Manky Monkey Motors

The Sprint Section of The Vintage Motorcycle Club held a twin-lane motorcycle sprint at RAF Wroughton (near Swindon) on Sun 5th June.

"So what's the difference between a twin lane sprint and a drag race?" you may ask - well, not a lot. The main difference is that Sprinting has been around for about 100 years, can run single or dual lane, can run straight or twisty, can run 1/4 mile, 1/8 mile or even have a flying kilometer timed section on the end of the 1/4 (so pretty flexible really!!).
Its also timed a little bit differently in that the clock starts when you break the beam (not when the lights change), but when up against a mate, you both go when the green comes on!!

Its not uncommon to find drag bikes from yester-year being given an airing at a sprint, and because of the regs, there a classes for the juniors too, and some riders bring simply bring their street bikes for a good thrashing and bragging rights as to what it'll actually do as opposed to what a press realease says it will do.

Here's a few piccies (with more to follow hopefully)

Cameron built JAP. (Cameron make from the components from scratch, then build these engines.... http://www.cameronracingengines.com/ )

A  'Manx Superior' - another Cameron concoction

Matchless powered Morgan, with twin plug heads, running electronic ign with dynacoils

Methamon - Supercharged Vincent V Twin outfit

Brace of JAP singles

Tidy 650 Triumph

A modern outfit with the body off (The VMCC Sprints run modern as well as vintage machines)

Oooohhhhhh... double-engined supercharged Triumph   :P

A brace of Douglas

Manky member Dslam on the near bike (a 500 Triumph) up against a Triumph Trident (prob 750cc)

Now this is what I call a burnout, one of the Morgan chaps getting the rear tyre nice n sticky!!!  ;)

Friend Bob on his recently built JAP v-twin sprint special. The engine is the 'original' of that that Cameron (first posting) now produce.

Bike runs Methanol by the bucket load, and after lots of fettling over the last few months, with 3 of us push-starting it, it fired into life and managed some runs....

Oh yeah, the observant ones of you will have spotted, many of these bikes run un-silenced, so not only does it sound good, with Methanol and Castrol R, it smells good too....  ;D ;D

The youngsters get to ride too, this has a twist n go motor tucked in the back.

Cool eh ?

Every one of those bikes is simply beautiful -& beautifully simple. Just enough components to do the job, yet they still look so stylish.
I love vintage racing. Like drag racing, I've no idea of who's where in the rankings -I just enjoy the whole atmosphere & spectacle of the event. Looks like a great day out Tony.
I'm torn betwwen the cameron JAP & the blown Vinnie. Can I have both please.  ;D

This is Chris who, at the age of about 17, has been sprinting around 10 years. He had just rebuilt this Douggie engine, and this was the first outing. It went like a dream.

... and I was lucky enough to be passenger on a Methanol breathing Triumph outfit ridden by a very well known lady racer (circuit racing etc) by the name of Sheelagh Neal... thanks Sheelagh, and David.

This was once a Honda CB500T - it used to run a supercharger, which is now removed, but has many trick bits to make it tramp on. The high comp motor and supercharger combination basically didn't work as hoped, so off with the blower..... evolution I guess.

Lovely frame from an ex drag GSXR-powered bike, now running a Suzuki 900. Rear tyre is a hoooge slick.

This is a Scott powered outfit that Sheelagh's father used to race many many years ago. In fact Sheelagh first competed in motorcycle sport when she was under age.

The Wroughton event was the first time the bike had been fired up and ridden in about 30 years.

The size of the sidecar was built for Sheelagh, she's quite tiny now so as a nipper she would have even smaller. The photo has her hubby and talented bike builder David crammed on the chair.

A brace of very clean Triumphs.

The one on the left as a 'GP' (poss replica?) engine - this has parallel exhaust ports and differnet finning to most Triumphs, and was originally used as a portable power-plant during the war for duties including supporting Lancaster bomber

Lovely machining of Triumph primary casing

One of the more modern competitor's very well presented Suzukis

Competition motorcycles can be built on a budget too....... neat little MZ

The longest outfit I've ever seen  :D ........ This is Roger's Kawasaki

Beautiful Vincent of John Renwick. This goes like you wouldn't believe........

John's making a land speed record attempt with another Vincent powered machine  http://www.mankymonkeymotors.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=9447.0

I knew Sheelagh and her dad Ozzie quite well, they used to attend all of the the welsh sprints.