To add to what is already an intense occasion, the club invited former champions and contenders to attend. Among those who could be found in, or near, the hospitality tent many had their names engraved on the silverware, some of them years previously.
A number of former charioteers, at the top of their respective games in the Seventies, took little persuasion to appear on the track to provide entertainment in the interval. They were all riding either original or replica bikes of the era. Alan Artus and Mark Nelson were British champions in 1975. Another ace was Paul Pinfold, who divides his time between this country and Australia, but is still racing. There was top Midlander Graham Hancox as well as Gerry Wheeler, champion in 1970, who is now in his eighties.
They were all let out for a four-lap demonstration that soon saw the red mist descending. The Swingfield track is big and fast and soon the unmistakable sound of unsilenced Triumph, or Triumph derived, twins on full noise completed the exercise of turning back the clock.
