The thrills and spills of classic bikes relived

It is set over 16 laps per day and features two riders per team to contest for the trophy, and it has a Le Mans type start.

Last year South Africa was represented by Team Incomplete with Jimmie Guthrie and Peter Labuschagne who posted a mid-finish to the race. This year, however, there were machines produced way back in the early ’50s and with 31 teams set to battle on long-stroke Manx Nortons and early Triumph Twins, as well as only one 4-cylinder Gilera came out to play.

This year it was the turn of Australian aces Beau Beaton and Craig McMartin who brought a superswift 1948 Vincent Rapide from KH Equipment to put the cat among the pigeons in the normal Manx Norton pecking-order winning list. There were also notable world champions in the entry list in the form of Kevin Schwantz, Micheal Rutter, Troy Corser and Steve Plator.
Practise and race days were held in unusually balmy autumn conditions and the Vincent took pole for the first leg after a frantic start, where Irish superstar Jeremy Williams suffered a fall on the track and damaged the 1952 Manx front forks beyond repair.

After the rider change, the mighty Vincent which had an extra 50 horsepower advantage over the competition, disappeared into the blue yonder. With both riders overcoming the bike’s refusal to brake well on any corner, Steve Plator, former TT winner and commentator rode a solid stint with Glen English to take second after a huge scrap with Scott Smart for the podium places. The Motorcycle News tester, Adam Child scooped fourth on a Matchless C80 from 1954.

With the Vincent’s obvious superiority and despite its huge size and weight, the organisers let a later 1961 Manx into the second leg, ridden by Jeremy McWilliams and Duncan Fitchet. This machine was to produce the race scap of the weekend. Troy Corser struck trouble with the Sebastian Gutsch 1937 BMW R5 SS and was out of the first race. Also sidelined was the Gilera of Brian Richards as all types of mechanical mayhem struck these old clunkers from 70 years ago.

In the second leg the Vincent 1000 didn’t have it all its own way, as the nimbler 1961 Barbour Norton Manx harassed and outrode the bigger machine time and time again to bring the crowds to their feet. Despite winning by a wheel as they crossed the line for the checquered flag and ominous puff of blue smoke, the Rapide blew up its gearbox. However, despite that they took the overall win for the two-part trophy race. Second was the Fred Walmsley Manx Norton from 1953 with Plator and English on board. Child and Ling rode a brilliant race to scoop the final podium position in another race where some favourites fell by the way with mechanical failure.

The Schwantz/O’Connor Manx Norton brought all the way from New Zealand by ace Turner MacIntosh took a well-deserved fourth in the memorial final placings, in a race that featured bikes which started their lives some 75 years ago and are still very fast, even by modern standards.