Eppynt road race may 1953

Held on Saturday 2 May, the meeting over the five-mile long circuit was organised by the Builth Wells and Carmarthen Motor Clubs.

Star turn was Cecil Sandford, the reigning 125cc world champion, for MV Agusta. Cecil didn’t have any Italian exotica with him, but 250cc and 350cc Velocettes. On the 250cc version – a pushrod MOV based machine – Sandford took the category win easily, clearing off and leaving Fron Purslow (Earles ohc Velocette), Ron Jones (Triumph) and AA Fenn (Rudge) trailing. Purslow finished runner-up, with Jones third.

The 350cc race saw Sid Barnett (Norton) scamper into the lead, with Derek Powell (Norton), Purslow (on a 350cc Earles Velocette) and Sandford among those entangled in a start line melee. Barnett, on a Featherbed Manx, was well in control and set a new lap record – however, he was overdoing it, evidenced by chucking the plot down the road on the eighth of the 10 laps. Sandford settled in and took the win easily, from Powell and B Freestone (Norton).

The Senior, 500cc saw Barnett, Powell (both 499cc Norton) and Sandford – on his 350cc cammy Velo as his 500cc Earles-BSA wasn’t finished in time – take off, with the front two gradually dropping the man with the capacity disadvantage. They finished in that order, with fourth going to J Glazebrook (350cc Norton), fifth Freestone (on a 350cc Norton, though programmed on a Matchless G45) and sixth, PH Carter (350cc AJS).

There were only three starters in the two sidecar races with Pip Harris (Norton) winning both from LW Taylor (Norton), as D Smith’s Norton went sick and he was ruled out of contention.

The only other race was a Clubman’s contest – which actually started the day’s racing – which was won by Derek Powell on a Bob Foster-provided Triumph Tiger 100, from the 350cc BSA pairing of AFJD Martin, who worked through the field and R Thompson, recovering from a poor start.

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