Cholmondeley Pageant of Power: Vintage Motocross

Vintage motocrosser at Cholmondeley Pageant of Power (Lewis Craik/Lewis Craik Photography)

It wasn’t just cars at Cholmondeley, there were boats, planes and bikes too. During a break in the track action we wondered over to the vintage motocross circuit, which actually looked like organised chaos, but was fun to watch. The rider above caught my eye, he wasn’t the fastest there (possibly due to not wearing goggles!!!) but his look and demeanour in the pits gave off the impression of a lifelong passion for motocross.

While I was writing this post I also came across this vintage motocross video on the Drive Network on YouTube, which is a must subscribe for petrol heads, it’s like Top Gear, but with the banter to cars ratio reversed, so it is a lot more car focussed!

Cholmondeley Pageant of Power: Works Mini

Ex works Mini Cooper at Cholmondley Pageant of Power (Lewis Craik/Lewis Craik Photography)

For Father’s Day I took my Dad to the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power in Cheshire which is a similar event to the Festival of Speed, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. In amongst the modern supercars and aero engined racecars from the 1930s (42 litre V24 engines!!!) my favourite car of the event was this little Mini Cooper which was driven by Paddy Hopkirk in the mid 1960s. Unlike a lot of the other historic vehicles there which looked like they had come straight out of a museum, with spotless engine bays, this Mini looked like it had been driven hard, the engine bay was suitable oily and the block painted in the original British Leyland green.

Other highlights were Bentley demonstrating the smoothness of their engine, by balancing coins on the rocker cover and the drive there and back with my Dad, we were in his Porsche Boxster with the roof down, managed to avoid motorways for both journeys and stopped for an Olympic Breakfast at the Little Chef on the way there, all ingredients for a good road trip!