Summary

It’s the biggest Motorcycle Grass track meeting of the season “The annual International Bonfire Burn Up” was held at Collier Street, Kent with over 5,000 fans cheering on a multitude of top riders from around the Europe as well as the top ten in the British Masters. Grass tracking is one of the oldest types of motorcycle sports in the UK with the first meetings having taken place in the 1920’s. It is similar to Speedway with races usually taking place over 4 laps from a standing start. Unlike Speedway, which has 4 riders per race, Grasstrack racing can have many riders in each heat and the circuit is normally longer allowing higher speeds. Many famous Speedway riders such as 1976 world champion Peter Collins started their racing careers in Grasstrack. Some Speedway riders continue to take part in national Grasstrack meetings when their schedule permits.The British Grasstrack season usually starts in early spring around the Easter holidays and runs through the summer/ autumn months culminating in europe with this International Bonfire Burnup. In Europe the same sport is often known as Long Track racing. This is exactly the same setup as British grasstrack which has tracks normally around 600- 800 meters in length, but is held on the continent with tracks of up to 1000 - 1200 meters in length and with speeds reaching 90mph - 100mph. Grasstrack racing motorcycles look quite similar to Speedway machines but there are different engine capacity limits for each class. In the UK there are classes for 250cc (normally 2 stroke engines), 350cc and 500cc bikes (usually 4-stroke engines). Unlike Speedway bikes which have no gears, Grasstrack bikes usually have a 2 speed gearbox. Both Speedway and Grasstrack bike have no brakes. The only other main difference is that speedway bikes have no rear suspension and are shorter in length, uselly by around 10-12 inches.As well as solo racing, sidecar racing is also quite popular and often very spectacular. There are mainly two recognised classes, 500cc (using solo 4-stoke engines) and 1000cc (using stock road bike engines). Both run on methanol, and the 500cc class runs anti-clockwise around the oval track, and the 1000cc class clockwise. This years International Bonfire Burnup was a swan song for one of Britain’s top grassrack and Speedway riders Kelvin Tatum. The Horsham motor-cycle and three-time world long-track champion Kelvin Tatum finished on a high as he called it a day on racing. Tatum, who was awarded the MBE for his services to speedway, took top honour in the International 500cc Solo Final. Tatum has ridden for Eastbourne Eagles and is one of England's most capped speedway riders, captaining them to victory in the World Team Cup in the Eighties. Other winners on the day were the Dutch pair William and Nathalie Mattijssen in the International 500cc sidecar final and the 1000cc sidecar final went to Kent based pair Rob Wilson and Nicky Owen.