Almost a half century of competition
I was surprised to see a photograph of my Velocette MAC on display on the NSA stand at the Bristol Classic Bike Show in the April OBM. While the caption mentions it has come a long way from its road bike life, it has actually been solely used for competition since 1973. It was used in VMCC and BHR circuit races over two periods of eight or so years each time and for sprinting over three periods of varying length.
While it could not match determined riders of Velocette MkVIII KTTs in circuit racing, it was reasonably competitive against rigid frame prewar machines in the 1970s. In its most recent sprinting attempts, a best quarter mile time of 14.633 seconds with a terminal speed of 91mph was recorded in 2019. All competition was done with the standard long stroke engine dimensions of 68 x 96mm and the easier availability of spares for a MAC gave an advantage over the more ‘exotic’ designed-forpurpose machines, in the days before the support industry for older race machines took off.