The Ulster Grand Prix was for many years one of the world's leading competitions. Alastair McCook looks back to its great days between the two world wars
The light drizzle had all but stopped by the time Sammy Millar pushed the big Supercharged AJS into life. For a few minutes the deep, sonorous, booming, notes, rolled across a soft Sunday and away into the lush greenery of the Co Antrim countryside.
The few hundred who had gathered at the old start/finish to mark the anniversary of the last Ulster Grand Prix to run on the Clady circuit, fifty years ago, stood enthralled by the sounds of a motor cycle that is legend in Irish motor cycle racing history.
It was on this machine that Belfast's Walter Rusk, The Blonde Bombshell, set the first 100 mph lap at Clady in 1939, before his race was ended by fork trouble on the fourth lap.
Despite a frightening turn of speed, the AJS only recorded one victory in its lifetime, at Mettet in Belgium in 1946. Jock West, the 500 cc winner at the 1937 and 1938 Ulster Grand Prix, was in the saddle that day. Now aged a sprightly 93, West has returned to Clady to share the occasion with men like Sammy Millar, Harry Linsay, Joe Wood, and Tommy Robb. All stars in their own right, but from a different era than West.
Millar underlines his relative youth by recalling how as boy he rode from his home in Belfast on a push-bike to watch men like West, Artie Bell and Enrico Lorenzetti endure the bruising bumps and ruts of Clady's notorious seven- mile straight. They were the inspiration for his own distinguished career.
Jock West made his short lived debut at Clady in 1934. His race ended in a 14 bike pile up, half a mile from the start.
"I made a very bad start in the 1934 race. Jimmy Guthrie made a worse start, and caught up on me only to find the road blocked by the 500 cc class. He took to the grass on the right but with very little grip he got out of control, rejoined the road and collided with the rear of the 500 cc class, bringing off several riders including myself. At that point the first of the 350 cc class arrived, found no gap and joined the fallers. Ginger Wood was off, just ahead, and I saw a 350cc rider ride over him. I leapt over the right hand bank for safety, and on sitting there heard a marshal voicing his concern that they could find 14 machines but only 13 riders."
Two back-to-back 500 cc victories, in 1937 and 1938, riding Supercharged BMWs truly were glory days in Jock West's career. He still regrets being denied the chance of sealing three straight wins on the trot, but the factory could not have the bikes ready in time to travel to Ireland for the 1939 Ulster Grand Prix.
Still, it was a long time ago. But today as the grey clouds give way to late summer sunshine, and the sound of the booming AJS is joined by a rumbling Norton and then a Velocette, it seems to some of us like it was only yesterday.
The Ulster Grand Prix was first held on the original 20-mile closed public roads around Clady in 1922. Racing ceased for the duration of the second World War, and when it resumed at Clady in 1946 it was on a circuit shortened to 16 ½ miles.
The last Ulster Grand Prix was held there in 1952. The meeting moved to its present home, the nearby Dundrod closed public roads circuit the following year. The event held full World Championship status until 1971.
The meeting continues to be held in August each year as an International event.