THRUXTON 500
The history of the famous 500mile race in bite-sized pieces
The French had the Bol d’or – a massive, weekend-long festival built around a 24-hour endurance road race with a whole range of sideshows to woo the fans. Us Brits had the Thruxton 500, which was a great race – but a one-day affair which had little else to offer and never had the prestige that international events on our short circuits enjoyed.
While the French adopted a more liberal attitude to their endurance bike specs, Britain had strict production-based rules – which was great for the manufacturers to promote their products, but never offered the same wow-factor that a bunch of highly-tuned specials from all the major dealerships created.
So it’s no surprise that British road racing enthusiasts lacked the same passion for endurance racing as the French, who saw their scene blossom into not one, but two major 24-hour races that were part of a European, then world, endurance series.
That said, there was a period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when our flagship 500-miler, which enjoyed a run of 12 years at Thruxton and four years at alternative circuits, was in its prime, attracting top riders on works entries as manufacturers used the race as a proving ground for their bikes. We weren’t as vociferous as Americans shouting up the ‘race on Monday, sell on Monday’ ethos, but that was the mindset and, while the 500 was meant to be strictly production machines only, the rule book was fully exploited...
Victories for the local boys
The final two Thruxton 500 races were won by the John Player Special Norton team, with Dave Croxford/mick Grant in 1972, and Rex Butcher (above) and Norman White in 1973. These results seemed entirely appropriate, because the works team – the same bunch of guys who ran trick Formula 750 racers in the MCN Superbike series – was based in an industrial unit at the Thruxton circuit. Norman White (left) was also one of the team’s technicians (we featured Norman’s memories of the Thruxton race shop in the July 2021 issue of CB).
Nine Hours
Before the first Thruxton 500 in 1958 came the Thruxton Nine Hour, first held in 1955 and won by Eddie Dow and Eddie Crooks riding a 500 BSA. Dow was well known as a Gold Star specialist and became one of the first professional road racing commentators, while Crooks earned fame as a leading Suzuki dealer. The Nine Hour was won by 350 BSA Gold Star pairings Ken James/ivor Lloyd in 1956 and by Fred Webber/rex Avery a year later.
Twin-driven thing
The first Thruxton 500 in 1958, apart from a change in race distance, brought dramatic change in the results. After Gold Stars had won all three of the Thruxton Nine Hours, victory in the first 500-mile race went to a young Mike Hailwood and ‘Banbury’ Dan Shorey on a Kings of Oxford (the dealership at which Mike’s dad Stan was MD) Triumph 650. Their 220 laps were complete in seven hours, 35 minutes. Triumph twins filled the top six places in the overall results – the first Thruxton endurance race with no Goldies in the top six. Gold Stars filled the top six places in the 350 class.
Thruxton Bonneville
The Triumph Bonneville T120 was launched in 1959, but the factory also produced a Thruxton version – a batch of 52 machines which were hand-built to Thruxton production racing rules. The irony was that, while the rules suggested the bikes were to be production machines, the Thruxton Bonnies included many parts that were not available to the public – parts necessary to ensure the bikes could sustain the demands of high-speed racing. According to Claudio Sintich’s excellent reference work, Triumph Thuxton Bonneville 1959-1969, there are still 48 of the original bikes in circulation.
The face of endurance
The determined character pictured above on a Norton is Brian Setchell, the only rider to win the Thruxton 500 three times in the 12 years the circuit hosted the race. He won it in 1962 and ’63 when teamed up with Phil Read, and made it three in a row in 1964 with Derek Woodman. Each win came aboard a Syd Lawton entered and prepared 650 Norton Dominator SS. Setchell, from Luton, worked in the timber trade, but was a regular short-circuit and TT competitor between 1955 and 1965.
When long-distance kept its distance
Long distance racing remained at Thruxton until 1977, with the Powerbike International (won in 1974 by Barry Ditchburn and Kork Ballington on a 750 Kawasaki, and in 1975 by Alain Vial and Jacques Luc on a Kawasaki 1000), and the Grand Prix D’endurance in 1976 and ’77 (won by Roger Ruiz/christian Huguet and Stan Woods/charlie Williams on Honda RCBS respectively). These races attracted the top factory teams in the chase for world championship points. The races then relocated to Brands Hatch, then Donington and finally Silverstone in 1983 – but, despite the prestige of world class riders and Ttf1-spec bikes, endurance racing still failed to capture the interest of the British fans and international endurance racing in the UK died.
The Non-thruxton 500
After the 1964 race, officials decided that the old Thruxton circuit surface – ‘a WWII airfield with a course marked out by straw bales,’ as Mick Walker described it in his book British Racing Motorcycles – was becoming unsuitable for racing. So the event was switched to nearby Castle Combe for 1965 and won by Dave Degens and Barry Lawton on a 650 Triumph. For the next three years it was hosted by Brands Hatch. Degens, again on a 650 Triumph, linked with local rider Rex Butcher to take the ’65 race, while Percy Tait and Rod Gould (650 Triumph) won it in 1967. The 1968 race was won by Boyers of Bromley duo Dave Nixon and Peter Butler, this time on a 1967 490cc Triumph Tiger 100T – the only time a 500cc machine won the 500 Mile race outright.
Planes to bikes
RAF Thruxton was commissioned in 1941 as a wartime airfield used by the RAF and the USAAF and played a part as a base for troop carrying aircraft and gliders in the D-day landings. It was de-commissioned in 1946, and from 1950 until 1965 its perimeter roads and runways were used for motorcycle racing. It began as a 1.89-mile course from 1950-52, then was revamped to 2.757 miles (above). When the surface began to break up, the circuit was redeveloped as a permanent racing circuit, opening in 1968. The 2.356mile circuit (below) still hosts a round of the British Superbike Championship.
Velocette Thruxton
The first manufacturer to use the Thruxton name for one of its models was Velocette. In 1964, the company offered an optional cylinder head for the Venom 500, which would boost horsepower for racing applications. Sure enough, these tuned Venoms filled the top three places in the 500cc class of the 1964 race, with class winners Alan Harris and Howard German doing well enough to finish third overall among the larger capacity bikes. The following year, Velocette released the Venom Thruxton model, which produced 41bhp at the crankshaft and was tested at 110mph, without race tuning! David Dixon and Joe Dunphy won the 500cc class on the new Thruxton in 1965 – although, ironically, the race was held at Castle Combe. The Velocette Thruxton remained in production until 1971.