Any New Starters To Bantam Racing?

If anyone is contemplating becoming a bantam racer next season or in the future contact through alanbrown1@talktalk.net for information.
Cheers,
Alan

Ray has bought the ex- John Marks Bantam so should be a returnee next season. He last raced the ex- Colin Hall championship winner 1989 about 4 seasons ago. That bike is of could now ridden by Carl Coombes

All the best for '07 to all BRC enthusiasts.
Only wrote this to see my picture in the files to prove to PeeTee that it is possible for an "OLD JB" to work this bloody modern machine!
It is time for you, Peter, to tell the keen lads (I mean the sharp sounding Miki Sprosen types) about the BRC, about the Wobbleyman, about those good old days... And you Mick (Jones), although a 250 rider you must have things to tell about the Club in those hey-days.
I'll add my bit later -- if you insist.
Thanks Alan for getting the pic into the Members file. Wish I'd been more careful about selection -- it looks like a pig riding a flea... Poor little Icarus-One, always burning-out its clutch plates.
Get working on your machines -- you racers -- season is rapidly approaching.
Stay cool!
Aye! JayBee.

Ha Ha, yes i certainly do mate. I wasn't just a 250 rider either by the way, i cut my teeth on bantams and got senior status and even diced for pots in championship races, not bad for a six foot four 125 rider I did ride 250 singles, 350 singles, 250 production, 250 open and 1300 four strokes as well of course but i loved bantam racing, it teaches you to ride quickly, cos you have to . I even served on the commitee as trophy officer and my then wife Heather was assistant competition secretary. I even got roped into being the MC at the 82 dinner and dance, i needed a few drinks first for that one, being the shy unassuming type. Yeah, i'll get a few snippets together to let everybody know how easy we had it in our motor homes while our mechanics fettled our machinery
Cya soon, take care.

I have been in contact with Dave Hughes who has been building a 125 bantam racer throughout last year. Due to health reasons this machine will not be ridden by him, but the machine will be available to a returnee or new starter of reasonable calibre.
Any interested parties should contact myself in the first instance via email on alanbrown1@talktalk.net

More Bums on seats needed!!!!!

Alan

Hi Mick!
A good start. You were Easten Centre -- right?
A good crowd in the sixties - seventies -- before your time I'm thinking.
We always had what appeared to be a large committee which I guess was needed because the club had around 600-plus members -- not all of whom were racers and only about a fifth were on Bantams. The different classes meant that up-and-coming youngsters, in Blighty, had the low-cost-chance to get into the big-time racing which doesn't seem so these days. What went wrong...? Peter TeaBits should be able to say something about that!? Wake up Peter!
In 1968 I started Bantam racing by accident. In '65 I bought a Villiers 190cc (or so) engine intending to make a small hovercraft. Actually went to a couple of Basildon's Hovercraft Club functions before getting dragged along (by Derek Neil -- Colin's older brother) to Snetterton to watch a BRC meeting. Seeing Peter Irons -- 250 Champ that year -- sliding on his bum at the Esses was most impressive ... but I was taken up with the idea of building a Bantam racer with Derek. We couldn't find a jockey so I started Test Riding Icarus-One at Brands and being 175 was entered in 250 races which proved to be humiliating in the extreme... Made up for it later...
As club chairman, during '73, I was criticised for racing Bantam and the 250 ABS, apparently -- according to one Midlands loud-mouth lad -- neglecting the running of the club, so I made myself so objectionable as Sec of Meeting and Scrutineer at two meetings -- that several members asked me to get back to racing...
It was too easy to find things wrong ... Several racers of rather odd 'Specials ' wanted to hang, draw and quarter me because I refused to let them race... At Snetterton the meeting was almost abandoned because of my findings. We were often very thin-on-the-ground regarding marshals.
Yet they were fun days and I regret having to leave in June '74 for the selfish reason of a new job in Canada.
So, take care, go well and keep well...
Aye! JB.

Hi John,
Yeah i was Eastern centre, Walthamstow lad, lived near Micky Scutt and Martin Baldwin and not too far from Wanstead and my "mentor" Kieth (spider) Webb. I joined up in 73 and was priveliged to attend the 72 D&D and hear your famous speech. After two years on Bantams with only a second at Llandow to show for it, I bought the Bill Lawrence, Chequers Travel Greeves Silverstone (for £150, whew!!!). I had a bit of a bad tumble on that at a Brands test day while "playing" with the Mercury despatch teams riders. That crash really buggered me up both physically and mentally for a while. I sold the Greeves to Ron Curtis and tried my hand with a 350 Bultaco TSS and got invaluable help from the late, great Fred Launchberry. After disposing of the taco and moving to Essex (opposite Debden), I scrounged rides for a while, mainly from Ted Smith, who lent me Gail's bike and a one off ride on Mick Bridges banty. I bought another banty from Roger Abbott and got a second to Colin Hall in the 50 miler, followed by wins at Cadwell and Lydden. In 78, still with the bantam, now with electronic ignition and Gardner carb I took 1st at the inter race at the March opener at snetterton and 4th in the championship race after a race long duel with Colin Hammond (one of the best scraps i ever had) plus 2 4th's in open races. Later in my old man's pub, Ned told me i had 4 wins, one overall and 3 class. later in the season i entered the Newmarket clubs enduro at Snetterton, it was split between 250 singles, 125 open and bantams but only two of us turned up. Jeff Webber shot into the lead on the Honda with Len Carr's Morbidelli chasing and a 125 Yam in 3rd, then.....yeah, me!!! Len Carr broke down, the Yam was so embarrassed by being overtaken by a bantam that he retired, I was second with no one behind me but air. Unfortunately a bolt at the bottom of one of my Ducati fork legs came loose and dumped its oil and me at the Esses with a handful of laps to go, the Marshalls who picked me up all congratulated me on the performance.
Sold the Bantam to a friend of Ron Curtis because I had an inkling to go proddy racing, that's another story.

take care

Hi Mick,
Thanks! Yeah Walthamstow Tech: whilst I worked there, as a Lab Tech -- in the early 50's -- I made lots of bits for my scrambler and then grass bikes plus making a boat (11ft 4in runabout) in the Hydraulics Lab. We used to spend a lot of evening (Work) time in a pub just up the hill in the road opposite the Tech gates -- both names forgotten.
Keith Webb was my punishment, sent down by the almighty, because I thought of him as a beginner every time we were out together... I fell off three times (Lydden, Snetterton and Lydden) chasing Keith -- lovely feller -- a real character.
Over 6 feet tall -- I always thought you were squat with a beard!!
Sorry! Got carried away.
Yeah! Weren't that a lovely speech! At Ford Dunton, that morning, we were on Saturday, 1/2 day working with battery lamps over our desks and I rewrote my D&D speech at least six times. Along with the flu' I was feeling really rough when getting ready to go... and took some medication in the form of Glen Fiddick and Remi Martin.
On the way up in Wobbleyman's motor a woman in the back said, "I 'ope yew enn gonna give us anuvver bleetin' borin' speech like last year..." so I threw my (so) carefully prepared 6 pages out of the window.
Wobbleyman had invited Mick Grant to present the trophies and I had officially invited John 'Ace' Brown of MCN to do it... I thought they'd both be upset so I got into more Glen Fiddick telling myself that nothing else mattered. Well it didn't... because both did it, in playful manner, together... but before that, they had both indulged in doubles of whatever... and I'd kept them company.
For the only explainable reason that I thought it might be -- if I had courage enough -- a bit of a joke to wear a wig & spectacle-frames to pretend to be Bantam Club Champ, Dick Hunter, I'd included both items in a plastic bag. After dinner I opened it, Judy snatched the wig away, I snatched it back and to keep it from her stuffed it down the front of my shirt and closed my jacket. Master of ceremonies stood up and banged his gavel. I stood up and my jacket flopped open exposing the wig -- hanging from my bottom shirt button over the trousers zip. Pandemonium followed. Only a few saw the wig but it set them off... Master of c... banged his gavel, I put on my lensless specs and stared at the menu as if it were my speech, turned it upside down and studied it again. By then about 350 people were yelling and screaming. I can't remember a word I said but the surges of spontaneous mirth still ring in my ears.
Next day my hangover was accopanied by overheated, glass-splintering pains in my feet. I asked Judy if we'd been caught in a fire somewhere-sometime and she said, "Oh no! Don't you remember? You were dancing barefoot!"
Dísgusting! But weren't they good old days?
Reminded me of Bill Lawrence and his MC club's motto -- in Australia -- it is, "Growing Old Disgracefully"...
Enough said,
Stay cool and keep well,
Aye! JB.

Great story John, I remember some of it, Just. I was in attendance with the said Kieth Webb, my "mentor" and spiritual guardian, who gave me such sound advice as "if ya don't fall off now and then, ya ain't goin' fast enuf" and after heeding his advice, "your an accident looking for a place to happen".
My one aim in life at the time, was to beat Webby in a straight race, my chance finally came at Snetterton in 78, when he borrowed John Pearce's machine for an open race. We all got away well but at the first corner, I was right behind Kieth and Pete Styles when something happened, not sure what mind you and both went down. They nearly took me with them and I came close to stopping after picking my way through the carnage. I lost a load of ground but eventually caught up and took fourth place off Roger Louis. I never got my wish to go head to head with Webby, never mind, probably for the best.