Oldest event in the racing calendar
The Brighton National Speed Trials are the oldest and continuous running event for cars and motorcycles in the racing calendar. The idea for the speed event at Brighton was first suggested in 1902. However it wasn’t until 1905 that local Brighton man Sir Harry Preston persuaded the Town Corporation to lay a motor racing track using the newly invented “Tarmac” between the Palace Pier and Black Rock.
Brighton Motor Week
Brighton Speed Trials 1905
The Town Council proceeded to get together with the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland (later to become the RAC) to organise the Brighton Motor Week. This was a series of motor races run from Wednesday 19th July to Saturday 22nd July 1905. The event was not run again until 1923, when the Brighton and Hove Motor Cycle and Light Car Club, got things going again with what was intended to be an annual series of races, with riders competing against each other along the sea front.
Annual event
Two such events were held before a ban on motor racing on the public highways came into force, scuppering future competitions. In 1932 the newly formed Brighton and Hove Motor Club dug deeper into the legalities of the situation and discovered that Madeira Drive was in fact owned by the Brighton Corporation and could therefore not be considered a public road. From that year hence, except during the Second World War, the speed trials have taken place annually. Initially car races were run over a flying kilometre and motorcycles competed in handicap races over a standing start mile. At that time competitors ran side by side but in later years they ran individually for safety reasons.
Unique and famous
The Speed Trials was incorporated into the National Sprint Championship in 1978. Also from this year the motorcycles were organised by the Vintage Motorcycle Club at the invitation of the Brighton and Hove MC. The sixties and seventies saw dragsters and funny cars running at the event but these do not run today. ‘Frosts Cars’ Ltd made their Speed Trials sponsorship debut in 1991. Their support is not only financial but they actively co-operate with the organisation of this unique and famous event along with countless volunteers from the club, Brighton and Hove City Council and other organisations. Twenty years on and Frosts are still providing great support for the event.
Famous competitors
Brighton Speed Trials 2011
Many famous drivers have competed at the event and these include Sterling Moss, Mike Hawthorn, Ken Tyrell, John Cooper, Derek Bell and Sydney Allard. Today the event is run over a standing ¼ mile course and an amazing variety of cars and motorcycles can be seen on the day. These vary from vintage machines, standard road going cars and motorcycles through to single seater racing cars and super-tuned specials. The current course ¼ mile record for a car was set up in 1993 by John Grey in a 700 bhp SPA Judd V10 at 8.90 seconds and the motorcycle record was set up in 2009 by Roger Simmons on a Suzuki Hayabusa Turbo at 8.73 seconds
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I recall going to the speed trials in the 1950s. There was a horrific accident when a rider on an Ariel Square 4 bike accelerated fro standstill so fast that the bike’s back wheel went under the front and fatally squashed the rider. Also saw there the special with 2 Rolls Royce Merlin aero engines I think it was called the Swandean Special.
Nice quick history of the event, Len. Hopefully the people on this site will also rally to save this historic event!
Don’t forget motorcycle rider Ian Ashwell, who died when the fairing of his 998 blown Vincent came adrift towards the end of the 1 kilo course. A shocking death.
The Swandean Spitfire Special only had one engine. Built by Michael Wilcock in 1952/3 at his Swandean Garage just to the west of Worthing it used a 27 Litre Rolls Royce Merlin engine the same as fitted to WW2 Spitfire fighters. He had purchased a job lot of these in 1951 when a quantity of War Surplus was being sold off by the Government. I think he paid about £25 each for them brand new and in their crates. He ran this car at Brighton on two occasions in 1953 and 1954.He also supplied some of the engine parts for the other aero engined car that ran at Brighton Speed Trials, the Lloyd Jones ‘Triangle’, but that only had the smaller 21 litre Kestrel version and was rear engined. Michael was later curator of the short-lived Brighton Motor Museum at the Aquarium. When that closed he took all his cars to Jersey where he ran the Jersey Motor Museum for many years.
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