Vintage Motorcycle Club

Cadwell Park

14th - 15th May 2022

The British Historic Racing (BHR) and Vintage Motorcycle Club (VMCC) held round three and four of their Championships last weekend at Cadwell Park. The PistonClick team went along to photograph the action and review this event.

If you are considering watching any of the up coming rounds or going to next year's event, this report will give you the information to help you decide if it's worth going to as a spectator, photographer or both.

The event followed the same race programme over the two days - practice from 09:00 followed by racing, with a total of 34 races over the weekend. There wasn’t much given away on the internet as to what was going on regarding timing.

The official Cadwell MSV website just had a poster/advertising flyer stating what I've just mentioned "practice from 09:00 followed by racing". So if you were looking for specific race machines to photograph, or to just watch the racing you had to turn up first thing and buy the comprehensive programme. 

As with all club racing there were loads of class of machinery. Oddly the VMCC call these events. I won't go through all of the classes as there are loads, but to give you a flavour of what you can see on track here are a few - Solo Girder Fork Championship, Pre-63 Solos 251-350cc, Production 2/Stroke and Sidecar Outfits Unlimited to 1958.

As you have probably worked out, as I did quite quickly standing track side, some of the bikes you will see are ones that you could well have owned and ridden back in the day. Some of the machines will probably be quite familiar to you if you are a motorcycle fan, and some not so.

The circuit announcers, who I must say were very knowledgeable, did a great job chatting at length about the racers and the machines keeping us informed during the breaks about what was racing.

One notable monologue was about a guy who had commuted on his BMW for many years before converting his now eligible for vintage racing machine in to a race bike - that is upcycling at its best! 

The breaks in the racing I mentioned did not distract from the day, and if you have been to a vintage or classic race meeting you come to expect it. There were a few offs and red flags but mostly it was recovery and clean up.

It goes without saying that these machines are old and some will decide that they have had enough of retaining all of the oily bits inside the engine, keeping the marshals busy with the cement dust and brooms.

Overall the event ran smoothly with a variety of race bikes, sidecars and the odd three wheeler thundering past keeping me entertained all day. One of the events that the VMCC runs in between the racing is the PR6 Parade laps.

This is where owners of road racing, classic machines or retro machines of historical interest can get them back out on track in a non-competitive way and just enjoy riding round the track.

This is great for the motorcycle fan as it's not often you will see a Suzuki and a BSA on track at the same time! 

If taking a classic bike out on to the track is something that appeals to you, head to the paddock. There were quite a few full race and classic bikes being advertised for sale when we visited, all of which would fit the bill nicely.

The added advantage of purchasing a machine at one of these meetings is that the VMCC members are an approachable bunch and can guide you through the process from spectator to parader.   

The paddock was open, as it always is at Cadwell, and is well worth a visit even if you are not looking to purchase a bike.

During the lunch break is the best time, as all of the machines will be in one place being prepared for the afternoon's activities, and the VMCC members are more than willing to chat about their bikes once they have fed themselves.

Racers need fuel as much as race machines!

If this review has whetted your appetite for more racing of a historical nature I can recommend the upcoming  VMCC Festival of 1000 Bikes at Mallory Park July 16 - July 17.

This year there will be a selection of women riders. Out on track will be Georgina Weeks on her 1974 Ducati 750 Sport, Rebecca Houghton on a Heron Suzuki XR41, Katherine Miles on a Honda CB350 K4, and Lucia Aucott riding an MV Superveloce.

Photographic Post Script

I used this event as a test of the camera kit I will be taking for my upcoming trip to the Isle of Man TT. As I will be on two wheels for the majority of the time I will be using a rucksack to transport my gear - the motorbike is very small and panniers are not an option and I don’t fancy going full Deliveroo with a top box!

I did the same back in 2019 on a Honda Grom and it worked well except that the gear I took was very heavy, so I am looking to lighten the load this year.

Nikon D7200 1.4 teleconverter ISO 140 f8 1/400s 420mm

The gear I have settled on after what I think was a successful test at Cadwell, is a 70-200mm f2.8 matched to 1.4 and 1.7 teleconverters. Most of the pictures in this report I used the teleconverters.

Combined with a Nikon D7200 crop sensor camera body this will give me an effective focal range of 105mm - 510mm which should cover most of the track action at the TT.

Nikon D7200 1.7 teleconverter ISO 100 f6.3 1/400s 510mm

The not very scientific testing I did showed that there is no loss of image quality that I can see with a 1.4 convertor, and only a little loss of quality when using the 1.7

I like the convenience of having a small camera setup as opposed to the massive lens, monopod and full frame pro-body I usually use, especially as I will be mixing in with the crowds this year to get the full on TT experience. Pop back to the site at the end of June to see how I got on. 

Nikon D7200 1.7 teleconverter ISO 100 f5.6 1/400s 510mm. Shot through a fence.