80 and sunny at Brighton
An event for motorcycles between 15 and perhaps 35 years old does not immediately appear to offer promise for long-lasting success, but turn the clock back to 1930 and that was how the Association of Pioneer Motorcyclists persuaded the Sunbeam MCC to adopt such criteria to establish eligibility for the first Pioneer Run. Thus defined, the formula was obviously a success.
The programme for this year's event contained Baz Staple’s researched account of the first run. Perhaps the banning of speed events on public roads some five years previously was an influence, so a quirky time trial for obsolete and generally unloved machinery was, apparently, one not to be missed. The crowds blocking the road at the Croydon Airport start were enough to incur the ire of the Metropolitan Police.
The levels of spectator interest of that initial event
