VMCC Wroughton Sprint

Wroughton in Wiltshire is the location of the Science Museum big objects store and archive. The location was an RAF airbase from the thirties through to the seventies. Museum items are held in the old hangars and the airstrip is the location for the bi-annual Vintage Motor Cycle Club Sprint Section Wroughton Sprint. The machinery turning up is eclectic from flat tank sprinters through to twist and go scooters and nitrous-assisted modern rockets.

Aiming for slowest time of the day I brought along my Moto Giro veteran BSA Bantam and James' Gilera Sport 175cc featured in a previous posting. Both were entered in class 19 - Road legal 125 to 250cc. I had entered the Bantam in this class before and walked away with fastest time of day (it's not a popular class - I was sole entrant!)

The Bantam may not be quick, though it's really not bad for a 57 year old road going 175. Last outing I had failed to break 60mph at the end of the quarter, this time I dropped gearing and had high hopes! In the end I cracked it, just, though a sub 20 second quarter eluded me. In defence Wroughton does run slightly uphill. To put into perspective proper sprint prepared Bantams were making in around 80 mph at the end of the quarter.

At Wroughton bikes go up head to head, two down the strip at a time. They're racing the clock and not each other. This means that a Bantam can go up against a nitro burning Hayabusa...

Halec JAP trike.

The Cameron family of Cameron Racing Engines had brought along several tasty v twin JAP engined machines, the Halec JAP as above and the 'Manx Superior' special which aquitted itself very well and another JAP engined sprinter which I'm ashamed to admit I know nothing more about other than it looked fantastic and ran to match.

Manx Superior Norton JAP special.

v-twin JAP sprinter.

It's certainly not all glamour bikes though as my Bantam definitely proves. As a tail piece here's a B31 trailered up to go home that ran, and ran well, despite looking like it had just crawled out from beneath a hedge!

Excellently scruffy BSA B31 sprinter.