Welcome glad you made the trip to Assen, Holland. A sad story

50cc Road Racing is alive and well or 'Assen 4 Hour 50cc Race' our part in its downfall.

Chris Jnr, Freddie, Andy Jnr, Bertie, Andy, Chris

I'd almost forgotten the sounds of screaming tiny two-strokes like the Itoms, Kriedlers, Suzukis and the roaring four-stroke such as the Honda CR110s of the 1960s'. To hear once again those sounds pulled back memories of Luigi Taveri, Naomi Taniguchi, Angelo Nieto, Ernst Degner, Rodney Gooch, Beryl Swain, Roy Bacon. Of the last three mentioned Rodney Gooch was simply a brilliant exponent of 50cc riding, high corner speeds and a refusal to scrub off any hard earned speed by easing the throttle. Beryl Swain has the distinction of being the first woman to compete in the Isle of man TT her debut on a 50cc Itom landed her 22nd place in 1962. Roy Bacon, also on an Itom, has the dubious honour of being last in the same race as Beryl. Although at a later date Roy went on to become Racing Bantam Club Champion no mean feat being in the company of such riders as Mole Benn, Fred Launchbury, Alan Blundell etc. If the above list of names means little to you, don't worry they are just the mental ramblings of a bygone era.

To hear these sounds again and participate in the frenzied activity of 50cc road racing I had to journey to Assen, Holland and the circuit of the Dutch TT, famous now to modern bike fans following the recent Foggy double win in the World SuperBike Championship. We had entered in the Dutch 4 hour 50cc Championship Race.

We being, Chris Gregory (Jnr) and Andy Blueman (Jnr) ably assisted by their very old and sad parents (me) Chris (Snr) and Andy (Snr). We heard about the race from members of Moped Mayhem Racing Combine (Sec.'Woody' 01787 376279) a group formed outside the ACU to promote 50cc races when and where they can.

Moped racing conjures pictures of sedate middle-aged riders elbowing for position on the start line in Honda C50 step-throughs, forget it. I have never seen such an array of complex radical machinery, some of these Mopeds are quite capable of beating the old works bikes that we hold so dear in our reminiscence of the past. There are rules but the accent is on fun.

In the true spirit of fire fighting type planning, and with a week to go before the race we had neither a race bike nor a transporter nor a method of crossing the North Sea. Warburtons the Southend on Sea (A nice place to be) motorcycle shop, of whom Andy (Snr) is the owner, had kindly donated a Honda MBX50. The MBX looked the business with its sporty appearance, six speeds, reed valve induction, and front disk brake but its maximum speed turned out to be 31mph due to a trick electronic ignition that regulated it to 'learner legal speed'. Undaunted we ripped the bike apart to turn it into the great British hope, only to wreck the barrel in our over exuberant tuning.

There was nothing for it but to scan Motor Cycle News for a 50cc anything! A sweet lady in Uxbridge, Middlesex happened to be selling a Kawasaki AR80cc with a trick expansion chamber. With the bike collected and with a 'tuned' 50cc barrel and piston fitted from 'Southend on Sea (A nice place to be) Breakers' we were ready to fly the Union Jack. Andy (Snr) also threw in a 'Suzuki TS50 Enduro' as a back-up bike.

Early on Friday morning 4th Oct 96 having thrown everything into a six berth motorhome rented for the weekend, including the two old sadies, two hopeful riders and two bookends Freddie (11) and Bertie Gregory (6) we set out for Stenna Line, Harwich, and the Hook of Holland.

After countless trips on Isle of Man, Steam Packet Company boats I was ready for anything Stenna Line could throw at us. What a surprise then to be entertained with a cabaret full of scantily clad girls. Steam Packet Company take note, the highlight of a Manx trip is not to get covered in vomit.

The drive up through the centre of Holland was very . .er . flat. But a new experience awaited us as we drove into the paddock at Assen. Organised, methodical, prepared, the Dutch have it in abundance. The paddock floor was tiled in pink stone! Each pit bay had its own entrance door and rolled shutter gate access. Each bay had its own electricity supply. There were bins for waste oil, waste paper, and a Tannoy that could be heard in both Dutch and English. Impeccable w.c. with showers and baby changing facilities. There was a provision for coupling up the motorhomes to the circuit utilities. This was a serious race circuit, 3.913 km (2.35 miles) in length. I knew we were not at Lydden!

The biggest shock was the speed of the fastest bikes, to those that have ever experienced it, they flew past the start finish straight with the familiar doppler sound effect that you get when standing at the bottom of Bray Hill or Barregarrow in the Isle of Man and miles an hour faster than Ernst Degner's 1960's works Suzuki. Obviously, although dropped from World Championship status, engine development has not been static in the 50 cc class.

Knowing he still has his CR110 it would have been delightful to have invited Mole Benn (who incidently qualified for his bus pass last year) as I'm sure he would have jumped at the chance of riding at one of the best cicuits in the World Championship series. A dozen laps or so on the CR110 would have created an enourmous amount of interest.

The last time I saw a racing fifty was the 1968 TT won that year by Barry Smith on a works Derbi at a race average of 72.90 mph after Barry Smith came a gaggle of CR110s' six in all led by Chris Walpole then two Helduns' one ridden by Nick Mayo a Canadian of inexhaustable talent both on two wheels and on any type of Boosey & Hawks. Another Honda and then a standard Ducati SL1 ridden into 11th place by Rodney Gooch at a race average speed of 53.64 mph.

Rodney Gooch 1968 TT

Our 4 hour endurance race started well with Andy Blueman getting a good start, Andy has been riding on the road for a couple of years and at 18yrs is already an accomplished rider and was amongst the front runners going into the first corner, he settled down nicely and lapped steadily at around 2m-47s. When Chris Gregory took over our concern that he had been on a motorcycle for only two hours before the race was unfounded, he lapped consistently around 3m-12s but now we had what appeared to be a fuel problem that caused the engine to cut out completely then chime in unexpectedly, but it kept going.

We split the 4 hours in 8 half hour sessions. Unfortunately halfway through the fifth 30 min session it showered and the wet track was slippery enough to cause Andy to gently lay it down on a tight right-hander next to the paddock wiping off the footrest. The bike lay tantalizingly close just 50 yards away quite ridable if we could get to it and repair the footrest but the officials were adamant about not allowing us out of the paddock area to retrieve it.

Other Brits, Simon Clowes and Kevin Wright's machine gobbled a piston ring two hours into the race. While 'Team Pie' Paul Willis and Denzil Vallance's machine might have won the four-stroke class if they had not suffered from a cooked engine due to prolonged fuel starvation. Apparently the fuel tap would only work in the reserve position a fault learnt only after repeated pitstops. Once sorted the bike gobbled fuel faster than a 'Tinny' down Willis's throat.

Our Dutch friends Ray and Mariska Grob really took a hit when their first engine ate a piston and wrecked a crankshaft only to exchange engines (not strictly in the rules) and again it ate a piston and wreck the crankshaft, all this only 30 minutes into the race. Ray and Mariska were to put it mildly gob-smacked! Their last 4 hour race they finished and won their class. They ride a Honda MBX and like a lot of competitors found the prolonged flat out sections of the course difficult to tune for.

I would just like to say thanks to Ray and Mariska and for their help in making our trip very much easier. Their advice was invaluable and their spoken English is brilliant.

Our race now spent we channelled our disappointment into loading the equipment into the motorhome and made ready for a early departure. We thanked the contingent of other British riders for there help and words of wisdom, one of which, Simon Clowes had brought with him a spare Honda MBX50 engine thinking we might need it.Thank you Simon. On the journey home we vowed we would return with more than a 7 day preperation period and a better bike. Now I wonder what Barry Smith did with his old works Derbi.

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