50's Grasstrack....for the under 12's !!

SIDECAR BOYS SIDE-CAR BOYS

 

Cycle Alley Riders from Lee Wiffen on Vimeo.

Some 60's Grasstrack USA style at 14:46! all of the video is well worth a watch though fantastic footage!! 

Chicanes

This looks like an 80's picture to me, I thought chicanes were banned in the 70s, for reasons illustrated by the crew in the background! Did some clubs keep them into the eighties?

The Kenny White Special

In memory of the late Kenny White I'm looking forward to helping bring his old outfit back to life with my dad and kenny's passenger, John Smith. We hope to get it entered in at least one vintage event in 2013, let's see how far we get! To be continued....

The Ace of Aces

Fantastic TV special from 1987 shot at Ian Barclay's international meeting 'The Ace of Aces'. Features Simon Wigg talking over the details of his bike, Sidecar passenger view on board shots, interview with champion female passenger Lisa Pinfold and more.

I wish the Ace of Aces was still running, some of the best grasstrack meeting ever in my opinion.

Christmas comes early

Another nugget from ebay, had this when it came out, it went missing somewhere over the years. Great photos, can't wait to read it now that i can read big words. There are some on amazon, pretty pricey though!

Vincent Power!

Ben at Sideburn Magazine sent me these shots of a vincent powered outfit looking like something out of a Mad Max film on display at last weekends Kempton Park classic off road show. Great to see some vintage sidecars still knocking about. I'm going to be involved in bringing an early 70's outfit back to life in 2013, more on that to follow......

P.S. Was this an earlier incarnation of the outfit? looks like it could have been, or were there a few vincent propelled monsters back in the day?

Update: I received this from my new goldmine of Grasstrack facts and artefacts, Carl Croucher. Thanks Carl.

'In answer to your question regarding the pictures of the Vincent grass track outfit YES they are one and the same! The black and white picture is of it in its hayday being raced right handed by Alan Jones from Liverpool. the colour pictures show it set up for left hand racing in the vintage class (plus the odd trip into mainstream left hand racing) in the hands of its owner Stuart Towner.'

60's American Grasstrack!

Great American video from the 60's featuring flat-tracking, hill-climb, road racing, what looks like a mixture of  trials and enduro and at 14:46 into the clip my first look at American GRASSTRACK!!

https://vimeo.com/53777646

Haven't worked out how to post vimeo clips on here yet :(

On some rare occasions in the late 80's / early 90's Grass-track actually made it on to the telly. Here's a clip from one of those occasions, Steve Smith and John Mitten winning a heat at the british masters on their Yamaha TZ750 outfit. Cheers for the heads up Geoff.

Talking of TZ750's. This is great. King Kenny. Some great vintage flat-tracking footage in the middle of the clip.

They started young back in the 70's!

Liam Carter about to take his uncle Jez's outfit for a spin around the block. I Believe Jez Phillips and Pete Dulake won the Western Winner on this with Bill Carter on mechanical duties and of course Liz Carter taking care of the sandwiches etc for the weekend. Thanks Liz for the photo, and digging out the 8mm footage you have, can't wait to see it and hopefully put it up here soon.

Gutted!!

Just missed out on an eBay auction in the last second for the programme that would have given me the results to one of my dad's outings representing the southern centre in a 1975 inter-centre meeting as seen below (No. 30 rather than their usual No. 69). Almost threw the laptop across the room!!

The offending auction! top right is the one. On the ridiculously long shot that anyone actually reads this AND has any unwanted old programmes from 1975-77 with the sidecar team Brian Hatch / Lew Wharton competing (Usually No. 69 but can differ in inter-centre meeting as below...No. 30)  I'd be very interested in taking them off your hands at an appropriate price. The phrase needle in a haystack comes to mind, but it's happened before http://vintagegrasstrack.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/the-wonders-of-ebay.html

Brian Hatch / Lew Wharton (30) along side their good friends Jez Phillips / Pete Dulake (31) both representing the Southern Centre at an inter-centre meeting in the mid-seventies

Brian Hatch / Lew Wharton (30) along side their good friends Jez Phillips / Pete Dulake (31) both representing the Southern Centre at an inter-centre meeting in the mid-seventies

The next instalment

1979

Photos by Roland Broom

The story of Grass-track

Copies of the books are available from Dave on 01454 321 694

60's left handers 

Lewis Leathers

 Lewis Leathers are still around and making some classic racing styles and quality road riding motorcycle gear. They have a shop in London (3-5 Whitfield Street,London,
W1T 2SA) and website full of great classic photos and their current range of clothing. They can tailor make you a set of racing leathers, their not cheap but the're Quality.

Gerry Smith in Lewis Leathers sometime in the 70's 

Dick Packham sporting what looks like some pretty recently purchased Lewis Leathers

you don't get a much higher endorsement than this!

The latest classic style revived by the brand

Rockers love 'em too

I think these are the only two years MCN did Grasstrack supplements, If anyone knows different I would love to know and try to find them. 

Wanted: Grasstrack pictorial

The collection so far...

Would love to hear from anyone who has any unwanted Grasstrack pictorials for sale 

Jez Phillips & Peter Dulake on their Honda and kawasaki powered outfits

Showcasing their wide open around the outside style

Not one to take things too seriously, Jez pulls faces for the camera (mid-race!!)

Sideburn magazine

I have an article on my dad's recollection's of racing RH sidecar in the 70's in Sideburn magazine issue 10. Sideburn is also full of lots coverage of the exciting and rapidly growing flat track scene and is as they declare themselves 'the worlds best go fast, turn left magazine'


Available here
http://sideburn.bigcartel.com/product/sideburn-issue-10

http://www.sideburnmag.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/lewis-wharton-jnr.html

Great shot of legendary American Flat Tracker Dave Aldana having a go at Grasstrack in 1979 care of The Sideburn Magazine blog and photographer Tim Beaumont.

http://sideburnmag.blogspot.co.uk/

oh no!.........shh*****tt!!!!!

Chrome lids!!!! 


Is it just coincidence Battlestar Galactica came out the same year this photo was taken?


Photo: Roland Groom

The wonders of ebay

So... I'm trawling ebay as I often do looking for old programmes from Grasstracks my dad may have raced in, I come across one that looks right, local track, right year, so I ask the seller if one of the sidecar outfits in the entrants is No.69 Brian Hatch/ Lew Wharton. I'm well pleased to find out it does, bid, win, done. When the envelope arrives it's a bit bigger than it should be and when I open it this wonderful human being has bothered to print off 4 pictures he took on the day of my dad that I'd never seen before and send them along too for no extra charge! The old man is well happy as he has fond memories of that meeting, in his words 'we cleaned up that day'. There wasn't enough space in the box for all the positive feedback. Thank you again whoever you are.

If only programmes and random landfill souvenirs still looked like this, I'm not a massive fan of the modern local kebab shop flyer-esque ones you get now.

60's Grasstrack on youtube!!

There's some great 8mm clips of 60's Grasstrack on youtube

IAN BARCLAY - mid 1970's

69 - Brian Hatch & Lew Wharton

A few pics of my dad passengering Brian Hatch between 1975-77. 

SIMON WIGG - THE ENTERTAINER!

I FEEL VERY LUCKY TO HAVE SEEN SIMON WIGG RACE AT A FEW ACE OF ACES AND OTHER GRASSTRACKS, CHECKOUT THIS FOOTAGE OF SIMON TEARING IT UP DOWN UNDER AT WHAT I THINK IS A SPEEDWAY EXHIBITION EVENT IN MELBOURNE...PULLING WHEELIES ALMOST EVERY LAP AND BLOWING AWAY THE OPPOSITION...CLASS!

R.I.P SIMON WIGG, SADLY MISSED. 

VINTAGE GRASSTRACK BLOGSPOT

The idea behind the Vintage Grasstrack Blog is to get more of the amazing images of Grasstrack days gone by out of peoples lofts and cupboard drawers and onto the internet for everyone to enjoy. Since sitting aboard my dad's sidecar outfit as a nipper I have been mildly obsessed with the most exciting and under-documented form of motorcycle racing there is and wish there was more out there for people to see.