Tuesday 24 February 2015

Race Retro 2015

Race Retro was the first of two events I visited last weekend. As I only had one day I decided to just concentrate on two bikes, rather than try and cover the huge berth of machines that the show has to offer.

1973 Hagon, Triumph, Weslake Sprint Bike

(ink & watercolour)

I found myself once again drawn to the National Sprint Association stand. I had seen this Hagon bike at Shakespeare County Raceway a few years back and loved the 70's fairing on the front. The bike originally had a straight triumph engine installed, but that blew up in 2004. It was rebuilt with Weslake parts and a super charger installed. The supercharger was too big for the bike and was not taking around 20hp to run it at the top end. The owner then decided to build his own supercharger to suit the engine. He has also built his own 2 speed gearbox with a slider clutch, which engages using centrifugal force like a scooter. I'm increasingly interested in the sprint scene as it is a sport that encourages ingenuity and true engineering to achieve speed. The machines are all true one offs or specials which are continually evolving, and this Hagon is a true example of this.

Mike Hailwoods' 1953 MV Agusta

(ink & watercolour)

This was my first sketch of the day, the main reason for the choice was the amazing fairing, also being a MV Agusta and most of all it is a genuine Mike Hailwood bike.

The bike itself is a 125cc SOHC cam racing bike. It's an MV factory bike that was raced in the TT in 1953-55-56-57. Mike Hailwood then rode it in his first year of racing in the '58 season with the 'Dusbin Aluminium Fairing'. It was then raced in the TT in 1960 by D. Whelan. It currently resides in the Oswestry Road Racing Museum.


Anabels' Atom, Monowheel

I first saw this Monowheel at Newark earlier this year, but didn't get round to taking a close look. So this time I stopped and had a great chat to the builder and rider of this great machine Tom. This particular Monowheel has been built for sprinting and was displayed on the Straightliners stand. It had a go kart engine installed but Tom does run it with a larger engine. On the 16th and 17th of May 2015 Tom is attempting to take the World Monowheel Motorcycle Speed Record at Elvington Airfield, York. The current record is held by Kerry Mclean (USA) who achieved 57mph in 2001. By the sounds of it Tom could well do it, I look forward to seeing whether he does.

To see videos and read more about Anabel's Atom and the British Monowheel scene please go to the website: www.tomanable.com



BRISCA Heritage

Unfortunately I didn't get time to sketch one of these great stock cars, as i have been able to for the last 2 years. So here's some photos to keep you going till next year. If you want to see these machines in action I urge you to attend one of the BRISCA Heritage events this year.

 Doug Wardropper Car No. 5 replica
 John Toulson replica



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