Every competitor likes to experience the high of winning. It doesn’t matter if it’s crossing the line ahead of the pack in an MX GP or a first class award in a club trial; there’s nothing better for a competitor than the adrenaline rush success creates. Equally it’s doubtful anyone lines up at the start of an event and doesn’t think they could win. At my end of things the thinking often goes: “Well if they all drop out then I could do well here…” But the fact remains none of us sets out to lose, it’s probably been the same way since the dawn of time and if there is one thing which intrigues us as competitors, it is: just how do you win?
On the face of it such a question has a simple answer which is ‘in order to win, one simply has to finish first’ and to finish first brings the equally straightforward saying ‘to finish first, first you have to finish’ which is where it becomes complicated. Now these historic pieces are taken from the archive accumulated by and from their start in 1902 and often an idea for the archive piece will arise as I’m looking for something else. In this case it was while looking for information on Scott Ellis’ BSA and I happened on a series of features written by Jeff Smith in 1960. In these features Jeff set out his path to finishing first and tried to show how to corral the elements to give a rider the best chance of winning in off-road motorcycle sport. At the time he was starting a seven-year run of British scrambles championships, had won
