HOC Silver Jubilee 1986

National Rally          Kempton Park




hosted by West London 





      Way back in the mists of time, when the earth was being formed, The HOC celebrated its 25th Anniversary. The year was 1986 A.D. And that year, the West London Branch organised the National Rally. We wanted to make it a special event – and we really did succeed! In those days, camping was the norm, but the number of suitable sites in our area was few.                                So… we hired Kempton Park Race Course for our sole use. 

 Jon Stone, off for some fuel before a little blat

Honda dealers Mocheck in Acton ( no longer trading) excelled. They brought along two VFR750s (then state of the art), for us to test ride over the weekend. A nice little circuit – down the A30 dual carriageway to Staines, then back up the M25/M3. It was not just a coincidence therefore that a few months later I became the proud owner of one such great bike.

You can spot Jude 'Throwing the Crankshaft ?              

 On Saturday, traditional rally games of Welly-Wanging, Dizzy Sticks, Wheelbarrow and Ski race took place. And our branch won the Tug-O War. Ron had welded and mounted pistons, valves, spark plugs and springs etc into all sorts of creative shapes to make unique prizes for Best and Grot bikes. 

Our Rally badge - still got mine!

At that time, we had a very good personal relationship with Honda UK and we were delighted when they responded to our suggestion for a donation to help celebrate the club’s Silver Jubilee. We had a bit of a struggle to secure the site as MAG had a rally there earlier and their behaviour was poor. However, Kempton helped us get a bar licence. We bought the beer and arranged for an outside caterer and hired P.A. Local bike dealers were brilliant in their support for prizes etc. 

By Friday evening 120 people had booked in. Tommy Taylor from Aberdeen won the Long Distance award (round trip of 1068 miles) on a 305cc Kwaka – his 4th year running. 

Our Branch Flag accompanied us on all Camping weekends

Here, you can see the Rally Awards, and what some members from other branches thought of the weekend. Paul Phillips from Staffs & Shropshire Branch was then the Golden Wing Magazine Editor.                                    We still meet up with him now ,when we go to the Isle of Man.                                                                                        And the views of Trevor Thompson, a great friend and fantastic Chairman (sadly no longer with us)  are ringed in red

 All of the 203 people attending received our commemorative rally badge – of course we still have ours. And to round it off we were proud to present at the national AGM later in the year, a cheque from our profits of £780.