Grand Prix of ages

Now here’s something you don’t see too often. Reflecting the fact that le Puy Notre-Dame’s Rétro GP (over July 21/22) attracts so many prewar machines, new for its 22nd running was a class limited to belt driven motorcycles – in which a good number competed. And so many were the motorcycle entrants this year – getting on for 200 – that the new class was in addition to, rather than at the expense of, the existing tourist, racing and sidecar classes.

By their nature, the belt driven class attracted no machines later than the 1920s – and every one was of French manufacture. That’s not to say there were no British belt driven machines present. In the