Spiritual home of scootering
There are some places that hold a special place in our hearts. The scootering lifestyle is a strange phenomenon, and one which can conjure up such places
Aspiritual home can be described as a place where you feel you belong, although you were not born there, but because you have a lot in common with the people, the culture and the way of life. This evolving conversation began a few weeks ago when I was talking with a scooter racing friend about the spiritual home of scooter racing. This year is the 50th anniversary of circuit racing in the UK and a number of celebrations are planned, including the Gold Cup 50th Anniversary, which is to be held over 4 rounds at circuits that have been important to scooter racing over the years. It prompted the discussion of what actually is the spiritual home of scooter racing?
Most sports have their version of a spiritual home. Football has Wembley (or Hampden Park if you’re in Scotland). To many golfers it would be St Andrews; for rugby it could be deemed to be Twickenham; and, of course, tennis has Wimbledon. So, of course, scootering needs one, too!
The conversation about scooter racing’s home was pretty brief, but it is generally agreed that Three Sisters circuit can probably be deemed to be the home of scooter racing (you can read more about it in this month’s BSSO race supplement). For the late 1980s and 1990s it felt like scooters raced there every month. Well, actually, they pretty much did! Most scooter racers above a certain age have raced there, fallen off there and probably got drunk there. It was kind of like a rite of passage to do so. Three Sisters is just outside Wigan, which, of course, to most is also the spiritual home of Northern Soul. It's clearly a northern thing.
To offer an alternative view, if you had only been racing scooters in the 2000s then there have only been occasional visits to Three Sisters, and many would say that scooters have outgrown it and become too powerful for it. So you could argue that Cadwell Park could be ‘it’ if you have only raced scooters in the last 20 years. Cadwell is generally a two-time venue most years and is now accepted as the best venue for the final round of the Championship. Everyone loves Cadwell Park.
Looking at a dictionary definition of Spiritual Home, it’s about feeling like you belong, like a part of your culture, where you feel at home. This got me to thinking aboutut what the spiritual home of road scootering and the scootering way of life is?
To my mind, there are just two clear contenders which, again, could depend on the time you’ve been riding and/or where you are in the country. There is a third contender for many.
To many the north was where scooters and scooter clubs never went away in the 1970s. There was always a stronghold in Yorkshire and the Yorkshire clubs always went to Scarborough. Easter was Scarborough rally, simples. In the 1980s Scootermania magazine came from Scarborough. Many iconic scooters were from the north and were always seen at Scarborough. I always remember walking down the promenade and in one short stretch took a picture of Italian Stallion, Time Trouble and Money, Naughty but Nice and Mytho Peikon. Everyone got their scooters ready for Scarborough. It was just what you did. Easter was always the trip to Scarborough, sometimes going through snow, hail and sleet to get there. It was the first big rally. The one to start the year. Northern clubs would go back again several times over the year, too. So as far as I’m concerned the spiritual home of scooterists is clearly Scarborough. Or is it? In the last 20 years, and for many people in the south, the only spiritual home would be the Isle of Wight. August bank holiday has been developed into the big rally of the year that everyone goes to, time after time. The island gets taken over for that weekend by thousands of scooterists. Every bed and breakfast, campsite and pub is about scooters. The island gets choked with two-stroke fumes during the ride out by literally thousands of people from every walk of life and every sub-culture of scooters. The Isle of Wight, however, was not anywhere near so popular in the 80s, but now it would very hard to imagine a year without the Isle of Wight. The over-commercialisation might one day kill it, as Bridlington has been as the season finale.
But wait… the third option goes right back to the very start of when Mod became mainstream. 1964. Brighton. The Pier. The beach. Was that the start of a lifestyle?
‘The beach is a place where a man can feel He's the only soul in the world that's real Well I see a face coming through the haze I remember him from those crazy days Crazy days, crazy days.’
There have been songs about it, and films about it. It is iconic. So perhaps Brighton is the true spiritual home of scootering. Everyone knows about it. You’ve seen it on TV, the big screen, you have probably even been there. For many, that was where it started, so it is the spiritual home. Do you have a different suggestion? Send us a letter (email) if so.