18 December 2015 – Trials Guru and all it’s readers, supporters, contributers and photographers would like to wish Dave Thorpe, former Ossa, Bultaco and CCM works rider all the very best on his seventieth birthday!
Happy Birthday, Dave Thorpe
The Pre’65 trial secretary, Anne Gordon added: ‘We are delighted to announce that Guy Martin, Motorcycle Racer and TV star has agreed to be Guest of Honour for the 2016 event and has also entered the trial to try his hand at Pre’65 trials riding. It is a great honour for us to have him at the trial and we would like to thank Simon Sharp and Owen Hardisty at Hope Technology (our Saturday Day Sponsors) for helping us to get Guy to the event after we approached them at last year’s SSDT. We are really excited to have such a celebrity at our event and hope he enjoys taking part. I don’t think there will be many people who have not heard of Guy, as he is well-known through his very illustrious motorcycle racing career as well as his many film and television shows that have us all enthralled with his very hands on and down to earth approach’.
The Pre’65 Scottish is always massively oversubscribed with over 150 potential entrants disappointed at not getting through the inevitable ballot of competitors. However it should be clarified that Hope Technology are the event sponsors and as such, are entitled to what is effectively a ‘wild-card’ reserved entry as part of their sponsorship deal, which in this case has been granted to Guy Martin for 2016. The appearance of Guy Martin at this event, both as a rider and guest of honour can only be good for the sport of trials and the ever supportive inhabitants of the town of Kinlochleven.
Born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England in November 1981, Guy was the central racing character when supported by the Irish-based Wilson Craig Honda team in the docu-movie, ‘TT3D – Closer to the Edge’ which was filmed during the 2010 TT races and screened in 2011. This set Martin on the road to a lucrative television career having competed for many years at the Isle of Man TT with success, but so far no outright TT win to his credit. He has ridden for AIM Yamaha, Relentless/Tyco Suzuki and Hydrex Honda teams in the past.
Martin is interested in all things mechanical, his main occupation is an HGV mechanic with an independent truck company in Grimsby Lincolnshire, which specialises in the maintenance of Scania trucks. His father Ian who also ran a similar business is also a former motorcycle road racer who retired from racing in 1988 after an accident at Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount.
Martin has been the central character in several television documentaries which has taken him half way around the globe to India and most recently to Latvia in a Chanel Four production in which he retraced the life of his late maternal grandfather, Zanus ‘Walter’ Kidals in the war-torn Baltic state of Latvia which saw occupation by both German and Russian troops in the second world conflict. His grandfather was a displaced person known as ‘DP’ arriving via Hull where he met an English girl, married, settled and worked in Britain.
By coincidence, the town of Kinlochleven saw many DPs, like Martin’s grandfather; arrive from war-torn Europe and the Balcan states of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania as there was work available at the North British Aluminium Company smelter in Kinlochleven. One such man was Lithuanian born Paul Kilbauskas, who arrived in 1947 and found employment at the aluminium works and with co-worker and friend Ian Pollock discovered the many paths and sections that are still used by both the Pre’65 and Scottish Six Days events that make use of the Leven Valley in early May. Kilbauskas later became a ‘Tunnel Tiger’ working on the large hydro-electric schemes in the Scottish Highlands.
Guy has harboured a desire to compete in Pre’65 trials since 2011, but television and racing commitments rendered it a ‘back-burner’ for a few years.
The Pre’65 committee having secured sponsorship with Hope Technology which has an association with Guy through his interest in mountain bikes and eventually Simon Sharp and Owen Hardisty made the approach to see if Martin would be Guest of Honour at the annual event, now in its thirty second year.
Guy Martin has turned his skilled hands to many things in front of camera, including a two-year restoration of a Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft which had been buried in a French beach since the second world war; a rebuild of a narrow-boat called ‘Reckless’ and much more; including riding a hydroplane motocross bike across a lake and setting a speed record for a pedal-cycle. He was even fortunate enough to be allowed to work on the last flying Vulcan bomber aircraft XH558 during preparations for its final flight in 2015.
On loan specially for the Pre’65 Scottish Guy will be riding a 350cc Ariel HT3 which used to belong to Lancastrian ace, Chris Gascoigne who campaigned the machine for many years and has been a winner in Chris’s hands many times over.
There will also be an appearance of the 1966 Scottish Six Days winning BSA C15T of Alan ‘Sid’ Lampkin. Registered as 748MOE, it will be ridden in the Pre’65 by Alan’s son, James Lampkin to celebrate 50 years since Sid’s SSDT victory on the very last British four-stoke machine to win the Highland classic. This will be James Lampkin’s first pre’65 Scottish although he has competed in the SSDT for many years.
James Lampkin: “Dad realised that it would be 50 years since the BSA won the Scottish in 1966 after he bought the bike back again in October 2014. It is very original having passed through quite a few owners since it was sold off in 1967. Although he doesn’t ride trials himself anymore, he was very pleased when I agreed to enter on the BSA. I’m really looking forward to it”.
What a fantastic year 2015 has been for Trials Guru. We have managed to bring you more photographs and articles from the sport of motorcycle trials than ever before. We hope that you have enjoyed them as much as we have bringing them to you.
This would not be possible without the ongoing support and assistance from the photographers and article contributors, so before 015 is out, let us thank them all publicly for their input.
Regular photo feature page photographers: Iain Lawrie; Jimmy Young; Justyn Norek; Heather Mead; Jeremy Whittet; Kim ‘Kimages’ Ferguson; Sarah Turner; Jaxx Lawson; Rainer Heise & Mike ‘Rappers’ Rapley.
Article contributors and photographs: Dave Cole and Mike Naish, not forgetting Rob Edwards who brought us his wonderful story of life as a trials rider and beyond.
Thanks also to Heath Brindley for ongoing support and web assistance.
Here’s to more in 2016!
Feet Up! – Trials Guru
Trials Guru Main INDEX
We have been busy adding some more images to the Jimmy Young Archive on Trials Guru.
Have a look! HERE
Even more fantastic trials images are being flooded onto Mike Rapley’s ‘Recalled by Rappers’ page on Trials Guru.
Go straight to: Recalled by Rappers
All images copyright: Mike Rapley, 2015
Text Copyright: Trials Guru/Moffat Racing 2015
It is with great pleasure that we are now able to bring you a new page on Trials Guru – ‘Recalled by Rappers’.
Mike Rapley is not only a ‘died-in-the-wool’ motorcyclist, but also a well-respected motorcycle sport journalist, having been a reporter and staff member of the weekly Trials and Motocross News for many years.
Over a long period of time, Mike has taken many photographs of events and wondered if the time was right to put them somewhere on the internet so that these may be enjoyed by fellow enthusiasts.
After some months of discussion, Mike has finally agreed to entrust this task to Trials Guru and we are very grateful for this opportunity to help Mike in his endeavour.
Trials Guru’s John Moffat became friends with Mike Rapley, or ‘Rappers’ as he is universally known, some years ago. In fact it was at the start of the Jim Worthington Trial at Lagnaha on the Wednesday evening during SSDT week in 1996, when Rappers was making him-self useful by signing the competitors on at the event.
Moffat having entered the event on a Yamaha, pretended to be an Eastern European competitor who did not understand the formalities, keeping the ruse up for many minutes until Mike asked: “what is your name?” This brought to an end the practical joke!
We will not record here what Rappers said when he realised that he’d been had!
Please remember and be respectful of the fact that all of the images on Recalled are the intellectual property of Mike Rapley and you must obtain express permission from Mike if you wish to use them elsewhere.
We hope you enjoy ‘Recalled by Rappers’
It has come to our notice that some readers have copied material from this website. Please be aware that photographs used on Trials Guru are copyright and should not be posted on social media without prior permission of the individual copyright holder/owner. This is an infringememt of copyright law.
Please be respectful of the photographers’ copyright at all times. The images we use are for the enjoyment of enthusiasts but are not for sharing on other media.
More excellent photos from the camera of Rainer Heise for your enjoyment.
Exclusive to Trials Guru – only for the sport!
Rainer Heise – Trials in Germany
Coming soon on Trials Guru, the Edgar Brothers from Edinburgh.
We are always trying to bring you something different and unusual from the sport of motorcycle trials. Here we have a specially commissioned trophy, presented annually for the oldest rider at the Pre’65 Scottish Trial.
Commisioned by Mrs Isobel Mitchell of Portlethen, near Aberdeen in memory of her husband, Peter Mitchell a long time rider and member of the Bon Accord MCC and was a well known competitor in Scottish trials and latterly at the Pre’65 Scottish.
It was made by Inverness based artisan, Richi Foss who runs a fabrication and welding business at Dochfour, just outside the Highlands capital city.
Foss: ” The trophy was commissioned by Peter Mitchell’s wife in his memory and presented to the oldest rider to complete the Scottish pre 65 trials. It was slightly overshadowed at the time by a rather large steel Eagle I was also making at the same time which is now on a roundabout near the Police headquarters. It’s hard to believe that this actually took more time to make and brought me far more enjoyment”.
“To top it all, the first winner of the award was a boyhood hero of mine, Mick Grant”
Richi Foss produces much one-off work and is a motorcyclist himself owning a rather unique Norton ‘flat-tracker’ which won an award many years ago at the Kent Custom show.
Foss Fabrication and Welding can be contacted on 07761 286112 and is based at The Old Sawmill, Dochfour, By Inverness, IV3 8JG.
Photos Courtesy of Foss Fabrication & Welding, Inverness & Mrs Isobel Mitchell, Portlethen.
Article on Peter Mitchell in ‘Great Scots’ on Trials Guru: HERE
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