Moto Memories

Traditionally this is ISDT time, so we found a photo from the ISDT for our Moto Memory.

The Isle of Man is no stranger to international motorcycle sport but generally it is on the epic Mountain circuit, created by road closures twice a year – once for the TT and once for the Manx. However, the tiny island also hosted the most demanding of all international motorcycle sporting events, The International Six Days Trial.

Our picture of Dave Randall on a 250 Jawa is from the last of these ISDTS on the Isle of Man in 1975, and from all reports this was a particularly tough event for the wrong reasons and suffered a high attrition rate.

At its longest point, the Isle of Man stretches for 30 miles, while at its widest it can manage 10 miles and boasts 221 square miles of land, yet somehow it managed to provide six days of the toughest terrain without repetition and have a course of over 1000 miles.

Obviously, given its proximity to the UK mainland, there were quite a few British riders and the terrain would be familiar to most, so great things were expected. Sadly it was not to be and the UK teams were beset by problems and issues of both a physical and mechanical nature. It is little consolation to the home riders to know other teams also had problems, such as American Tom Penton who flashed passed Scot Ernie Page with flames roaring from his Penton/ KTM. When Ernie managed to stop him it was too late to save the machine. Or Czech Petr Valek who clocked in early at a time control, a fate narrowly avoided by UK’S Geoff Chandler who had to back track to an earlier control and put himself off Gold Standard.

Then there was Nick Jefferies, more than familiar with the high speed racing on the roads of the Isle of Man, he managed to drop his Jawa, landing badly and dislocating his shoulder.

There were issues with ‘exuberant’ riding too, so much so the FIM threatened to scrub the trial if there were many more instances of speeding, ignoring the rule of the road and other such chaos. Then the weather kicked in and by midweek riders were dealing with driving rain and giant hailstones as well as the tougher conditions which called a halt to accusations the trial was merely a gentle ride round taking in a few beauty spots...

There were heroics too, such as Canadian Larry Gillespie who cobbled up his broken swinging arm with a plug spanner, a tyre lever and a prayer, and occasional good luck such as was the case with Ernie Page who found his rear tyre had a huge nail in it but it hadn’t touched the tube.

But what of our man Dave Randall? On the Friday he changed a shredded front brake cable in double quick time to keep his day’s score clean but other issues caused the Met Police Officer to drop down to Bronze Standard, but at least he finished the week, one of 19 out of 48 UK competitors to do so.