Thruxton Circuit

There is a gap in the research between 1945 and 1974, although I'm sure whatever was happening, it was happening quickly.

As I alluded to at the beginning, in 1974 at Thruxton Circuit, aged 78, Mrs Victor Bruce drove a Ford Capri at 110 miles an hour, then refreshed herself in flying at age 81 and did that loop-de-loop.

Unfortunately, this incredible journey, Chelmsford's fearless adventurer, pioneering aviatrix, had to come to an end, and at age 94 she passed away.

There's a memorial plaque at Golders Green Crematorium in London, but I think we need one closer to us, nearer here.

Yeah.

Andy Irwin asked him at Thruxton if he wanted to do Cadwell.

We thought, there's no way.

It's an honour or a compliment to be asked.

above right at the back was going to be a big sort of bonus and a big win really.

The only thing he got really wrong was the leathers were too tight because instead of...

He had lost a little bit of weight between Thruxton and Cadwell, but instead of getting measured up again by his leathers, he didn't have time, so he just told them to make them with his old sizes because he's old, you know, he's had...

They made plenty of leathers for him when he did race and he said, oh, they're a bit tight.

Yeah

... after his double at Thruxton.

It's a hell of a couple of weekends for him.

Yeah, and in Honda's backyard.

I'm like, I just, I hate anything, like, my missus was strict under strict instructions, no birthday parties or anything.

It was at Thruxton as well, so it was even worse.

And I...

Yeah.

Knocked my tooth out

... did something to my shoulder, and that kind of set us back a little bit.

And then I remember going to Thruxton the following weekend, and, uh-

Oh, this used to be that back-to-back, didn't it? Yeah.

of course these guys are used to using a tiny little um normal consumer yeah yeah and so and that's relatively big hole relatively small nozzle and easy to get in but the these sort of let's say more professional systems they're much much heavier much harder to aim correctly and um and so some of our teams struggling a little bit to manage oh dear yeah you've been blocked in there so they haven't pulled back that's a little bit of a wasted time for them But we are in an endurance race, so not so much of a problem.

Nothing like Thruxton 2004-2005 British GT, where they all came in at the same time with a 35-car grid at Thruxton pit lane.

You can imagine what that was like.

Very famous motors TV pictures of rear wings being pulled off as they made contact with other rear wings.

That will get changed one day at Fulton, but there is, I cannot remember, but if Pat Blaney, who's the former operations manager of Fulton Circus, is listening, which I think has got better, far, far better things to do on a Saturday, but should he, as I might mention and ask you, but there is something about those pitches, which is why the touring car teams... which still go to visit Thruxton twice a year now.

They go out to the back of the paddock and come through.

There's something about the plans, and Pat will remember exactly.

We're recording this on Monday the 31st of August and joining me today, as ever, is my co-host Carl Hunn.

In this episode, we'll be looking back at three complete rounds of the British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch, Alton Park and Thruxton.

Evening, Carl.

Dan, how you doing, mate? You alright? Not too bad, thank you.

Glen Irwin crashes at Britain Chicane.

Well, I say...

I think it was Britain's because we'll get into this with Thruxton and then with our next episode, Cadwell.

I'm finding more and more with the BSB coverages.

We've got some catching up to do on BSB reporting.

So Brands Hatch, Alton Park and Thruxton.

We're going to try and do it in one episode if we've got enough endurance, Dan, what do you reckon?

I think I might have an empty tank by the end of it but yeah we'll give it a go well you want to

be concentrating on Thruxton don't you because that looked like quite the weekend I was actually on my holiday overseas so I haven't actually watched the Thruxton round yet although I definitely will do because I saw a few clips and saw a few comments and it looked like things got shaken up a bit

yeah it's probably one of the best weekends of racing that I've seen for a long time I was lucky enough to go up there I had some tickets bought for my birthday so yeah

okay

Then Roberto Garcia, Anshu, Philip Hirtle, and I was going to say Troy Bayliss then, Oli Bayliss, who, as you'll might touch on I don't know if you'll touch on to the super sport when you talk about the three BSB rounds but he's running in the BSB races that he can attend from a calendar non-clashing perspective which I think is most of the remainder of the BSB season and is looking like he could be a threat for the championship as things stand.

But you look at a super bike at some level of it.

Alton or Thruxton where we've just been I mean they are hauling it around there and you know when people crash they are big accidents because the barriers are really close and the bikes are just going so bloody fast it's it is genuinely scary

Well, I remember back in the 90s, you going to AMA Superbike Race, Phoenix, Arizona, in a Roval, make of it what you will.

But I remember walking in the track, distinctly go, that's a Suzuki going by.

Yeah

... at Thruxton.

Um, so it's got, it's got a slightly different rear wing, but the, the nose is obviously now much flatter.

The strange thing is though, is that before it would've been a, uh, obviously the original slant nose was a pop-up headlight job.