GRASS track racing is coming back with a bang - helped by an Atherton man.
This spectacular form of motor cycle sport is set for a Northern revival.
The hair-raising antics of the sport's laid-down, broadsiding competitors once had a fanatical following in Lancashire.
Now newly-formed Rivington Barnstormers competition secretary Tony Clarke hopes to see a revival of the 70s boom when hordes flocked to watch the best at Tyldesley's Cleworth Hall.
"I'd love to see the sport back to that level locally," said Tony, of Upton Road, Atherton.
"We aim to run a few events a year and would love to find suitable land in this area to hold a top event for a suitable charity."
Tony and his wife Brenda will be helping run the Barnstormers first event later this month. And son Carl - an ex-Belle Vue Aces and Glasgow speedway rider - will be the starter on September 28 at Mere Farm track near Kirkham.
There are classes for 250, 350 and 500 solos, 500 and 1.000 sidecars plus pre-1975 classics.
And one of the new club's leading lights is many times British Grass Track Champion David Baybutt.
The Wigan Wonder and his equally-talented brother Chris set the grass world alight in the 60s and 70s at the height of the sport's popularity.
In those days the mixture of speedway and sand racing on grass flourished under the wing of the Lancashire Grass Track Riders Club - an organisation of which their parents were founders.
And the Wrightington duo followed in late dad Jim's tyre tracks, nurtured by the magic fumes from his open-piped dope and castor-burning J A P-engined specials.
Dave and Chris went on to become two of the best riders Britain has ever produced, winning national and international honours - with Chris the first European champion.
Carrying on this impressive lineage is Mike Baybutt, at 22 already crowned British Sand Race Champion five times, and, like them, a winner of motor cycle sport's coveted Pinhard Prize.
He will make his grass debut at the Rivington Club's opening meeting riding a two valve Hagon Jawa.
Heavy sponsorship means good prize money is up for grabs with £100 cash to the winner in the modern classes and trophies to the pre-75 men.
For the spectators the sidecar classes provide amazing entertainment with the light 500 singles circulating anti-clockwise and the monster-power 1,000cc outfits scrabbling and drifting sideways for grip.
Certainly a sight worth seeing and the smell's as addictive as Sunday morning eggs and bacon!
Anyone who fancies having a go at this intriguing sport should contact Tony Clarke on 01942-873395 or Jeff Warwick on 01772-434461.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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