Hi Bantam Racers !

Well blow me down !!!
Just discovered the site and really pleased that the BRC is still alive and kicking !
For those that don't remember I raced in the late 60's With Geoff Pitcher,Bill Kirkwood and the late John Sawer
( as i've only discovered today ) I really must get along to a meeting to see how things have have changed.
It would be great to hear from anyone that remembers me.

Chris Gladman ( now old and crippled ex Bantam racer      )

Hi Chris,

Your name is vaguely familiar to me.  I joined the South East Centre in August 1973, and rubbed shoulders with Geoff Pitcher, John Sawer Mick Bridges. Bill Kirkwood, Les Eggs & Bob Sherwood to name but a few.  You probably remember meeting in Deacon House, New Malden, where Jamie Hewitt, (BRC Chief Marshall at the time), would preside over coffee and biscuits. Latterly this became a bit lonely for poor old Jamie , as we mostly met in the nearby Duke of Cambridge prior to Deacon House.

Happy days indeed

All the best, Pete Tibbitts

Hi Pete
I vaguely remember you too ! it's an age thing !!!!

I'm still in touch with Geoff and you've certainly made the old lightbulb glow with the names you mentioned.As a young lad I used to get lifts to meetings with Bob Sherwood and Mick Bridges in Bob's carpet van. Was in contact with Les Eggs some years back when my daughter needed her flute repaired ! Jamie and John were 2 of the nicest guys you could meet, I remember Jamie taking pity on me when I couldn't ride at Snetterton and he lent me his road-going 250 Ducati to do a few laps between races.

Deacon House was the highlight of the week/month for me and I remember one of Bill Kirkwood's mates turning up with his brand new Commando fastback which was later converted to Gus Khun spec.( think that's his it's spelt ) to use in the club's production series.

Enough of this waffle   

All the best
Chris

Your name is vaguely familiar to me.  I joined the South East Centre in August 1973, and rubbed shoulders with Geoff Pitcher, John Sawer Mick Bridges. Bill Kirkwood, Les Eggs & Bob Sherwood to name but a few.  You probably remember meeting in Deacon House, New Malden, where Jamie Hewitt, (BRC Chief Marshall at the time), would preside over coffee and biscuits. Latterly this became a bit lonely for poor old Jamie , as we mostly met in the nearby Duke of Cambridge prior to Deacon House.

Happy days indeed

All the best, Pete Tibbitts[/quote]

Hi Chris we had some great times bantam racing.i still see rob and les,who has re built johns old bike to a standard John would be amazed to see. We still live in Surbiton add surprisingly I still ride but only on the road, I leave track days to my son , if you fancy a pint just give me a ring mike bridges

PM sent Mike

Well I will go to the foot of my stairs, yet another skeleton of the BRC. Yes I well remember you Chris, you wore black leathers and a crash hat I remember it well. Snetterton in the 60is " will Les Eggs please report to the medical centre".
I duly responded to the call and what did I find, a young Chris Gladman flat out on a stretcher, you had removed yourself from the seat of your bike just before the right hander after the start and finish straight and were some what lost in the field . We got home ok and your last remark " don't tell me mum".

I see you have got in touch with Mike so we will go from there.

Les 2012.

Oh Yukk! Snetterton !

My jinx circuit.....

Hello JB, I'm sure you have a few stories to tell us," SNETTERTON", don't be shy we all need a good laugh, I could tell a few, after you.

Les 2012.

Better not, Les, I might be upsetting Ned if I told how I came over from  Canada, had a couple of beers with Bill Lawrence and was committed to taking Niffy´s Bantam to Snetterton next day for the 21st annual BRC celebration meeting -- without Niffy knowing about it (he was on holiday...) --  with the intention of actually racing it ... Bill & I could not get it to start and the current  BRC Chairman lent me his lovely Bantam...

I was wearing a borrowed crash-hat that was stuffed with toilet paper (who´d believe there was a crash-hat that big??...)   when I crashed on Ned´s Bantam during the Pastwhatsit´s  Parade (not even a race!) -- by the bridge...

It was a horrible half-hour in CasuaIty where -- it seemed -- the whole hospital staff were trying to get an old chap to breath again and he did not. I  expected the sister in Norwich hospital to say ".. you again?"  -- even after a decade. She was most severe about `young (I liked that bit!) idiots rushing about on dangerous motorbikes´ when she was devoting her spare time to trying to resucitate unfortunate men dying of natural causes.....  

... Well, the Snetterton organisers had made an extra corner there  by the bridge since I´d last seen the course....

My very first road race was on a 150cc Bantam in a 250 race at Snetterton (I think in 1969) when I finished second from last. I´d dieted so hard that I was exhausted at the búmp start and thought I was dying as it got revving really fast, then dust got in the carb and the throttle slide jammed. That was  during practice. It was momentrailly frightening.

On anotherr occasion -- must have been in 1971 -- I had worked all thro´ Saturday and into Sunday morning fitting a new fairing. In the Bantam race I remember both the fiends either side bringing their `skirts´so close to mine that there was a screeching noise as three skirts squashed together ²² ...

... and then I woke up in Norwich hospital.

I actually crashed 3/4 of a lap later than the screeching and could still feel grit behind my teeth where I must have buried my head in the loose earth of the  bank -- and could not remember a bit of that.

And I was the one who used to write in the BRC magazine that a rider should get a good night´s sleep the night before competing at  a race meeting   and never indulge in the dreaded alcohol....

There were other times of hating Snetterton that weren´t the circuit´s fault -- too many for here but I do have a cup which says, "Snetterton,  1st; 3rd ; 3rd -- 15.5.71" . I can´t remember any of those races so I think someone must have mixed the results up with some other meeting-

Biggest disappointment was on Andy Boyles ABS 250. I´d done plug-chops with the Gardner man on Wednesday at Brands, and with a new carb needle fitted the ABS was faster then any other 250 on the Norwich straight -- for a bit of the practice -- just before it seized and put a hole in the piston crown.


²²  I still hate fairings -- there´s nothing to beat rushing about a field on a 500 JAP Grass bike .... the grass smells lovely -- and it is soft -- when you fall off!

Nil sin labor!

My second  (so called ) `race´ at Snetterton was farce and misery of enormous proportions...

I´d practised at brands, and with a bit more know-how about how to make a Bantam go a bit quicker  went to Snetterton for what I remember as the One-Hour-Endurance-Race.

It rained -- buckets and buckets of the stuff.

I couldn´t see and kept catching sight of others just before bends so as to not miss the track altogether. On two occasions I didn´t have a guide and ran Wall-of-Death around the hairpin bank at the end of the Old Norwich Straight. I mean one could fall asleep on that Old norwich Straight -- it seemed so long on my Icarus-1 Bantam.

The engine must have got colder and when the head-wind got stronger on the Norwich Straight it kept misfiring so that at each lap  I thought, "Time to Pit..." but each time as I went under the bridge the motor would run clean again and sound good -- so I knew I couldn´t Pit because my mentor -- under cover in the Pits -- would surely call me a quitter.

Sitting there, wet through and really cold, I wondered what was so attractive about road racing a Bantam...  

I discovered what that was at Cadwell, Llandow, Lydden, Thruxton, Brands...etc ...etc... and although Overweight/Underpowered really did enjoy it... Thruxton & Lllandow, being almost perfectly flat  were marvellous and Cadwell would have been my favourite but for the hill up to Charly´s...

Snetterton -- also -- being flat should have been favourable but somehow it remained a jinx: -- a jagged collarbone-joint and a scar over one eye prove it -- I think!.

Any of you ever do that one-hour race at Snetterton in the rain?

Nut!

Ah yes I remember that incident well ! That "young" man is now into his sixties as I think most of us are now !!! I remember that very pale looking Les peering sheeply round the door and was relieved to see I was alive !! Not heared from Mike yet I sent you both PM's just before I went on hols. last week, just in case my email is ...
trident.t150v@gmail.com ( yes! i'm still into me bikes ! )

Chris

les2012 wrote:

Well I will go to the foot of my stairs, yet another skeleton of the BRC.  Yes I well remember you Chris, you wore black leathers and a crash hat I remember it well. Snetterton  in the 60is " will Les Eggs please report to the medical centre".
I duly responded to the call and what did I find, a young Chris Gladman flat out on a stretcher, you had removed yourself from the seat of your bike just before the right hander after the start and finish straight and were some what lost in the field . We got home ok and your last remark " don't tell me mum".

I see you have got in touch with Mike so we will go from there.

 Les 2012.