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The VMCC road race circus, otherwise British Historic Racing, visited Lydden, Kent on July 30-31 for a championship meeting. With the tight operating conditions imposed on the circuit, meetings have to be slickly run to complete a 47-race programme, but it means there’s hardly a break in the entertainment and the race format rolls around…

The gentle art of trials riding doesn’t generally include climbing over a car but, looked at objectively, the skills needed in normal trials are all on display in this stunt.

This seminal sprint and hillclimb bike is based on a 1926 Douglas TT frame fitted with a 1928 600cc DT engine. CT Atkins raced it at Brooklands. Avid race enthusiast Dr Joseph Bayley bought it in 1929, although he never rode it in competition.

On August 21, the VMCC Sprint Section returned to Wroughton airfield, near Swindon, for the second of this year’s Speed Trials, which was also an ACU Championship round. Conditions were dry with a tailwind for the standing start, quarter-mile course on the broad tarmac runway.