Spring Holiday Monday 26 May 2014

The exciting sights sound and smell of Grand Prix Racing to roar into life at Edenbridge, Kent.

Motor sport legend, John Surtees OBE, the only person to have won world championships on both two and four wheels, will be supporting the Edenbridge Fun Day on Monday 26th May 2014. Edenbridge has been Surtees' business base for the past 56 years, and the fun day will celebrate his remarkable achievements on two and four wheels as well as that of Team Surtees which gained worldwide success winning American and British championships with its Formula 5000 cars and the European Formula 2 Championship in 1972 (runner-up in 1973).

The special event will feature a parade of John’s rarely seen F1 race cars and bikes run twice through Edenbridge High Street before returning to the site that was the Surtees team factory base. This will be followed by a large procession of veteran and classic vehicles all drawn to Edenbridge by the festivities.

Peter Kingham, Head of Edenbridge Chamber of Commerce said “2014 marks not only John’s 50th anniversary of winning the Formula 1 World Championship, but also his 80th birthday. We are very much looking forward to celebrating those two anniversaries with him at the fun day, as well as raising funds for our chosen charities”.

The Edenbridge Fun Day will raise awareness and funds for local charities including the Kent Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance and Henry Surtees Foundation, established by John Surtees following the tragic death of his son Henry while competing in Formula 2 race in 2009 aged just 18.

The Team Surtees and John Surtees related vehicles taking part in the Edenbridge Fun Day and parade include:

· Ferrari 158 - This is the actual car that John Surtees won his 1964 Formula One Driver's World Championship racing title in

· The first Formula 1 car built by Team Surtees at its Edenbridge base. The TS7 Formula 1 car had its first race in the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in 1970. In that year It won the Gold Cup competing against a World Championship grid and finished 5th in the Canadian Grand Prix.

· The TS14 Formula 1 car - The first car to be introduced to the new safety regulations in 1972 and was driven by Mike Hailwood and Carlos Pace setting lap records in the German and Austrian Grand Prix. Mike Hailwood took 2nd place at the Italian Grand Prix. The team finished 5th in the World Championship (one place behind Ferrari).

· The TS15 2-litre Formula 2 car built in 1973 which finished 2nd in that Championship, this car is the prototype that won the prestigious Interlagos race in Brazil driven by Carlos Pace

· A 1960 MV Agusta four-cylinder GP motorcycle – John Surtees won seven World motorcycle championships riding for MV Augusta and 6 Isle of Man TT’s

· A 1954 BMW Rennsport twin-cylinder motorcycle – John Surtees raced for the factory team at the Nurburgring in 1955.

· Mercedes-Benz 300SL this is one of the limited production cars made by Mercedes-Benz following the success on their return to racing of the 300SL prototype in Carrera Panamerica

· 500cc 1949 Vincent Grey Flash motorcycle built by John in 1979 using a large number of parts from the original machine that he built in 1950 whilst working as an apprentice at the Vincent Company. John won his first ever race on a Grey Flash at Aberdare Park in Wales, that he had built whilst working as an apprentice at the Vincent company. It was the first of many wins before he transferred to a Norton to compete in International events.

· 350cc Works Norton this is one of the last works machines built by the original Norton company in the early Sixties and featured an ultra-short-stroke engine of 86mm x 60mm and outside flywheel

The vehicles will be based at the original building that housed Team Surtees where the cars were manufactured and built predominantly by local skilled residents. Two local businesses, Bradford Electrical and Whitmore’s car dealership have traded from this base in recent years at north end of town. It is soon hoped that an exciting new development will be taking place on this site with the construction of a Sainsbury’s store and petrol station.

The parade will start at 4.00pm following an Aston Martin DB8 course car – John Surtees will lead the procession in the Ferrari 158 car along closed roads through Edenbridge before returning to Station Road.

To tie in with the event, Topfoto Gallery based at Roman Road, Fircroft Way, Edenbridge will be holding a Surtees photographic exhibition tracing his life and career from 18 April until 12 June 2014.

The IAM is calling on the government to introduce a national strategy of driving health checks and better information for elderly drivers and their families.

The call comes after a poll showing that forty-two per cent of the population are worried about an elderly relative driving, yet they are unlikely to do anything about it.

The IAM and Vision Critical poll of 1297 people shows that while concern about elderly drivers is evident, acting on our concerns is another issue. Fifty-eight per cent of those concerned did nothing about it.1

When we do talk to our relatives about their driving it does not always go down well. Of those that had done this, nearly half of respondents (47 per cent) were met with negative reaction.

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “Talking to an elderly relative about their driving is a difficult conversation to have. Driving is associated with independence, so giving up the car keys can be a very stressful process. This is especially true for drivers with dementia as they often underestimate the impact of the condition on their driving skills.

“Voluntary online and on road driving assessments will provide an unbiased view and help everyone make the right decision at the right time. We are finding while there are some elderly drivers who should not be on the road, most get it right and as many as 15% give up too early.2

“But with ever increasing numbers of elderly drivers, this is a growing mobility and road safety issue that won’t go away. The government needs to act now.”

The IAM wants:
•A government action plan for older drivers
•Widespread availability of voluntary on road driving assessments
•More car manufacturers considering older drivers in vehicle design
•Better information and online assessment tools for older drivers, their families and health professionals
•Road designs that make it easier for older drivers to keep driving

There are now more than four million drivers over 70 years old, a figure that is set to increase to 5.8 million in 2032.

Celebrating the 90th anniversary of Warr's HD, having originally opened on London's Kings Road in 1924, two of the most famous names in UK motorcycling continue their collaboration into 2014 with Warr's Harley Davidson hosting a series of Harley Nights, in partnership with Ace Cafe London, from 6pm - 11pm on the last Thursday of every month, starting Thursday 27th March! and which are designed to bring together Harley Davidson owners and potential owners under one roof in a friendly motorcycle inspired atmosphere.

Warr's HD items will be up for grabs as raffle prizes - spend £5 or more over the counter at the cafe and receive a raffle ticket. Draw will take place at 10pm.

The evening of Thursday 27th March at the cafe includes with filming HD's for TV!

To find our more about Warr's Harley Davidson, the Warr's HD Nights at the Ace, and other of their prestigious events, check out:

www.warrs.com

The Pata Honda World Superbike team has completed a private three-day test at the Circuito Cartagena near Murcia in Spain.

It is the first time that riders Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea have ridden their new Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machines since returning from the opening round of the 2014 World Superbike championship at Phillip Island in Australia one month ago.

The pair used the test to continue development of chassis settings on their CBR machines, as well as refining power delivery and traction control. They will stay in Spain this weekend and move further south to Circuito de Jerez for another three-day test which starts next Monday.

Round two of the World Superbike championship will also take place in Spain, at Motorland Aragon on 11-13 April.

Leon Haslam

Yeah, I’m happy with this test and we were able to make some good progress with the overall CBR package. We tested a new swingarm and some other chassis settings and we’re still waiting for one or two other elements to come through. We also worked on traction control which is a lot better now and to go 0.3s under the circuit record was a good way to finish. We’re going to do a bit of cycling before heading down to Jerez and we’ll see what the weather brings us down there.

Jonathan Rea

We’ve made some really good steps here and our test rider, Michele Magnoni, did a really good job over the first couple of days, especially on Wednesday when it was really windy. I rode with some new strategies that he was developing and I’m happy to be able to ride more aggressively on longer runs. The speed over one lap was good, too, but I was more satisfied with the longer runs. We also tried a lot of chassis settings, varying pivot points and things, and the bike is definitely steering better on tighter lines.

Pieter Breddels

It’s been a really good test. I can’t really say much more. Apart from the really strong winds on Wednesday, the weather has allowed us to get through a lot of work and both Jonathan and Leon were able to go faster than the old lap record here at Cartagena. Apart from the chassis settings, we concentrated on throttle opening and getting the traction control to catch slides more predictably. I think both riders are feeling a lot more confident about that. We have three more days testing at Jerez next week but, at the moment, the weather forecast is not looking too good for that, so I’m glad we got this time at Cartagena.

... on 30th March. It leaves Black Swan Horncastle at 10.30am and gathers up more paricipants at Holdingham roundabout Sleaford at 11.15am. Destination fry-up! Somewhere in the Bourne (ish) direction.

Politically Lembit and Leon have done very well getting the Bedford roundabout project postponed - this was going to be a roundabout with raised ridges seperating lane of traffic... imagine that in the dark and wet whilst cranked over.

Things that you don't see are MAG getting it's voice heard in the right places - we have had 3 mentions in "LTT", a publication that Leon Mannings describes as "very anoraky but read by key influencers in UK Transport Policy".

MAG had a stand at the Manchester Bike show where Lembit went down a storm and a lot of interest shown. There's yet another new branch this time in the New Forest.

This is what Lembit had to say in a recent email:

"Although it probably sounds a bit soft to say it, it's an honour to be part of an organisation which unpretentiously moves mountains when it thinks and acts in unison. While there may be a lot of frustrations - the largest one being a lack of time to do everything - I do feel extremely fortunate to be working with Doc Mannings, and for yourselves. It's alright for us to be proud of MAG - and I certainly am".