A day at the Palace.

No, not that Palace…I don’t think I’m down for a knighthood yet-awhile; I mean Crystal Palace, which from the late ‘twenties until 1974 was the Metropolitan race circuit.

What I’m talking about is ‘Motorsport at the Palace’ an event that spanned the 26 th / 27 th May. See, back in the old days there weren’t too many race tracks around. Brooklands was the first purpose built motor racing circuit in the world, but for a long time it was also the only one. Pre-Brooklands there was a fair bit of racing at Canning Town in London’s East End was really a bicycle track, unsuitable for cars.

Only the straw bales (and the helmet irreverently placed on the statue) reveal that this pleasant parkland is a race track. I wasn’t able to get any more shots unfortunately because the bike paddock was quite away from the rest of the circuit and there was some uncertainty what time we were on the track. So I’m afraid you’ll just have to imagine. This is one corner of the original circuit, which was pretty big, covering a couple of miles and more or less following the park perimeter. It’s hard to describe but the original layout was oblong but with a bit cut out so it looked a bit like a lower case letter ‘g’. The main ‘Terrace’ Straight is the backbone of the ‘g’, going clockwise you would then curve round the tail, doubling back into the ‘infield’ before rejoining the oblong.

The bit of circuit we used is that tail area; this photo was tank from the terrace itself so if you turned right out of the photo, you would be following the Terrace straight going anti clockwise but that part of the track is no longer there. Now the old Terrace Straight meets the parallel section of track visible behind at a hairpin, creating a self contained circuit; it’s nicely done

Crystal Palace circuit opened in May 1927 with a motor cycle race. The racing was organised by Messrs Mockford and Smith who, according to the writings of pre-war trials and track rider Karl Pugh in the 1980s, were owners of a motorcycle business in Maidstone, Kent but unfortunately he doesn’t say which. The only one I know of was BSA dealer Ansteys in Lower Stone Street. The building still stands, I’m not sure it wasn’t the same shop that housed the ‘Sanglas’ motor cycle importer in the 1970s. Anyway, I’m digressing,

We were at the event this year thanks to our friend Dennis Grech. Dennis was due to display one of his bikes there but a change of date meant the event clashed with his wedding anniversary, so he suggested we take his place. We asked if instead of being a static display we could join the riders o the circuit and were lucky enough to be accepted – despite most of the others being actual racers. Maybe it was because our two bikes were the oldest there, earning them special privileges…

Judy took her 1928 Scott and I took the ’28 Model 9 Sunbeam, so we weren’t far off the date of the circuits origin. 1928 has another significance in motor cycle terms, being the year that Speedway hit Britain, having been imported from Australia. Crystal  Palace ran a speedway team for many years. But today wasn’t about speedway, how about this BMW outfit…

It’s warming up here and making a fantastic racket, I thought Bee-Ems were supposed to be quiet and responsible…

 The BMW was one of several racing sidecars, here’s the lovely Sheelagh Neale’s methanol-burning Triumph 6T  Pre-unit BSA twins are nothing like so common as A65 based outfits but this one was a Chris Vincent bike. Vincent earned a reputation as a giant killer with his unexpectedly potent A7, winning the 1962 sidecar TT.

Talking of Vincent, Simon from Conway Motors turned up with his family and this fearsome big twin – perks of the job you might say… It was possibly a bit ‘overkill’ for this tiny circuit – but it looked and sounded great.

At the other end of the capacity scale was the little Maserati/ Itom special brought by Steve Bedford. Poor old Steve managed to gash his head open so badly on the back door catch of his van that he ended up in casualty, only getting back after the track session was over!

Steve’s dad Geoff fitted the Itom engine into the Maserati Tipo in 1960 and raced it with some success.

50cc racers have always appealed to me – the bike shop I used to work at in Maidstone had been Chisholms before it became Paul Smart’s and the Chisholm brothers, Bill and Don had some success with racing Itoms – converting the three speeders to six gears using a derrailleur system. So  you can imagine how excited I was when among a load of bits  bought in my twenties I found the chassis of a Simmonds Itom; bult by the Simmonds brothers, it was like a tiny Featherbed frame. I started asking around about an engine but it gradually dawned on me that over six foot (and ah, solidly built) I was not an ideal pilot; so I sold it. Mind you, Steve reckons the tiny engine puts out 8bhp at 10,000 rpm, so it might have pulled away…

Out of interest, the Shutterstock website has several old Crystal Palace photos including a lovely shot of Don Chisholm on his KTT Velo in 1956. I was lucky enough to know Don and Bill, they often called in when I worked at the shop, proper enthusiasts. Chisholms were Bill Ivy’s employers and sponsors in his early days and when i worked at the shop (by then Paul Smart’s) we had the ‘Chis Honda’ CR93 that Bill raced up on the wall.

It’s something I really miss. All those old geezers in flat caps we used to see hobbling about at bike shows, they’re nearly all gone now but they were ‘proper’. Loads of people like bikes but these guys truly lived for motorcycles and I feel honoured to carry on their tradition in my own way even if I can’t hold a candle to their achievements. The pity of it is that when I knew them, I was too young; I sensed I was in the company of Great Men but I was too shy to really make the most of it – and I didn’t really know enough about their day to talk without sounding like a fool. If only I could see them all again now… Anyway, it’s nice to think that I’ve ridden at Crystal Palace, maybe in Don Chis’ tyre tracks.

This ex Arthur Wheeler Guzzi was a lovely thing too. Check out the neat lock-wiring job on the oil pump…

Now I suppose I should make something clear. Motorsport at the Palace is NOT a motorcycle event. It is primarily for cars and bikes have only been welcomed in recent years. Originally motor cycles were invited as a static display and it has taken a while to get out on the track and even now, while the cars were actually competing, doing timed sprints, when the bikes took to the track it was for parade laps, following a pace car and we were asked not to ‘hold back’, dropping back and then opening the taps to catch up again. Admittedly, this touched a nerve with me; like many motorcyclists I incline toward ‘two wheels good, four wheels bad’ as George Orwell put it – well he didn’t but as a Rudge owner he might have agreed. Like Kop Hillclimb, Crystal Palace started as a motor cycle event originally but it sometimes feels like the shadow of Hollister ’47 is still hanging over motor cyclists and we’re to be kept on a short leash – bit ironic being warned to watch out for a certain bend because one of the car competitors had piled into a tree there – twice!

Well, the good news after the event was that apparently the crowd really enjoyed the bike demo so maybe it’s a case of motor cycles earning their place. And reflecting on it later I realised I was being very unfair. Motorsport Day has been run since 1997 by the Sevenoaks and District Motor Club (est.1954) – not some airy-fairy promotions company – and I bet the insurance covers a timed event for cars only and adding bikes would see the broker eagerly reaching for his desktop calculator. If our bikes manage to increase the entertainment value of the day, it might make it worthwhile extending the insurance but in the meantime we just have to enjoy the privilege of riding on an historic circuit at modest speed- and I still managed to have a bit of a tear up with Max Aldous on his speedy Lambretta.

 

“You were desperate to get past me!” he laughed, I explained it was nothing personal – I was desperate to get past anybody – and I was very chuffed when he added, ‘Goes well, eh, that old Sunbeam.’

Having squeezed past Max (who incidentally set up this great stand with old pictures of scooter racing at the Palace back in the day) I actually had my sights on my old mate Ray Palmer, who was on his smashing little Triumph JAP but I didn’t manage to catch him before the two laps were over, dammit.

Ray built the bike from a Triumph single frame and a racing JAP 250cc engine, 1934, I think he said: bronze head, track carb jetted for dope… a cracking little pre-war racing engine.

“Where did you get it, Ray?”

“Scrapyard.” he answered.

“Cor, amazing what you could pick up in the old days, I guess…”

“No, this was only a few years ago. A friend saw it there and tipped me off, I only just got there in time – whatever frame it had been in had already been crushed.”

Beggars belief doesn’t it? I’d guess it was an old grass bike – from the anti-clockwise days at Brands. I always felt that one of the positives about the huge prices of classics is that since everybody knows they’re worth money, they no longer get sent for scrap…yeah? Well dream on…

This lovely 1927 Cotton-Blackburne recently appeared at auction, having been found in a house clearance skip. The passer by who spotted it asked if he could have it and took it straight to the local auction house where it earned him about 5 grand, so it still pays to be vigilant. I’m pleased to say a friend of mine bought it and even more pleased to say he’s in his twenties and well capable of sorting it.

One final personal grudge…

Being London, we couldn’t drive our old (non-LEZ emissions compliant) LDV van there and instead parked outside the perimeter and rode the bikes to Crystal Palace instead. That was fine – but you miss having the van as a rolling workshop/ locker/ tea room. Luckily various of our pals were there to accommodate our gear and get the kettle a-boiling.

There’s an irony about that irritating LEZ. Don’t mistake me, I believe in trying to save the planet (while accepting that probably the best way is to eradicate the human race!) but what I don’t like is the hypocrisy of those who make out they are doing the right thing. I can enter London in the van if I pay for the privilege, which sounds a bit like ‘slip us a fiver and I never saw yer’ to me. I work from home, so my road mileage is minimal – and I can count on one hand the times I’ve been on an aeroplane. Every year I weld up my old van instead of buying a new one that uses enormous amounts of resources to create, however economical it may be in service – and I spend my life repairing things rather than adding to landfill.

But of course, I ride old bikes that burn oil and have no catalytic converter, so I am bad. Many times around the M25 I’ve had to turn off in our 45mpg, minimal oil consumption LDV Convoy while ‘compliant’ vans steam into the zone belching smoke… It’s not fair. Realistically you can only create awareness with education (see: Blue Planet, plastic waste);  legislation only creates irritation and often injustice. That’s why, despite being a reasonably environmentally minded person,  I was highly amused to get my own back on the ride back to the van.

“Jesus, that’s really smoky!” Judy yelled overtaking the Sunbeam – and she’s riding a Scott, bear in mind… admittedly I’d wound the oil pump up a bit for the track session -.but blimey,  she was right. The Sunbeam was belching an enormous amount of smoke. So much in fact that some twerp in a blacked-out windows gangsta-mobile, while anxious to broadcast his taste in high volume crap-rap to the world, couldn’t hit the window wind-up button fast enough!

Surplus oil had also kept the rear tyre cool and spewed forth onto the highway…Ha! the van doesn’t make this mess, stitch that LEZ…

But as usual the last laugh turned out to be on me. When I got home I discovered that it wasn’t the pump setting after all, on examination I found that the tank has sprung an internal leak between the petrol and oil compartments.

Great. I don’t like gloopy tank sealers so that means a difficult tank deconstruction/ reconstruction soldering job.

Oh well, I’d better stop waffling and get on with it.

Cheerio Rick