ONCHAN MOTORCYCLE GYMKHANA
Onchan Stadium, Isle of Man
Thursday 21 June 2001
In order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Onchan Stadium and to raise money for local motorcycle clubs an evening of fun, frolics, skill and nostalgia was organised in the form of a motorcycle gymkhana. The show starts at 7.45pm on a beautiful sunny evening in the Isle of Man. TT commentator and local member of the Manx parliament, Geoff Cannell is commentator for the evening.
When the stadium was first built it incorporated a banked cycling track around the perimeter. This tarmac track is no longer used for events at the stadium as it has been deemed more dangerous than modern wooden velodromes. In memory of the days of cycle racing at Onchan 3 of the competitors do a few laps of the old track to start the show.
The Purple Helmets motorcycle display team then make their first appearance of the evening, participating in the first heat of the wheelie bin racing. Wheelie bins are tied to the rear of the Purple Helmets' bikes and are ridden by members of the Manx motorcycle clubs. Derry Kissack, coordinator and commentator for the Purple Helmets, advises all to keep an eye on bin number 4, named "Cannell" - I'm sure Geoff was very flattered! The race is won by Cannell whilst top Enduro rider David Knight is brought down to earth with a bump when he finishes last by a long way in a bin named "Total S****" (this is a family site so I can't name it properly suffice to say it rhymes with David's surname!).
Predecessors to the Purple Helmets, the Peveril Aces, then put in an appearance. Many of the original stunt riders from the 1950s perform a perfect crossover on the field to prove they haven't lost their skill.
Next up for a couple of laps on the inner track is "No Limit" star George Shuttleworth - also known as local TT rider Richard "Milky Bar Kid" Quayle - riding his Shuttleworth Snap motorcycle. He is joined by cartoon stars Wallace and Gromit to the delight of the children in the crowd.
The majority of the evening is taken up with the heats and finals of the Alternative TT. Riders past and present, all of whom are resident in the island, take local club riders around the inner field on their bikes where they must stop to perform various physical tasks. The club riders must crawl under canvas sheets and nets, jump through tyres, run through tyres and jump over a wall before the TT riders must weave through cones to reach the finish. The TT riders are Jason Griffiths, "Milky" Quayle, Paul Dedman, Paul Hunt, Kenny Harrison and Nigel Beattie. No-one is quite sure what the rules are but even so there appears to be a lot of cheating with some of the club boys missing out some obstacles altogether, jumping on the wrong bikes, pushing other competitors over and trying to haul others off the wall whilst the TT riders either miss out or run over the cones they should negotiate. During one race Jason Griffiths is unable to start his bike so his passenger, Andy Walton, runs half the course but does attempt to jump on the other bikes in the process. When Jason eventually gets the bike going he slides whilst crossing the grass and he and his bike end up lying there. Fortunately he is able to get up and continue but despite some cheating he and Andy still finish last!
Prior to the finals of the Alternative TT the "World Famous" Purple Helmets perform their tricks "at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour" according to Derry Kissack! They parade some quite unbelievable pieces of machinery including a bike/office chair hybrid which also kicks out smoke to emulate the production stage of a "donut". The fantastic Rollover Man also manages to roll his bike over 3 times in a row, aided by a hamster style cage over the machine. The Helmets also perform some amazing physical stunts including human pyramids, catching the flying Helmet and using a Helmet as a jump. Although their display does not include many of their more elaborate props (possibly those which were destroyed in a warehouse fire just a couple of months prior to the show) it is still a typically Manx and very humourous show, topped off by the unique Purple Helmets' salute at the end.
In a change to the scheduled programme, due to the evening dew causing traction problems for the bikes, the grand finale of the show is brought forward. World Trials Championship competitors (and local residents) Dougie Lampkin and Steve Colley enter the stadium by performing wheelies and donuts on the inner track before tackling the obstacles set up for them on the field. They ride over cars, vans, refuse skips and a lorry piled high with wooden
pallets. Steve, being the great showman that he is incites the crowd to encourage him to ride off the top of the pallets at their highest point to the ground below, a drop of over 12 feet. He completes this feat twice, once for each side of the stadium. World Champion Dougie's moment to make the crowd gasp is when he lands on the windscreen of a car, making it shatter so loud everyone in the stadium hears it. At the end of their breathtaking display the 2 riders take the crowd by surprise by performing some tricks on the banked outer track whilst children swarm around them.
The penultimate event is the final of the wheelie bin racing which is won by David Knight, who surely lost out in the first heat but no-one seems to mind! This is followed by a demonstration of how not to do it by the Purple Helmets themselves. The show finishes with the heats and finals of the pram racing. This sees the TT riders dragging the club riders around in a coach built pram on a rope. If the club riders let go of the rope their TT rider must come back to pull them around again. The final sees brothers David and Juan Knight in the prams but Juan loses out when he lets go of the rope and rider Kenny Harrison doesn't realise he is pramless for half a lap! Eventually they get going again and despite attempts to push David out of his pram when being lapped they lose out.
The whole event finished at about 9.45pm and was well worth the £3 entry fee. To see such top competitors and entertainment was fabulous and the crazy humour typically Manx. One of my most memorable moments was the kid who excitedly returned to his mother from the paddock area with "Purple Helmets" written on his forehead in black marker pen exclaiming "Look Mum! A Purple Helmet autographed my head!!!"
