which is waiting for an appropriate bike - the mechanism is very simple, and apparently they give good performance.
Next is a Grindlay-Peerless, with, again, 500cc ohv JAP engine. It looks to be an original machine, ca 1930, with an early-style saddle tank for long-distance racing. The most famous rider/tuner of G-P's was Bill Lacey, who was known for his meticulous preparation for racers, to the point of nickel-plating almost every item on the motorcycle, and turning in regular 100-plus mph laps at the track. The factory built a few Lacey-tuned Replicas, and this machine may be one. If you click on the pic, you'll see that the entire frame and cycle parts are nickel-plated, which was only found on the Lacey machines. Lacey himself used a plated petrol tank as well. Also note the 'square' ML magneto, AMAC track carb, Pilgrim oil-metering device on the timing chaincase (total loss oiling - the oil was dripped into the crankcase, spun around, then ejected through a breather, usually to lubricate the primary chain), and most unusually, a rev counter, which is probably an addition from the 30's, as only a few individual machines used tach's when this G-P was made.
Nice lineup of 30's race cars in front of some of the workshop sheds behind the Clubhouse. A Bugatti, two Amilcars and another red hotrod, with some vintage-looking drivers!
A lovely Norton International model30 caught my eye; love the heavily drilled steering damper knob, complementing the heavily drilled engine plates, and everything else drillable.

Two pix of Simon Miles' Brough Superior SS100, looking distinctive in nickel and mauve (click on pix for better color resolution, and to see the striped fenders). Again a JAP 1000cc ohv engine, type KTOR, ca 1926. Simon is a B-S expert, having restored many of those in the National Motorcycle Museum, post fire. A close look reveals a large AMAC carb with twin floats, George Dance type kneegrips rotated from their typical position (Simon is quite short), purple brake hubs, and twin nickelled Brooklands Cans. I don't know the history of this machine, or whether the odd color is original.
Last two pix come from the event sponsor, Mercedes Benz, showing two sports racers from the 50's.