SPEED TRIALS
Imagine being able to go hell for leather down a stretch of Tarmac on the gorgeous south coast. Well, you still can!
Madeira Drive is a seafront road that lays claim to being Britain’s oldest dedicated racetrack. It came about in 1905, through the vision of local Sir Harry Preston, but things did not go quite to plan and it was the 1920s before the Speed Trials featured regularly on the race calendar. Organised by the Brighton & Hove Motor Club, tradition has it that motorcycles compete in the Speed Trials ‘by invitation’. For many years such arrangement has been made with the Vintage Motor Cycle Club (VMCC). This does not restrict the entry though, far from it. Every year, Sprint Section entry secretary Juan Manzano has the task of disappointing riders as he tries to find a variety of around 50 motorcycles representing old, new, bog-stock and highly modified from a large pile of those keen for throttle exercise in front of the huge crowds that the trials attract. The original Speed Trials were held over a mile, but the march of progress and speeds way beyond Sir Harry Preston’s imagination, means it is now prudent to conduct things over a standing start quarter, with riders sent off singly. For much of the rest of the year, Madeira Drive is a long car park, subject to speed limits. Each rider moves forward and is carefully positioned on the start line. A marshal uses a chock on the end of a long handle to keep the bike in the right place. Ahead is the wide expanse of road, to the left the controlling light, at red until the course is clear. On the green, the rider is free to leave at any time. Only as soon as he, or she, moves forward is the timing mechanism activated. The first set of lights measure the time taken to cover the initial 64ft of the course. For those who remember schooldays physics, a sub-two-second
time means beating gravity – and some achieve it. The next set of lights gives the quarter-mile time and the speed at which the bike crossed the finish line. There are a number of classes and among the entry, there are plenty of Cmm-era bikes. Neill Curtis’s Yamaha LC sprint special has Honda wire-spoked wheels to give it an unusual look, but the bike took a class win at Brighton with an 11.80/111mph best. The bike was built by Keith Laker and he was contesting the 1000cc class with his latest project, a supercharged GPZ750 Kawasaki. Class III, for half-litre bikes, was won by Martin Newton on a Honda CBR400RR, chased home by Des Lindsay on a Barry Sheene tribute RD500 Yamaha. Clive Hurst has been sprinting Kawasaki two-stroke triples for a long time. Bernard Watson has just about run-in his immaculate RD400 air-cooled. It wasn’t just the adults having fun: Charlotte Hales was out on her Junior Drag Bike. In the drag race tradition a Suzuki GS500 twin sat low in a long, full cradle frame. Stuart Donald’s turbo-charged Suzuki GSX-R 1000 enabled him to walk off with the one-litre category, recording a pair of nine-second performances, leaving Robbie Dobbie (Honda SP-1 RC51) more than a second in arrears. Among the modern bikes of the Production Class, Christopher Payne offered a nostalgia element with a 1975 six-cylinder Honda CBX which recorded a couple of consistent 13-second runs. The fastest times and biggest speeds almost always come from Class VII, the 2000cc Solos, and this year was no exception, although Stuart Donald had already posted nine-second results. Suzuki Hayabusas took the first three places in the biggest capacity class. All three bikes were in the nine-second zone. Richard Albans of TTS Performance puts his faith in supercharging and his 9.68 best was just pipped by the superbly finished turbo Hayabusa of current course record holder Roger Simmons. However, it was long-time challenger for Brighton honours, Craig Mallabone, who scorched down to the end of the course at Black Rock in just 9.03 seconds. Roger Turner notched a 10.08/139mph best. Finale of the Speed Trials is the ‘Fastest Six’ competition for £100 cash to those who improve on their times. There is also the target of the course record (Roger Simmons, 8.73, set in 2009). Eventually, it was Stuart Donald who made the greatest improvement and won before the rain arrived.