Great Yarmouth Sidewinders 40th Anniversary Rally

Sheer hard work, meticulous planning, and dedicated organisation (among other factors) are required to promote a scooter rally. Even with all those boxes ticked there’s no guarantee of success, thankfully this year Great Yarmouth proved to be a fantastic

Great Yarmouth Sidewinders SC has been running a rally for the past three years. Prior to this year’s rally, 2016 marking the club’s 40th anniversary, for a variety of reasons, (weather conditions in the main), numbers were lower than hoped for at the last two. So this year was, literally, make or break as far as this regional was concerned. Great Yarmouth Racecourse is an ideal rally location and if memory serves at least once during the 80s, when LCGB was involved with running National rallies, the racecourse was utilised. Now, 30 plus years later, the racecourse is still an excellent host venue.

Several of the bars are located on various levels in the two grandstands and this ensured there was a variety of music on offer. With the addition of the outdoor stage, and five of the seven live acts performing al-fresco over the two days, late afternoon, and early evening, things shaped up nicely. Almost every taste in music was catered for from the live acts and DJs.

On a personal note, I first encountered some of Great Yarmouth Sidewinders one Saturday at Arthur Francis’ shop in Watford, back in 1980, prior to Ray Kemp relocating to Yorkshire. Over the early years of the then fledgling National rallies, I’d invariably run into some of them. This being the Sidewinders’ 40th anniversary rally, for me personally this event was not to be missed.

My cross country route to Great Yarmouth has vastly changed since the 80s, in the main for the better, with dual carriageways and bypasses avoiding many of the towns and cities that in the past required riding through. Arriving at the Racecourse midafternoon on the Friday, the site was already buzzing with scooters and scooterists, with a steady amount arriving constantly throughout the late afternoon and evening. Near perfect weather

over the weekend ensured there were new arrivals on site right through till 8pm on the Saturday night. Family friendly, Sidewinders rally reminded me a lot in the overall format of Camber Sands rally (RIP), albeit without chalets. Early risers had the option of on-site showers in a two hour window, caterers provided a decent range of food, with a donut outlet and icecream van for the youngsters, and young at heart. An abundance of trade stalls offering all manner of spares, new and second hand parts, clothes and all sorts. The custom show on Saturday attracted a healthy amount of scooters, though as with all rally shows, there were as many high quality machines not entered, parked up on site. Several caught my eye, especially a cream and deep red Grimstead Imperial dealer special, though the scooter and owner (from Lowestoft) were only there Saturday afternoon.

Midday was the start time for the rideout, which attracted an estimated good few hundred scooters, which went from the rally site in Great Yarmouth itself. Some of the rideout participants parking up on the sea front spent the afternoon in town. Trophy presentations took place late afternoon between bands on the outside stage, main rally sponsors Fuchs Silkolene oil ensured all award winners got a bottle of two-stroke as well, during which Sidewinders SC members posed group photos. The 70s fancy dress theme for the Saturday night attracted quite a few participants, including Mini Mods SC from Northampton who got right in the spirit en masse. While there were many amusing moments over the duration, the most outstanding was the two young girls who slept in a Mini, waking up to find themselves in the middle of a car boot fair!

All in all an excellent regional event. Sidewinders SC, on the strength of their 40th anniversary rally, certainly put the Great into Yarmouth!