Bol 76-a vintage year

Staffordshire to Le mans for the Bol d,or
2up,on a Honda 400 Four-hard work!
I did it two years running-76 and 77;
Seemed like a good idea at the time!
In 76 I rode with Roger Harvey as my pillion.
Roger was the guitarist,
I was the singer,
in a Funky band called Blue Moon.

We travelled with my pal Trevor Lyons
and his wife Vanessa
-they rode a Honda 550 four.

We got to le Mans at Lunchtime on Saturday lunchtime,
the race starting mid afternoon.

A pop festival sized crowd of 200,000 plus
watched the start and then basically
spent the rest of the 24 hour race getting bladdered.

The only time they regrouped
was to invade the the track
on the last lap on Sunday afternoon

(a bit like my nephew who paid £40
to watch the British motogp on a giant tv
in the bar at Donington!
Never saw the actual race!)

“the 76 goldwings are in out early thisyear… ”
Trevors sister in law is a Tomkinson.
Her dad is half of Mead and Tomkinson.
They were campaigning the radical “Nessie” at the Bol.

A laverda engined(later Kawasaki Z1 equipped) hybrid,
with hub steering,
parallelogram rear supension,
underslung petrol tank
-it was a mobile test bed for ideas.

(check out the boots!)
More importantly “nessies” presence at le mans,
got us pit passes for the weekend!
(friends in high places-what!)

The Honda team of Phil Read and Tony Rutter were in the next garage;

Spare engines in crates,
luxury accomodation for the riders
–M and T team cooked on a 2 burner camping stove
and slept in a sleeping bag on a pile of tyres!
We stayed in the pits till the early hours then crashed out.
Sunday morning dawned cold and damp.

Back in the pits,
Nessie was out-mechanical failure;
In fact there werent many teams still circulating.
Rain during the night took its toll.
I dont remember the winners
-no doubt a French crew on a big Kawasaki

-it usually panned out that way.

just look at that skinny tyre-a TT100?
One team broke down/crashed(I cant remember which)
just outside the pits
and the rules stated that the rider,
unaided,
must complete the lap and return to the pits.

Imagine pushing your bike all the way round the course
after riding for about 12hours!
It takes a certain kind of rider to ride endurance races.
Great atmosphere,great racing
the boldor at Le mans was a biking institution.
After its move to Paul Ricard
and then the crappy Magny Cours circuit
-the bol dor has never been the same for many people.
Trevor went to the bol at magny Cours ,
a couple of years ago
and was very disappointed.
Aggressive crowd behaviour,
a poor circuit
and characterless racing
-sounds Familiar? 😛