Circuit Shorts
Q  By Alan Turner
While TSM's main purpose in life is looking to events in the near future, that's a rather clouded issue at present. There has been some action, but mainly in the guise of practice events and, with events allowing limited spectator attendance only just announced, motorcycle sport generally is still marking time. Another dose of nostalgia? Well, inevitably, but this was occasioned by being asked to review a privately published book, 'Down to Brands' by Ted Reading. Living on the west side of London, for three years in the mid-sixties, Ted and assorted friends would attend the almost regular roster of meetings organised by Motor Circuit Developments. The meetings were very well supported by a cast of riders that made pilgrimages to Snetterton, Mallory Park and Oulton Park. Some riders with more secure finances might be competing on an almost weekly basis. For many who regularly spectated it was a golden age of racing. The bigger classes were the last gasp of the big British singles, Manxes, G50s, 7Rs, with an occasional Velocette, Gold Star or Triumph. The thoroughbred race bikes offered near identical performance, so it was riding skill that secured the prize money and even start money, although the amounts were hardly enormous. However, little of this had to be ploughed back into the bikes as they would usually last a season without major attention, even the tyres. The smaller classes offered considerably more variety, but Honda's CR93 was the only way to succeed in the 125 class while it was a little longer before the 250s succumbed to Japanese dominance. Apart from race numbers, fairings were sticker-free. Ted's text fills in some of the background, but much of the atmosphere of the time is captured in the photographs. Be warned, these are not top-grade professional, count-the-stitches-onthe-leathers pictures. Most were taken with quality cameras, but without the advantage of a long lens. The subject riders are relatively small. However, what you do get is the setting, Brands as it was, the detail that has faded, possibly into 24
Down to Brands unreliable memory. The circuit was all-but surrounded by advert hoardings, almost universally with automotive connections. The Druids infield, now the 'Photographers' Gallery', in the sixties was an area that would probably send Chris Packham into raptures. Another long gone (and forgotten?) feature was near the main entrance to the circuit, beneath the enormous 'half-tyre' of the Dunlop bridge. Ted fairly sums up the paddock as like a giant market, with its rows of plastic roofed metal stands. Although it should be noted that Brands facilities were among the best of the British circuits at the time. Attendances were often considerable, but the crowds swelled further on the one or two occasions every year when the meetings were awarded international status. Depending on the timing, this often featured a programme of works riders and machinery and made an interesting yardstick by which the short-circuit regulars ('the scratchers') could judge themselves. 'A golden age'? A subjective term and the age
