With the interest in classic mud-pluggers showing no sign of slowing down, Dave Manning takes a trip to Shropshire’s haven for roundabouts, Telford, for a look at knobbly-tyred classics.
While the focus of the Hagon Classic Dirt Bike Show is, rather understandably, on mud-pluggers and trials bikes, the International Centre on Telford’s inner ring road was home for a weekend to multiple examples of other off-road pastimes, such as speedway and grasstrack bikes, and even a few examples of sprint and top-speed racing.
The latter were exhibited by the National Sprint Association and the Sammy Miller Museum, who had brought along not only the 350cc Jawa V-twin that was raced by Bill Ivy in 1969, and that seized at the Sachsenring GP in that year, tragically ending Ivy’s life, but also the fascinating 1000cc Excelsior Super Comet V-twin JAP on which Joe Wright broke the world speed record, with an amazing 163mph on the Tat autobahn in Hungary, in 1930.
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The Jawa GP bike was one of a host of machines that celebrated bikes that were built in 1969 – mostly dirt bikes, as befitted the focus of the show, including winner of Best Enduro and Best in Show, a 250cc Bultaco Matador owned by Dave Wood. And what a display there was!
Read more and view more images in the April 2019 issue of OBM – on sale now!
