British Historic Racing Club - Cadwell Park – 11^th / 12^th May 2024

Report by :DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography – David Gowshall

Last weekend, Cadwell Park, celebrating its 90^th Anniversary this year, hosted the second round of the British Historic Racing Championship.

This was the first visit of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club, who will be returning to the “mini-Nurburgring” for the final round of the championship in September.

The vast array of historic bikes and outfits on show out on the track and in the Paddock, provided a fitting event on the scenic circuit that winds its way through a steep sided valley in the Lincolnshire Wolds, and watching historic motor-cycle racing on this idylic circuit, with picnics and ice creams very much in evidence, throughout both days, seemed a good way to spend the weekend.

Cadwell looked resplendent in the bright sunshine that eventually emerged through the fog and mist on both mornings of the meeting, providing lots of early Summer warmth to the healthy crowds who attended throughout both days of the event.

The machines on show ranged, date wise, from the 1930’s to the present day.



One of the oldest bikes competing was Mervyn Stratford’ or “Merv the Swerve” as he is affectionately known, 261cc Rudge, which was purchased for just £5, and re-built by its owner. 

The bike (#47), originally dates back to 1934, by coincidence, the year Cadwell Park hosted its first race meeting.

After spending hours re-building the machine, Merv, whose age remains a mystery, competes alongside bikes from the 1970’s, amazingly recording regular finishes in the top six overall.

A very ambitious seven Practice sessions, 4 Qualifying sessions, 4 Parades and 40 races were planned over a very busy two days.

As well as including racing for Historic machines, also included BSSO Scooter Racing and a “guest” championship in the form of the third round of the 1^st Call Refrigeration FSRA Pre-injection Sidecar Championship.

Unfortunately, Saturday’s programme had to be drastically cut back after four lengthy red flag race stoppages, two for “on-track “and two for “off-track” issues.  Writing this, I sincerely hope all involved are OK and on the mend.  Having been the reason for an “off-track” red flag incident 2 and a half years ago at Cadwell, when I suffered a heart attack at Charlies Bend whilst enjoying a days’ racing and photography, I can, from personal experience, relate to those involved. 

To add to these delays, an oil spill that stretched from Chris Curve to Hall Bends, requiring the “Orange Army “of Marshals to spread “concrete dust” over a long section of the track, much of it on the racing line, following a Green Flag lap, had to be dealt with.

The incidents drew attention to the amazing work Clerk of the Course and his staff, and the medical and marshal teams do on the day of a race meeting, much on a voluntary basis, for which many competitors and spectators, including myself, are very grateful. 

Back to the on-track action that did take place. The meeting was billed as the Greg Bibby Memorial Meeting in memory of Greg Bibby, who passed away in January, who is synonimus with Morgan three-wheelers, so it seems appropriate to start with the three wheel action on display.

It was appropriate that Greg’s son Hamish, with Mia Simons-Weston in the passenger seat headed home the Historic Sidecar, Cyclecars, Kneelers and Morgan class races, their immaculately turned out Morgan, dominating affairs.

Behind them followed a wide range of outfits, including two, powered by 125cc engines, which proved remarkably competitive, despite their diminutive power units. 

The remainder of the field were wildly diverse, with “cyclecars”, some containing ballast as opposed to a living, breathing passenger, mixing it with more conventional sidecar outfits, and providing lots of interest.

Also providing interest were the BEARS Sidecars. These outfits are very simple in design and mostly powered by 1000 BMW units, the exception being Steven Kemp and Melanie Austin’s beautiful Moto Guzzi (#2).  They require huge physical input from “pilot” and “monkey” on board and are very exciting to watch.

What was also particularly exciting on the Saturday of the meeting, was the appearance of F1 Sidecar World Champions Todd Ellis and his passenger Emmanuelle Clement, as guests of the FSRA Sidecar Championship.  The pair, who are based locally at North Kelsey, will make their debut next month at the Isle of Man TT Races, and were taking the opportunity to test their short wheelbase F2 outfit, which they will using. 

Their totally sponsorless, sticker-free no.1 outfit provided enormous entertainment for the crowd, power sliding their way to a huge lead before returning to the Paddock prior to the finish of the race, to allow the regular championship contenders to fight it out for the championship points on offer, a gesture that went down very well with everyone.



Leading the challenge in Race 1 were the Gary Fairhurst / Billy Andrews pairing on their brightly liveried Kawasaki (#9), until passenger Andrews left his post (so to speak) at Hall Bends.

The following day the pair made up for their mishap extending their F1 championship lead with two comprehensive victories.

As always, the remaining sidecar racers provided lots of interest with a good mixture of F1 “worms” and F2 “short” outfits on display.

They will next be back in action at Cadwell, along with the BEARS competitors, for the Sidecar Revival, scheduled for early August.

Another regular sight at Historic Racing meetings are the British Scooter Sport Organisation runners. 

Lambretta, Vespa and Piaggio machines, which are normally associated with commuting to work, make up the field, circulating the circuit at remarkable speeds.



Special mention must be made at this point for Keith Terry, who definitely wins the prize for the best dressed competitor on the day.

Finally, to the solo classes, which make up most of the on-track action.  With endless classes within races, it can be a little confusing, but fortunately commentators Jono Yardley and Rusty Lee were on hand to try and help it all make sense.  Although there are championships at stake (literally dozens it’s seems) I definitely get the impression it’s the “taking part” for the vast majority of the riders that is the highest priority, and the opportunity to test their immaculately turned-out machines.

I will no doubt, hopefully along with some of my fellow Pistonclickers, will be returning to Cadwell in September to cover what will be the last round of all the championships, when trophies will be being fought over, when I can inform those of you interested enough of who won what.

So, for now, with the many 2024 championships only in their early stages, I will let my photographs tell the story in the form of a Gallery of the solo action over the weekend, rather explain them in words.

Thanks to David Gowshall for this report which you can share with your friends on Social Media using these links.

You can see more of :DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography by clicking his website picture.