VMCC Festival of Jurby
At the end of Practice week and following the Newcomers Race the Manx Grand Prix paddock, stars and public descend upon the Jurby Aerodrome in the north of the island.
This event is run by the Vintage Motorcycle Club and is the Islands biggest one-day event drawing in crowds in excess of 15,000. 2012 was no exception and Darvill Racing were invited to bring along our Endurance machine and other exotica to be part of the GP paddock and also to participate in the GP parades alongside Ryan Farquhar, John McGuiness, Connor Cummins , Nick Jeffries, Philp McCallen to name but a few.
We took 5 machines with us:
- 1963 Norton Manx 500cc
- 1965 Jawa 500cc
- 1969 Honda CB750 ā This won the FIM World Championship in 1971
- 1974 Darvill Spondon SOHC Honda 820cc Endurance machine
- 1979 Darvill Spondon RSC Honda
Riding them throughout the day the certainly turned heads and also had a good āscrapā with Mark Castle in the first GP session. This certainly showed everyone what our machines and riders can do, Mark was riding a 2009 CBR600RR and Rob was on-board our 1979 Darvill Spondon RSC Honda, 30 years separated the machines however Mark couldnāt shake our machineā¦.
Testament indeed to the Darvill design and our rider.
The event is now in its fifth year and getting bigger and better. The Festival of Jurby is now a major part of the Manx Grand Prix Festival and it gives the public a great chance to get up close to classic machines and the GP stars but also a chance to get involved!
We arrived nice an early with the clouds scudding across the sky and the sun attempting to āpeakā through, nervously watching the weather praying for a good day. We were not to be disappointed!
We were honoured to be asked to set up with the GP stars and began unloading the vans in preparation. Before we had wheeled the first bike out of the van we were mobbed with people taking photographs, asking questions and generally excited about not only our bikes but the opportunity to get up close to all the original Grand Prix machinery.
We signed-on, attended the required briefings and ensured out bikes were ready for the day with about 5 minutes to spare before the first session.
With the sound of two-strokes, single cylinders and the smells associated the 2012 Festival of Jurby kicked into life.
What we were NOT expecting was the sheer number of people that seemed to materialise out of thin air? There were literally thousandsā¦!!!
The GP sessions were to be split into two, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. We warmed up the RSC Darvill Spondon and Rob headed out for the first session. Rob gave the thousands watching a real treat, demonstrating the versatility of an original FIM World Endurance bike from the ā70ās, knee down everywhere and scratching hard with the GP stars.
Session after session went off without issue and the crowds began to swell. As the break for lunch approached, we were all turning our thoughts to the RAF Spitfire display set to be the lunchtime entertainment for us all, it didnāt disappoint.
I have seen a number of Spitfire displays over the years but it is something special to watch one over an airfield, you get unparalleled views for all of us, it was a treat indeed.
As the Spitfire departed the remaining clouds left with here and we were baked in sunshine, this seemed to double the number of visitors making it a real challenge just to get to and from the circuit, good fun though.
The afternoon went without a hitch and we had hundreds and hundreds of people asking questions, taking pictures and videos, being part of the GP paddock meant that there were a lot of people all wanting to get close to the machines and riders and with the sun shining there were smiling faces everywhere.
It was a lovely way to breakup our Manx Grand Prix Festival fortnight and also a welcome relief after the pressures of practice and the Newcomers Race, and I canāt thank Tony East and the VMCC for the invitation and making this event possible.
Additional thanks to the following photographers for supplying and allowing us to use their images, without them all we would have is the words and these pictures speak volumes:
Regards,
Alex
