BSA SINGLES COMPETITION
Beeza’s lightweight unit construction singles didn’t just make great road bikes, they also enjoyed success in all forms of sport – as these images show
How bikes based on the machines above performed in competition
ROAD RACING
It wasn’t just the beefy B50 Beezas that were road raced. This is Chris Vincent squeezing every last bit of horsepower out of a pretty stock-looking BSA C15 SS80 during the 1962 Thruxton 500. Production racing back then meant just that. Vincent went on to become one of Britain’s top sidecar stars, first with BSA 650 unit twin-based outfits, and later with a Munch URS.
ENDURANCE
In the early 1970s, Hereford and Tewkesbury motorcycle and car dealers Mead and Tompkinson (M&T) built BSA B50 Gold Star-based bikes that were surprisingly competitive in international endurance races. Against far more powerful machines, Clive Brown and Nigel Rollason won the 500cc class and finished second overall in the 1971 Barcelona 24hrs, exploiting the bike’s nimble handling and 60mpg fuel economy around the tight and twisty Montjuic Park. They also finished eighth in the Thruxton 500 (Brown is pictured during that race), and led the 500cc class at the Bol d’or for 23 of the 24 hours until they had front brake problems. In 1973 Rollason teamed with Roger Bowler for fourth overall, while Brown and Phil Gurner were seventh overall at Spa. In 1974 Rollason and Bernard Berger won the 500 class in the Montjuic 24 Hours.
GRASSTRACK
BSA singles, particularly the 250 and 350 versions, were a popular choice of power unit in grasstrack racing. This shot shows a young Peter Collins crossed up during the British championships at Cranwell in 1972 on a Hagon-framed Beeza. PC would become a Belle Vue speedway legend in a 15-year career for the Aces – and was crowned Speedway World Champion in 1976.
ISLE OF MAN TT
The M&T B50s were also raced at the TT. Gurner broke the 500cc Production lap record in 1975, clocking 95.66mph. He crashed at Ramsey but remounted to finish 12th. Rollason is pictured at Union Mills in 1972, but did not finish. He did, however, finish eighth on an M&T B50 in the 1973 Production race. Rollason had won the Senior Manx GP in 1971 and later switched to three wheels, winning the 1986 Sidecar TT on a Barton Phoenix.
MOTOCROSS
BSA was able to maximise its PR from success with the unit singles in off-road sport. One of the most successful BSA’S stars of scrambles (now known as motocross) was Jeff Smith (above), who won the 500cc world title in 1964 and ’65 riding a BSA Victor.
SPEEDWAY
There were a couple of attempts to make the B50 engine suitable for speedway. This is Coventry Bees hero Nigel Boocock testing one of them. The gearbox has been sliced off (inset) and replaced by a speedway countershaft and clutch. Emerging four-valveengined rivals put paid to the BSA effort.
TRIALS
BSA enjoyed huge popularity in trials with their C15T. This is Martin Lampkin in the 1968 Scottish Six Days Trial. The previous year he’d won the SSDT Newcomers award riding this bike. Martin would, in 1975, become the first-ever World Trials Champion. His brother Arthur, riding works BSA C15TS, won the Scottish in 1963 and ’66 – the last four-stroke bike to win the event until 2007.