Some classic footage from Snetterton back in 1986

Text by Roger

I have met and continue to meet great people through Scotts and the drama adds zest to my life. Recently, a man named Barry Lain phoned me for some info about Scotts. He had long wanted a Scott and had seen one racing in 1986 at Snetterton which had much impressed him. He had recently found and bought both a Scott and a vintage Douglas. In 1986, he had bought a video camera and filmed a good selection of paddock and racing at a Snetterton Vintage racing event. He asked if I had ever raced at Snetterton and I told him I had, but not very often. He told me that he had filmed the Scott in the paddock with an old man sitting on it- I asked if the bike had droopy bars and carried the number 115. He answered in the affirmative. I then knew that particular event.

My dad had had a heart attack and was getting over it, but was a bit shaken and frail. I wondered if I could do something to lift his mood and decided to invite him to the next race meeting at Snetterton On the way over, he asked me if I thought I would win. To my dad, you either won, or it was a waste of time. We are quite a bit different in our outlooks! I told him that Snetterton was a track that suited bikes with a good top speed and that the Scott was not as fast as a cammy Norton for example, but I thought I would be well up. In truth, I knew the track pretty well as I had raced my Laverda and 750 Ducati production bikes there many times from 1970 onwards with the BFRC club of which I was President. My dad went to watch the race by the fence and next to him was another man who told him, “I have come specially to see the Scott, It was here last year and he will win. My dad told him that it was his son’s bike and I had told him I did not expect to win.

The first circuit saw me with a big lead and went on to win comfortably. The man told my dad that he should have more faith in his son! The video shows a great selection of bikes and is quite well filmed for an amateur, as video filming is never as easy as expected. The sound is quite good which suits the Scott as it was before it was banned for excessive noise at Oulton and obliged to wear a silenced system…