Cook being congratulated after his win in the inaugural motorcycle race run by the Brooklands Automobile Racing Club at the Easter Weekend Meeting
The North London Garages Peugeot as it is today. This is the machine that won the first official motorcycle race at Brooklands on Easter Monday, 20 April, 1908.
‘A French Manufacturer’, almost certainly Peugeot, was also preparing a machine to reach 100mph at the circuit. On 17 June, 1907 Brooklands was opened and following a lunch, Edith Locke King led a procession of cars round the circuit. Despite the track being designed for high-speed racing, the effects on vehicles, their drivers and riders was unknown. Prior to Selwyn Edge’s planned 24-hour car run, doctors had warned that his body may not stand the strain and he could even become insane due to the monotony. At this stage, the Brooklands authorities felt the track was unfit for motorcycles and there was a fear their engines would seize or even disintegrate if run at full throttle for long periods around the banked circuit. There was perhaps another reason why it would be undesirable to run bikes
at high speed. Just 11 days after the track was opened, and Selwyn Edge was completing his momentous record-breaking run in a Napier car, the newly laid concrete track was already beginning to break up in places. By this time, motorcycle racing had been taking place at Canning Town Velodrome and a purpose-built motor racing track at Bexhill. The 1907 season closed without any motorcycle events at Brooklands, but in early December two unidentified naval officers rode the track and reported serious overheating, although they did say that the surface was very much better than anticipated.
Rapid progress
At the same time, the Auto Cycle Union was lobbying Brooklands to introduce motorcycle racing, but still there seemed
to be no appetite for motorcycles at the track. However, things progressed fast and the experience of the early car races, developments in motorcycle design and smaller than expected spectator numbers for the first car races in 1907 meant that by February 1908, motorcycle racing had been included in that year’s programme, beginning with an Easter Weekend Meeting. On 25 February, an unpublished private race of one lap was run between two Oxford graduates, W Gordon McMinnies riding a single cylinder 3hp light TT Triumph without pedals or mudguards, and Oscar Bickford riding a 5hp twin-cylinder light TT Vindec. The Triumph made the better start and by half-way was leading by 100 yards. It was reported that a small piece of metal preventing full compression in one of the Vindec’s cylinders led to a rather underwhelming race, with McMinnies winning by 150 yards.
While this event is well-known by
Brooklands aficionados, what is less well known is that McMinnies also went on to become the fastest Brooklands motorcycle rider that day by making two timed half- mile runs of 57.88mph against the wind and 59.80mph with a following wind. This fact was immediately picked up by Dunlop with a full-page advert proclaiming ‘Almost 60 Miles Per Hour at Brooklands’ on Dunlop Tyres. Whilst researching this piece, it was interesting to see one reference, dealing with the history of The South British Trading Company that read: ‘1908: early in the year came more success in a private match race at Brooklands – the first ever two-wheeled event on the track, when Oscar Bickford came second on his Vindec Special.’ True, but second in a two-horse race is also last!
William Cook with the larger 2700cc NLG which proved to be too powerful for Brooklands.
During the last week of March, Charlie and Harry Collier of Matchless, AG Reynolds, and WH Wells representing the South British Trading Company, suppliers of Vindec, travelled to Brooklands with F Straight, the Secretary of the Auto Cycle Union, to get
MAY - JUNE 2020 | BROOKLANDS BULLETIN 41
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