A photograph published in The Motor Cycle on July 18, 1929, captured JG Parsons and his passenger tackling the Saltburn Championship on a Norton sidecar outfit. This archive feature revisits the racing, the extraordinary speeds achieved on sand and some remarkable incidents from the event.

Spectacular style on the sand

Organised by the Middlesbrough and District MC club, the Saltburn Championship brought high-speed action to the sun-soaked north-eastern beach.

This rather fabulous action – all-action, in fact – picture was published in the July 18, 1929, edition of The Motor Cycle as part of the report on the Saltburn Championship and captioned: “JG Parsons (588 Norton sc) and passenger putting in some strenuous work in the 10-mile handicap.”

With a report covering two full pages, with a photograph on each – this one being on the second leaf, with an overview on the first – there are details given of many of the runners and riders. However, the race our picture comes from garners very little lineage, with, at the end of the report, it simply stating: “the 10-mile handicap was won by AW Armstrong (348cc AJS sc).” And that’s it: no mention of our man Parsons on his flat-tank Norton (so, at latest, a 1928 Model 19), or his energetic yet nameless passenger.

The report proper begins: “Saltburn weather has become proverbial in connection with the Middlesbrough and District MC’s sand race events. Conditions last Saturday were up to form in every way. The sunshine was intense; the sand was hard and firm (imagine ‘soft concrete’ if possible!); the crowds were enormous; and, most important of all, the racing was full of interests.”

There were a host of events to entertain those vast crowds too, competitions including a flying kilometre speed trial and one-mile races, up to 20-mile Yorkshire Championship races (in 350, 500 and 1000cc categories), as well as a 50-mile handicap, 10-mile club handicap and, of course, the 10-mile sidecar handicap.

The event had attracted some big names too; local ace Ernie Searle, a sometime works Norton man, including at the Isle of Man TT, among them, while ‘Brough boys’ Ron Storey and Jack Carr had 1000cc BrufSup V-twins. Sand-racing demon and AJS works teamster Ron Parkinson (sporting the white overalls he always wore) was there with his 350cc AJS, the Mitchell brother had 350cc Raleighs, while Allan Jefferies and Ernie Mainwaring were aboard Scotts.

In the flying kilometre events, JT Jobborn (Blackburne) won the 250cc class at 71.7mph, Parkinson the 350cc at 84.73mph, CR Sanderson (Rudge) the 500cc at 88.07mph, Searle the 750cc class on his 588cc Norton at 98.11mph and Storey the 1000cc at 100.76mph. This was on sand, remember, but it’s also worth noting that the year before, at the same venue, Storey had covered the flying kilometre at an astounding 122.90mph. That was considered the world’s fastest speed record on sand and was unbroken in Britain until Bob Berry, again on a Brough Superior, bettered it at Redcar in 1947.

In the one-mile races, F Allison was the 250cc winner on a Cotton, Parkinson took the 350cc class, R Law (on Searle’s ‘old’ 490cc Norton) the 500cc category, Searle the 750cc and Storey the 1000cc running. Parkinson was particularly picked out for his ‘skid-cum-broadside’ method of cornering, albeit in the 350cc championship race it was Armstrong who was ‘sliding the bends prodigiously’ to even out the fact his AJS was ‘much slower’ than Parkinson’s.

But on the sixth lap his left handlebar broke, though he decided to keep going and, when Parkinson’s engine cried enough, he was in the lead, riding without a clutch and with his left hand on the steering head. Still, he was ‘taking his corners in a pure broadside, twice as fast as those who were riding the bends’. In fact, over the 13 laps he rode thus (with the course being one mile), he increased his lead over the Mitchell brother, who finished second and third. Armstrong was heralded ‘a splendid winner in a splendid race’.

C Barrett, on his 494cc Douglas, won the 500cc race after CR Sanderson (Rudge), striving to pull away from the faster-cornering Douglas man, went over the handlebars and his challenge was over, leaving Jefferies to come second. But Sanderson recovered to win the 1000cc race on his same Rudge, beating Carr and George Grinton (989cc Harley-Davidson), with The Motor Cycle noting: ‘…the big twins had no great chance on this short course, with the time they lost on each corner.’

The 50-mile handicap was considered ‘gruelling’ and it seemed many of the big names didn’t fancy it, with Barrett (494cc Douglas) and RC Pick (348cc Velocette) the front-runners, fighting out a ‘terrific battle’, which ended when Barrett crashed, as did third man Jefferies – though both remounted. This left Pick out front, but then he fell and ‘was dazed for a while’. Said The Motor Cycle of Pick: “But on he went again and then Barrett reappeared, only to broadside, with a jammed-open throttle, into the sea, which was now encroaching on to the course. Pick won this truly Homeric race of 50 laps and then collapsed!” Jefferies came in second, with EL Denney (Dunelt) third, thus rounding off proceedings.

The original article appeared in The Classic Motorcycle Magazine March 2026 issue