[oily bike bloke]

We don’t often get to see sprint / drag bikes on the TV, apart from when Henry Cole features them.

In The Motorbike Show on ITV4 (Series 11 Episode 4) shown on Wed 26th October 2022, Henry purchased a little normally aspirated red 500cc Hagon Triumph as a stable mate to the blown 500 Quartermaster.
Apparently the following episode gets the bike up & running.

I was fortunate have had the loan of the bike in 2008 and 2009 thanks to it's then owner Bob, and competed on it at various VMCC Sprint Section events including Wroughton ¼ mile, Eelmoor 1/8 mile and the Brighton Speed Trials (with silencers to meet the noise regs), as well as doing demo runs at the Festival of 1000 Bikes at Mallory Park.

Looking at the bike on the TV, it appeared outwardly unchanged (incl the Treseme breather bottle).
Back in 2008/9, the normally aspirated engine was pretty tame, it will be interesting to see how it ends up.

Brighton photo courtesy of J Manzano.

[Filby]

This afternoon at 3pm on the Quest TV channel (Freeview 12) Henry Cole and Sam Lovegrove presented a programme featuring an update with the “Quartermaster” drag bike getting some 15 minutes of fame.

Instead of it appearing under “Shed & Buried” series, it featured in a repeat of a new series entitled “Find it, Fix it Drive it” which first aired in early/mid September this year. The programme’s format is to discover and restore a classic vehicle and then ride/drive it in a vehicular challenge. This afternoons programme was Series 1 episode 4 in this new TV format.

The vehicle in the spotlight for restoration, was a 1968 Morris LD Ambulance with Wadham Stringer bodywork, which had been converted to a campervan. The idea was to not only restore it, but transform it into a period race transporter for Quartermaster. Once the Morris LD was refurbished, Cole and Lovegrove drove it up to Elvington - where they had exclusive us of the runway, to have a crack at beating their previous record set in 2016.

Lovegrove commenced with a “shakedown” run which beat times they previously set in 2016. He stormed the traps with 92.115 mph at the 1/2 mile and 98.2 mph for the mile. Cole replied with a troubled run, an ignition wire came adrift and he could only clock 23mph at the mile!

After a few mugs of tea, Cole set off again, only for another drama to unfold when the on-board camera jettisoned itself. Cole ploughed on to record 106.797 mph at the half mile, followed up with a mighty 115.64 mph at the mile. This was reported as a new LSR for a vintage 500cc bike. This attempt and the filming were noted as being made in 2019.