Drumlanrig Castle Scottish Classic Grand National Scramble

SCOTTISH CLASSIC GRAND NATIONAL SCRAMBLE

Words and Pictures by Chris Montignani

The jewel in the Scottish crown of classic off-road race events made a very welcome return to the hallowed grounds of Drumlanrig Castle near Thornhill for their annual offroad motorcycle extravaganza. The event is held around the lush and immaculately manicured Drumlanrig Castle grasslands.

The 17th century Drumlanrig Castle, which is often known locally as the “Pink Palace” due to its red sandstone construction, has been in the Douglas family for the past six hundred years and is now the seat of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch who kindly allowed the Galloway Motorcycle Racing Club to desecrate their beautiful castle surroundings with their noisy vintage dirt bikes.

Although you could never imagine in your wildest dreams why anybody in their right mind would allow you to hold a classic motorcycle scramble race meeting in and around the grounds of such a historic monument as Drumlanrig, and in that way it’s akin to somebody giving you permission to dig up the main fairway of your local golf club because in reality dirt bike races at these kind of venues just never happen. I’ll bet that each year the Galloway Motorcycle Club pinch themselves that they continue to secure such a prime location to race these old motorbikes.

This was my second visit to this fantastic event after I attended their inaugural race meeting back in 2017 and since then the

Drumlanrig scramble weekend has gone from strength to strength and is currently without doubt not only one of the best vintage offroad race events in Scotland but is fast becoming one of the UK’s top classic and vintage scrambles gatherings. Now it is one of the first dates that riders are entering into their racing calendars for the forthcoming year. The Galloway Motorcycle Club was initially formed way back in the 1930s and in the following years had spawned many a Scottish champion from all forms of two-wheeled motorsport up until 2011 when the club then closed down. It was resurrected in 2018 by a few loyal club members to put on motorcycle trials, grasstrack and scrambles events. This 2022 classic weekend had just about everything and was very much family oriented this year with plenty of classic racing with forty-six races taking place over the course of the two days. There were other zany entertainments Brad Lackey, Roger DeCoster, and Heikki Mikkola - to keep you occupied including lawn legends all, outside the historic Drumlanrig Castle. mower racing, which was great to watch. As well, there were copious

DRUMLANRIG C ASTLE 16TH - 19TH JUNE 2022

amounts of other stuff going on in the shape of trials rides and other motorcycle related distractions to keep punters happy over the four days.

Also as you would expect there was a good sprinkle of motocross legends scattered around the grounds with not only one guest of honour this year but three celebrities from the offroad world in attendance. The Galloway committee certainly came up trumps and secured the services of none other than Roger DeCoster, Brad Lackey and Heikki Mikkola, who were all kept very busy throughout the weekend signing autographs and having selfies taken by adoring motocross race fans. Others just brought along fuel tanks or clothing for the legends to autograph.

There were other notable legends gracing the hallowed grounds of Drumlanrig Castle over the four days, with British racing motocross star Graham Noyce also circulating around the paddock. Yorkshire trials six days event champion Bill Wilkinson and ex-British motocross champion Vic Allan were also in the grounds taking the opportunity to relax and speak to the crowds. So Drumlanrig certainly had more than its fair share of legends in attendance!

The four-day event kicked off on the Thursday with charity classic road bike runs around the Thornhill area of Dumfries, and within the boundaries of the paddock area there were other amusements to keep you occupied like fast food vendors and classic dirt bike related spare parts vendors and even

bikes for sale. Of course and maybe more importantly, there was the traditional and superbly stocked bar to help you quench your thirst when a bit of refreshment was required. Although it was quite apparent early on that this weekend was going to be hugely popular as the paddock was already three quarters full as riders and spectators began arriving in their droves and this was still only the Thursday! On the Friday evening the official opening of the 2022 Drumlanrig Classic Grand Andy Dykes from National Scramble kicked off with Australia took the traditional pipe band leading the part on his CCM. proceedings from the castle to the racetrack with our three guests of honour Brad Lackey, Heikki Mikkola and Roger DeCoster leading the pipe playing ensemble right into the paddock arena. Soon afterwards it was also great to hear some of their old stories from back in the day when they were later seen on stage in front of adoring fans and Brad Lackey in particular had the crowds rolling with laughter with some of his racing exploits from his days on the track. VMX Magazine caught up with Brad

Willie Burgess from Northern Ireland was quick all weekend. Cecil Pearson still takes part in these vintage race events on one of his many JAP scramblers.

upon his return to the USA to gather his thoughts on his trip and suffice to say, he loved it - “The Drumlanrig Castle event presented by the Galloway Motorcycle Club was great! The rider turnout was full for all events and the weather could not have been more perfect for racing. And of course the Club went over the top to have four World Champions in attendance at the same time - Roger DeCoster, Heikki Mikkola, Graham Noyce and myself. A total of 11 world titles, 10 being in the 500 class. There was a question and answer session from the crowd on Saturday evening where we all answered questions directed to us and Heikki stole the show cracking everyone up with his short answers. Still as witty as ever. Many thanks to Wullie Brown, Fraser and Mary Dykes, and the entire Galloway Motorcycle Club for a job well done. And as our buddy Wullie said - Nothing can ever top this event.” The traditional Friday night grass track was once again a huge success where many of the scrambles riders took this opportunity to fine tune their machines prior to racing on the Saturday and with the Scottish weather being absolutely perfect for once it drew a very large crowd (who conveniently had the beer tent right next to the oval track so there wasn’t far to go if you needed another top up or replenishment).

Saturday was of course day one of the racing programme and there were classes for Pre ‘68, Pre ‘75, Pre ‘78 and Pre 1984 bikes. What a fantastic sight it was to see full gates with forty bikes on the line in each of the allotted classes and it was such an encouraging sight for classic and vintage racing in general to see so many of these older machines lined up to race at this superb venue.

It’s said that the entry tally for the three days of the scrambles racing amounted to over three hundred machines which didn’t even include the many trials bikes that were taking part in their own event on the Sunday. Although those assembled scrambles racers were certainly the lucky ones for this year’s meeting because as soon as the on-line entries for the event opened for business in early February it was almost immediately oversubscribed. Some of the unfortunate candidates had to be placed on a waiting list such was the interest and the prestige connected to this fantastic weekend.

On the track you had the cream of Britain’s elite classic racers in attendance and when you have names like Mark Fulton, Terry House, Brad O’Leary, Pete Mathia, Willie Burgess from Northern Ireland and multiple Twinshock Scottish champion Paul Chiappa all lining up at the start-line then you know you’re in the company of some of the finest dirt racers of our time.

Pete Mathia for me was especially worth a mention as he told me of the horrendous racing injury he received a while back to his shoulder to which the doctor later told him, “yeah I can fix that for you Pete but unfortunately you’ll never ride a motorcycle again after it I’m afraid”. So as all motocross racers tend to do, Pete then said, “ok, thanks for your diagnosis.... now when’s my next classic race event because I need to get my bike ready?” But even with a dodgy shoulder Pete was fantastic on the old Bill Brown Maico and still took the overall win in the Pre 1984 Over 60s class.

Irishman Cecil Pearson also brought along his collection of unique Rickman JAP scramblers to Drumlanrig and its quite hard

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A healthy line-up of bikes in the Clubman class.

The Scottish Lawnmower Racing Club kept the spectators entertained on the Thursday evening (don’t forget it is still daylight this time of year in Scotland until after 10pm).

Brad O’Leary (#2) and Ryan Ireland (#43) take part in the grass track event. Note how both bikes have all the trick bits!

to comprehend that although these bikes have 1960s Rickman chassis, they’re all still powered by a methanol-fueled four-stroke ‘John Alfred Prestwich’ engine from the 1930s. Cecil also has his very own team of JAP riders for these unique machines including James Thomson, Adrian Lappin, Harry Stitt and John Griffiths who were all running at the sharp end of the racing action in the Pre 1968 unlimited class. James Thomson in particular secured four out five wins over the weekend to win himself the Stuart Miller Memorial Trophy. But it is uncanny how these 1930s JAP bikes are still highly competitive in this modern era although it is as I said thanks to the dedication of Cecil Pearson and his love of these iconic race bikes.

Of course if you didn’t want to take in the racing trackside, you could wander around the huge marquee where there were over fifty classic motorcycles on display from every conceivable discipline of two-wheeled motorsport and there were some real rarities lined up including Peter Maxwell’s 1989 GM 500 Maico and Peter Hollinshead’s immaculate Lito 500.

But as soon as you passed through security at the main entrance to the paddock, the one thing that struck you straight away was the professional layout of all of the event’s infrastructure, with street names between rows of parked vehicles so you didn’t get lost trying to find your way back from the beer tent. Another nice touch were the copious amounts of free shower blocks that were scattered all over the site, and if like me you’d just spent four days in a tent roughing it in the wind and rain then you’ll know how great a nice hot shower feels at the end of the day. But the Galloway Motorcycle Club and the many sponsors who contributed to the weekend made sure that each and every rider who took part would remember this event, so they all received a free commemorative baseball cap and T-shirt as a memento of the 2022 race weekend.

I’m not entirely sure how long it took the Galloway Club to erect all of the fencing, marquees and all of the other associated paraphernalia that goes into making this type of meeting take place but I had heard they began construction more than a week before it opened, but what’s even more remarkable is that after the final race Sunday evening they only had two or three days to completely clear the site and put the track back to its original condition and make the grounds look like the event had never even taken place.

I have to say that this year’s Drumlanrig classic race weekend had absolutely everything with plenty of old vintage bikes, fantastic racing on the track and of course a good scattering of local and international scrambling legends and an atmosphere that you could only produce when like-minded dirt bike enthusiasts all come together in one place. The months of planning and organisation that went into this year’s event was without doubt a tremendous success story thanks to the commitment and the attention to detail by the Galloway Motorcycle Club committee and its army of sponsors who all played their part in supporting the event.

As the last of the transporters and vehicles were leaving the hallowed grounds of the castle, you can rest assured that thoughts were already looking towards how this 2022 race weekend could be surpassed next year and I’ve certainly no doubt whatsoever that the Galloway guys will pull it off once again. It was a braw weekend indeed…as they say in Scotland.

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