Old racing trophys - any information?

[_Iain_]

We've been helping my gran move house, scince my grandfathers death last year she just cant cope with the house. She found some trophies of my great grandfathers - she knows nothing about them & asked if we wanted them. Would realy just like to know a little about the events, types of machine etc so perhaps i can do a little more research into it.

These are the details on the cups for George Smart who was born in 1899

1.Large Silver Cup - The Yeoman Cup presented by Maidstone Motor Club 1928-29 by FW Grout. Yeoman Garage Bearsted (the only other shield on it is for E Turk 1927-28)
2.Small cup - The Motor Club Kent – speedway 5 8 28 Sidecar 1st G Smart
3.Small cup - Yeoman Cup replica 1928
4.Small shield – Kentish Clubs Open hill climb Vigo Hill 1921 ( on reverse) G Smart A, B, C (on front)

Would be exceptionally grateful, as would my mother to know a little more about our past! I expect they're all small local events tbh.
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Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[paddlesat16]

You should try your local library for the local historical group, im sure they could throw some light on the events.

Regards
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I once saw a bloke shagging a donkey.... in Saudi arabia. Theory Test Passed 26/10/09 Mod 1 Passed 26/4/10, Mod 2 Passed 7/6/10 Current Bikes Suzuki GSX1400 K5, Aprillia Pegaso 650, Suzuki DR350T.

[Shaft]

I don't know if any of this helps, but Lipscomb Volvo used to be based at Yeoman Garage (they've moved now) which was just off the A20, near Spot Lane.

The sidecar trophy is quite interesting for it's use of the word speedway; the date on it is literally the birth of speedway in the UK, the first purpose built tracks were opening in May and June 1928, but AFAIK, Maidstone has never had a proper speedway track, so I would suggest it's a grasstrack meeting.

There's still lots of grasstrack racing in the area, so you might want to get in touch with the organisers, there's a good chance they will be able to get some information, because Kent in general and Maidstone in particular, have some of the oldest motor clubs in the country, so it's possible the Maidstone Motor Club is now part of another organisation (M&MKMC springs to mind) bearing in mind, in those days, motor clubs often didn't differentiate between bikes and cars, you were all racing enthusiasts.

I would also suggest the library is your friend; motorsport was mega in those days, so they may have been local meetings, but the crowds could have been significant, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding info from the local newspaper archives, the meetings would probably have been fairly big news.
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[_Iain_]

Much appreciated!

As far as i can gather, the vigo hill reffered to was this;

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=vigo+hill&hl=en&ll=51.324095,0.343645&spn=0.010553,0.01929&hnear=Vigo+Hill,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=16

Which would sit about right, given that side of the family has always been in kent. Cant imagine the road would have changed all that much scince the 1920's either. might have been a bit wider & stuff.
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Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[Shaft]

One of our more famous (or infamous) hillclimbs is Kop Hill, this is what it looked like in 1925; note the proximity of the crowd, no H&S then!

https://img827.imageshack.us/img827/8328/6v0j.jpg

And last year......

https://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7963/q1k6.jpg

I would imagine Vigo was/is much the same.

Last time I went up Vigo Hill, I seem to remember it being lined by fairly stout trees, which must've made life interesting, if you had an off.
____________________
Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035

[_Iain_]

I've ridden the hill in question & dont remember it being much of a hill, however there's some fairly large trees all over! Definately wouldnt want to crash.

Bet it made some interesting spectating from the bridge though!
____________________
Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[Ariel Badger]