This year’s Brighton Speed Trials attracted the strongest entry for many a year with eight cars entered. Sadly Alistair Hunt didn’t appear with the Juno but the remaining seven cars gave a good account of themselves and will have assisted greatly in re-establishing this historic event in the 500 Owners Association calendar.

Due to the peculiarities of the licensing requirements for the event those with a National B licence were confined to the Members Handicap but as far as we are concerned all runs counted which made it a far more interesting and close contest.

Practice was run in warm and sunny conditions and Jan Nycz in his Staride topped the timesheets with a time of 15.74 seconds for the standing quarter mile and a terminal speed of 84 mph. Mark Riley with the Creamer-Kieft was a close second with 15.91 secs/82 mph and then a significant gap to James Holland (Cooper MK VIII) on 16.50 secs/79 mph with Patrick Riley (Smith Mk III) hard on his heels on 16.62 secs/78 mph. Xavier Kingsland suffered a slipping clutch on the other Staride and therefore expected a big improvement for the competition proper.

With the clouds gathering the first runs were the ones that would count and Mark Riley set a blistering pace to record 15.63 secs and 85 mph over the finishing line. Jan Nycz couldn’t beat that and his 15.82 secs/84 mph was a shade slower than practice. Patrick Riley gained third place with an improvement to 16.39 secs/80 mph while James Holland was also slower recording 16.62/79mph. Next up was Xavier Kingsland having cured his clutch slip with a time of 17.22 secs/79 mph ahead of John Potts in the very historic Monaco Norton who recorded 18.43 secs/63 mph and Hakan Sandberg also with Norton power in the JBS posting 19.58 secs/67 mph; I suspect the Goodwood gearing proving rather unsuitable for a short sprint.

Spots of rain started immediately the first runs were completed and sadly intensified throughout the afternoon. The handicap entrants (Mark, Patrick and Xavier) were only given the one run so just four cars emerged for a very wet second run which had no material impact on the results. Jan said the Staride’s negative camber didn’t suit the conditions and so lost time at the start resulting in a time of 18.46 secs/73 mph. James had the consolation of quickest time in the wet with 17.95 secs/79 mph.

Any tips Jan? Photo Zula Holland

Classified Results

Went rather better when Mark tried getting in the Creamer. Photo Zula Holland

Nice weather for ducks! James Holland attempts to leave the line. Photo Zula Holland