Lydden Hill racetrack is about 7 or 8 miles South of Canterbury, on the A2. After mentioning the forthcoming racing to a few at the club the preceding Tuesday and arranging to meet up on arrival, I set off at about 9 on Saturday morning and took the slow, pretty route from Maidstone.
A winding A20 down to Leeds Castle, then down to Charing, to pick up the A28 across to Chilham. That bit of Kent has probably the best swinging bends and medium fast straights that Kent has to offer in my opinion. It was great that morning, with a full tank of Shell Optimax (and a little bit of octane booster thrown in) at my disposal, the Bonnie was just purring (I don't go everywhere at full blat you know!). Arriving at the A28/A2 junction just outside Canterbury, I dropped down a gear and pulled out behind a Trident, which, accompanied by it's rider, was leaving an acrid trail of Castrol R enriched exhaust fumes behind it.
Not far now I thought, opening up a bit, but not exceeding the speed limit. As I arrived at the gate, the queue was moving steadily, and I was shortly relieved of my £8 admission, plus an extra £2 for an essential programme. I say essential, because when you go to watch Classic Racing, there are usually 20 races or so.
Lydden hill is pretty much as it says, a hill. Although a smallish racetrack (1.006 miles), there are some good straights and bends. After the start, there's a long straight with a sweeping right-hander, which gets a bit tighter before you exit onto another straight. Then, there is a left-hander, which is notorious for tricking those who aren't familiar with the track. Uphill after this and round the hairpin, before you drop down past the pit lane, another fast right-hander and back to the start. Viewing? Well, from almost any position around the edge of the track, you get a clear view of almost all the circuit. Classic racing doesn't get crowded, so you can amble around until you find somewhere you like.
Facilities at Lydden are reasonable as well with a cup of tea 50p, as well as decent grub at good prices. Even the toilet block, although a bit primitive, is clean and well looked after.
You get full access to the pits with Classic race meetings. This is great because you can meet up with the racers who are usually more than willing to spend a bit of time chatting about their bikes/old times/experiences. Often, they're a mine of info about keeping old bikes going fast. Don't expect them to give much advice on making bikes look pretty though. Some of the racer bikes you see look like they've been nailed together (some have!). It was while I was walking around taking pictures for my ever-expanding "Classic Bikes and Cars" screensaver on my home PC that I bumped into Phil Loom.
Phil knows a thing or two about bikes as well, and I'm sure he was as impressed as me by the amount of Tridents and Rocket 3s being made ready. Later in the day, we were joined by Mike Harvey, who while walking round to meet us, couldn't resist stopping and watching the racing a few times (we observed his progress from where we were sitting, about 150 yards away from where we spotted him). When you hear the sound of the bikes you can't help but stand and appreciate the spectacle of real racing machines, designed and built by engineers, not computers and bank balances.
With 20 races, there is of course much scope for excitement. What you actually get is, one set of ten races for various types of machines ands classes, then a lunch break. Following this, the next ten races are run, which are the same classes as in the morning. This can be great, as you often find that when there has been a very competitive race in the morning, an even more competitive race is run in the afternoon, where someone who may have come second in the morning, is out for revenge!
Race 5 was a case in point, where there was a mad battle for 1st and 2nd place. The eventual winner, very closely followed all the way by the 2nd place man, finished way ahead of the field by about 6 seconds (this is a lot on a short circuit). In the afternoon race, these two tore off like loonies. In no time they were well clear again and the finish places of earlier, were reversed. All was going well, until the second place man from the morning (now in the lead,,,,are you following this?), pulled over with mechanical problems. The morning winner, now totally clear of the field and with no immediate opposition, really turned it on, as if he was trying to set records. He was going very fast on the 2nd to last lap, came up the hill and around the hairpin, where his chain broke! He was then left to coast down to the pits with a face so red, you could see it from behind. Without doubt one of the most exciting tussles I've ever seen in any sort of bike race. One, which without doubt, was going to be continued on the Sunday.
Apart from racing, you get "Parades". This gives a chance for those who may not have the confidence or machinery to actually race, to get their old racers out for a bit of a thrash. You can see virtually any type of machine out on the track; it's a bit like the old Festival of 1000 Bikes used to be at Brands. One of the highlights of this on Saturday, was when a chap on an old 125 Bantam, just about made it up the hill, when surrounded by a huge cloud of smoke, he had to stop. Later on, Phil, Mike and I saw him putting his cylinder hear back on, after fitting new piston rings. When he came out for the 2nd parade, he had to stop again though. No doubt he would have rebuilt the whole thing by the end of the weekend!
Then of course, you get the sidecars. These people are REALLY mad! But that's a story for another day.
Better still, why not come along when there's a meeting on and see for yourselves? Good value for money, good facilities, great bikes. Oh, and don't forget, there's a pretty route to it as well!