Keen to walk off the overindulgence of turkey sandwiches, turkey curry, bubble and squeak and mince pies, Dave Manning heads to Newark Showground for the Classic Bike Guide Winter Classic.
The first weekend in January may seem like a somewhat inconvenient time of year to be running a motorcycle show, of any kind, but it has long proved to be a successful time. Previously, with the popular show in Manchester’s G-Mex, and more recently with the Classic Bike Guide Winter Classic at Newark Showground.
Known for the regularity and abundance of stalls at the ‘Normous Newark’ autojumbles, what is less well known about the Newark Showground is the number of halls that are available at the venue, all of which had heating, so January needn’t be as chilly as you might expect.
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With one hall dedicated to classic scooters (with Mod Radio providing the backing soundtrack), and another set aside with a ‘fire-up’ area, there was a certain buzz to the show, while regular compere Steve Plater chatted at length with ex-world champion Freddie Spencer about the show, bikes, and his race career.
As seems to be the case of late, I didn’t get to see everything that was on offer in just one day, missing out on the MotoGymkhana demonstrations and not even reaching many of the trade stands, which only goes to show how sociable even a winter event can be.
Read more and view more images in the February 2019 issue of OBM – on sale now!
