The Story of the CRMC – Part Two
So, what do you do when you’ve lined up a new racing championship? What else but sort the calendar and get going with the on-track action.
Let’s go racing. With the organisation put together, there was nothing more to do than to get everyone out on the track to see what was what. How exciting!
We’ve already learned how the CRMC was formed by Alan Cathcart and Dick Linton, following a fall out over them wanting to get classic bikes out on track that were considered by the Vintage Club to be too young and modern.
After a very successful initial meeting they now had several hundred members – all very hungry and keen to go racing with their machines. Alan and Dick realised that communication – to let people outside of the club know what they were trying to do – was key. Of course this is Alan’s forte, but also a stroke of good fortune came into play here – Alan takes up the story:
“I’d put my own racing career on standby to get the club started, but first I had to pick up a pot for winning the 1979 Bemsee 350cc single-cylinder championship, and at the club’s dinner/dance in London, not even a month after the Donington Park inaugural meeting, Stella and I found ourselves seated at the same table as Peter Stayner, the circuit manager of Snetterton.
“We didn’t let a chance like that go amiss, so by the end of the evening Peter had introduced us to his boss Chris Lowe, who ran MCD, which in those days owned Brands, Snetterton and Oulton Park.’’
As a result of this chance meeting, the club were offered a one day meeting at Snetterton the following year and also the opportunity to run feature parades at MCD’S British National meetings. They became a programme filler that contrasted with the modern Superbikes, TT F1 and 250cc classes. And not only did it give the opportunity for the members to get out on track in front of a paying audience, it also was a great PR opportunity.
One of the things that they had also established were several CRMC regional centres, which took the opportunity to get other clubs like Aintree and Auto 66 to run Classic races for CRMC eligible machines. But their efforts were not restricted just to the UK, as Alan explains:
“We founded affiliate CRMC centres in Australia, Canada, New Zealand (where our liaison officer was none other than former world champion Hugh Anderson, soon to become one of the stars of classic racing worldwide) and the USA – which thanks to CRMC member Will Harding in Florida, and his friends Bob and Marie Barker, was duly
transformed into the basis of today’s AHRMA after they first ran a classic race at Daytona to CRMC rules in 1981.’’
As soon as MCD had confirmed the date for the inaugural Snetterton meeting, Alan, Dick and their newly-formed committee had to learn how and what is required to actually run a meeting. One of the many difficulties they had to overcome was persuading the sport’s governing body – the Auto Cycle Union, that they were a national club, not a regional one. This issue was soon overcome, but replaced with the reality that something like 100 people are needed to actually run a race meeting.
We’ve already heard how Alan’s wife, Stella, was instrumental in coordinating the administration of the club, she remembers:
“It meant an enormous amount of extra paperwork – sorting entries, liaising with the circuit and the ACU, getting all the officials organised, and the marshals, too. I had a lot of help from Marie Armes, who was one of the key people running Eastern Centre road races – she’d become a good friend when we raced at Snetterton.’’
By now they had 540 members, all had to be sent entry packs, which had to be processed and allocated into the correct race or parade. Insurance requirements had to be understood and met. Scrutineers (called technical officials nowadays) had to be sourced and of course a host of people with specialist knowledge – clerk of the course, timekeepers, lap scorers, starter, start line officials, result team, commentator and of course organising sufficient marshals for the whole of Snetterton circuit. A hugely daunting task for a newly formed club. Alan explains how they managed:
“We got huge support from the membership – it really was the start of something good. The experienced officials of the Snetterton Combine each gave up a summer weekend to teach us how to run a race meeting, and without Dave Bailey, Colin and Marie Armes, Eddie Carter and Harry Clenshaw, it would never have happened.’’
They decided to run 15 races plus three parades. Alan admitted: “It was frankly a risky undertaking for such a young club’’ but
the good fortune continued when they were gifted by beautiful weather. A combination of some excellent work by the newly appointed public relations officer, Val Ward and the lovely summer weather, boosted the spectator numbers, with Motorcycle Sport magazine reporting: “Despite clashing with a Vintage Club meeting at Donington Park, the CRMC drew the biggest gate of the year at their Snetterton meeting.’’
The spectators would certainly have enjoyed not only the wonderful display of machinery, but also a host of famous riders too. Alan lists
The first programme featured Cromier Mccandless, Bray Hill, in the 1950 TT, on Francis Beart’s 500 Norton.
“We got huge support from the membership – it really was the start of something good”
some of them: “The recently retired Percy Tait on his works Triumph-3, Arthur Wheeler on his Argentine Gp-winning Moto Guzzi single, road racing and scrambles great Ron Langston on his 500 Manx, Tt-winner John Kidson on his unique Reynolds-framed NSU Rennmax 250 twin, and others took part in the parades.
“But we had more riders of note in the races, too, with 1978 British TT Formula 1 champion John Cowie on a Triumph triple leading an array of current stars whose support for what we were trying to do – provide a place to race bikes that were also ‘interesting’, rather than just past their best – gave us heart. Remember that Percy’s triple had been racing in the Transatlantic Match Races just eight years earlier, since when its glorious howl had abruptly disappeared from the race tracks.’’
The meeting was an unmitigated success. Alan reported in the first edition of the club’s magazine – ‘Open Megga’: “We were treated to excellent and very close racing, plus the sight, sound and smell of some incredible machinery which, until the instigation of the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club, could have been only read about in motorcycle history books’’. This view was shared by the members too: “The best meeting I have ever taken part in’’ and: “It was like a breath of fresh air’’, were typical comments reported in the magazine. And of course, the then future editor of Classic Racer, Malc Wheeler, was one of the successful competitors, with a fifth, a second and two wins, including taking the Race of the Year 350cc trophy home.
However, two competitors were excluded from the results, for refusing to submit their machines for noise testing following a race. A good example that the current noise issue every club now has to deal with, is not a new phenomenon.
Boosted by the success off the fifirst meeting, Alan and his committee started thinking ahead and planning future meetings. After careful consideration, they felt that the following year they would be able to run at least four meetings – Cadwell Park, Snetterton, Mallory Park and starting the season off at Donington Park. For this meeting the weather gods were not so kind and the meeting had to be cancelled because of snow, but Alan’s influence once again saved the day when he was able to get the circuit to waive any payment. This was a financial lifesaver for the club and most unlikely to happen today.
Forty years later and the club is still going strong, with packed grids and excellent crowds, all enjoying classic motorcycle racing at its best. Current club chairman, Gordon Russell says:
“When the CRMC was formed, some 40 years ago by Alan, Dick and Stella, I guess any thoughts that the club would still be flourishing in 2019 were not uppermost in the founders’ minds, but here we are still racing the Manx Nortons, Matchless G50s, Seeleys, North Triples and so on, for which the CRMC was formed.’’
As everyone concerned with the club looks forward, Gordon gives an insight:
“So, after 40 years we are inevitably thinking about the future of the CRMC. The initial cut-off date for eligible bikes was 31/12/72 which was extended to 1986 around the turn of the century.
“The later bikes were labelled post classic bikes and included Yamaha TZ350S P&M Kawasakis, Superstock class bikes and the like. The post classic section of our racing has now overtaken the classic section, but not by much – probably around a 60:40 split. This is not surprising as the age of people being attracted to racing with us moves on, so does the age of bikes they are interested in. We are now on the brink of extending the cut-off date again to cater for riders interested in the next period of classic bike racing. This must be managed carefully to make sure all those that want to race classic and current post classic bikes with us are not disadvantaged in any way and can keep racing with us as long as they want.
“All motorsport has to deal with increasing
costs due to circuit hire and ancillary items continually increasing, as well as noise and insurance issues. However, the CRMC has weathered such issues for 40 years and is in a good shape to continue to provide great classic bike racing – all with a fantastic spirit – hopefully for at least 40 more years.’’
It’s only appropriate that Alan should have
the final word: “And now, in some ways best of all, we’re friends with the Vintage Club again – two clubs with a common purpose, the preservation and use of historic motorcycles, but of f a different era.’’ CRMC’S current club
Chairman Gordon Russell