Goin’ back to ma roots…

The Ramsgate Sprint stopped running in 1968. Although I was born in Ramsgate Hospital in 1964, I can’t honestly claim that I recall the mighty roar of the bikes tearing up the Western Undercliff, but no matter. This year the Invicta MCC decided to revive the event and what a weekend it turned out to be…

I was invited to attend by Tim Hart who was the originator of the idea because the organisers were looking for bikes that had appeared there in the day and the Martinsyde raced there several times in the event’s twelve year history. Originally it appeared that the event was going to be a parade  but nearer the time an email advised all entrants that the bikes would be subjected to ACU regulations and scrutineering. At the time this seemed a bit over the top for a non-competitive event. Judy had entered her 1928 Scott and neither his nor the Martinsyde was likely to pass ACU scrutiny, which takes no account of what the bike was like when new. Gut-ripping handlebar levers and finger-munching chains cut no ice  with ACU scrutineers however much you point out that ‘they raced like that at Brooklands’.

As we got nearer the day the problems began. We went out for a ride on the bikes. After filling up at the local garage, Judy complained that the Scott’s clutch was slipping. Then I noticed it was also leaking fuel. Returning home I saw that the bloody radiator was leaking again too! So in view of the complete lack of time to sort it out  we decided to take the 1948 Scott instead. Having coped well with the West Kent Run it was oly a matter of taping over the lights and removing the sump plugs for lockwiring…Or so I thought until removing one, I got a handful of water: that’ll be the head gasket then.

Considering this was Friday and we were at Ramsgate on Saturday and I still had to make a primary chainguard for the Martinsyde, things weren’t looking good. However the chainguard came out pretty well, using a sheet of old aluminium I beat it around a couple of lathe face plates to get the folds for the sides…

Quite chuffed with it, fortune kept smiling and I found a second-hand-but-useable Scott head gasket on the shelf as insurance so, filled with confidence I prepared to tackle the Flying Squirrel.

In the shed at 9am sharp Saturday morning I removed the head. Well, that’s cutting a long story short; bear in mind that means not only the tank but also the radiator and hoses off first. Oh and you can’t actually remove the head with the engine in the frame. Having removed the nuts, you lift the head up the studs until it hits the frame tube. You tap it and it becomes wedged. So you lower it again and begin removing the studs by locking two nuts together. There are sixteen of them. Then you remove the head.

Removal completely knackered the £40, 100 mile-old  head gasket so I decided I would try fitting the second hand one with a dollop of Wellseal. I finshed the job at 3pm and filled up with water… Which came peeing straight out of the head joint; give me strength! So that was the end of Judy’s chances to ride at the event, frankly having little idea of what would be required by the Scrutineers I doubted I would riding either. I knew we needed leathers and ACU helmet and I’d been tipped off that Bantam gear lever rubbers can be put over non ball ended levers to get a pass but otherwise it felt a bit like taking the van for an MOT; you know it’s going to fail, it’s just a matter of why.

Still, we turned up and parked the bikes on the Sunbeam MCC stand. I also took the Rex Acme because it is a replica of the Bert Snashall Rex 250 that used at run at Brighton and elsewhere in those days.

Perhaps a word about the Snashall Rex would not go amiss at this point – and thanks to our mate Glyn Dungey for the next picture, which he took at Rasmgate in ’68 (and also for the copy of the 1967 programme)

You can see the resemblance to my bike. This 250 Rex was built at the factory in 1926 as a pukka sprinter for the (presumably rather spoiled) son of a motor dealer named Fidgeon. Young Fidgeon raced it with some success at places like Madresfield Speed trials and then it sat on display in his father’s showroom until after the war. Titch Allen wrote about the bike in an early VMCC Bulletin (the original VMCC mag, back in the 1940s) but it was not for sale at the time. Eventually it went to a chap called Bert Snashall who used it in postwar sprints, usually ridden by Chris Percival, a capable rider of the day.

Now, in 1959, Guy Newman, a Velocette racer from pre-war days and holder of a Brooklands Gold Star, was competing at a sprint alongside the Rex Acme and he mentioned to his friend fellow racer Harry Voice “What a pretty little bicycle the Rex Acme was.” and how he would like one. Harry told him that he had a similar, but 350cc, Rex Acme that he had bought in 1933 and that he would be happy to swap for Guy’s 250 Rudge… A deal was struck and Guy began building the bike as a sprinter in the style of the Snashall 250.

Over the next thirty years Guy rebuilt the bike as time allowed until it must have been obvious that he would never race it. He passed away in 1993 and the bike was sold to a younger friend, John Richardson. Taken seriously ill John set about tidying his affairs and very reluctantly sold the bike to the highly respected classic dealer Verralls, from whom I bought it in 2006. Luckily John recovered and I now see him regularly.

The Snashall bike meanwhile had sold to John Griffith of Motor Cycling, a leading light in the VMCC who kept it on display at the Stanford Hall VMCC museum. John was killed in a car crash in late ’75 and after that the bike seems to have spent some time in  Myreton Motor Museum near North Berwick, a place that years later I often visited when I lived in Edinburgh. Today it resides in the Netherlands, still, I’m delighted to say, unrestored.

Anyway back to Ramsgate and the present day, here’s John Fuller on his lovely AJS Big Port TT replica.

I was delighted to find that my efforts with the Martinsyde hadn’t been wasted, despite my misgivings it passed Scrutineering (or ‘Tech’ as it rather annoyingly seems to be called these days) and I was good to go. Unfortunately the bike was playing up rather, I’m still trying to make some sense of the Bowden carbs and I’m not convinced the valve timing is correct either. Still, despite outrageous popping and banging on the line the bike pulled away after a fashion and spectators said it looked like it was going a lot better than it felt…I was just glad this was only ‘a display run’; had it been timed they’d have had to wind the clock up again before I reached the flag.

It’s a great location, this is me heading back to the paddock, past the fantastic Art Deco cliff tower. Ramsgate itself was incredibly busy with themed events going on up on the cliff top. It was actually a weird situation, the paddock wasn’t closed to the public but most stayed up on the top, where the rest of the action was; so you felt like you were at a small track event with a handful of specttors. But as soon as the sessions started, the clifftop, steps and balconies filled instantly and the horizon was lined with people. It was just like in the film… “Zulus, Sarge! Faasands of ’em!”

I was delighted to find my bike in Glyn’s ’67 Ramsgate Programme…

That’s after Chris Tait had sold it, by then it was owned by ‘Steve’ Dawson. Incidentally, the only other vintage bike racing in that event is a Scott, listed as P. O’Neal.

Not sure this isn’t the late Ossie Neal whose daughter Sheelagh is fastening her helmet in the picture above. Sheelagh has spent much of her life racing old bikes and it was good to see her there, piloting her Dad’s much modified sprinting Scott sidecar outfit in which she used to passenger at events, including Ramsgate, as a young girl.

The day must have been good for the town, hotels were booked up and restaurants and eateries were packed;  not so much as an ice cream van for us mugs down below, mind – but looking at the rear view of me in my leathers that’s probably no bad thing…

It would be great if the event becomes a regular gig and especially if it can be promoted to a proper, timed sprint competition – venues for which are always in very short supply. I’d better start getting these bikes fixed up for next year if I’m going to defend the honour of my home town!

R