Richard Morley, Moto Parilla GP rider

Part 4

St Wendel & Hungary

A short and narrow circuit on a closed public road, St Wendel could not be more different to the mighty Nurburgring we had left only the previous week. From the starting grid riders swept down a hill on a long curve to the right, at the bottom there was a sharp turn to the left, under a bridge followed by another left turn, up the hill and through a long S bend, a short straight followed by a left-hand hairpin bend at the top of the hill before crossing the start and finishing line once again. One lap of the course in our van on the evening of our arrival at St Wendel left me feeling far more confident than I had been on our arrival at the 'Ring'

On this occasion my entries had been accepted for both the 125 and 250cc races and there was no attempt to bump me up a class! Practise for both races was pretty uneventful, although I could not help but notice just how narrow the circuit was at racing speeds, being approximately half the width of Brands Hatch and other UK short circuits. It is possibly for this reason that the circuit is no longer used for motor cycle road racing?

Again I qualified and had good starts in both races, but rather disappointedly, only managed a 14th place finish on the 125 and 11th on the 250, still not bad considering that I had 2 or 3 close encounters with high kerbs and the straw bales protecting the buttresses of the bridge during the races.

With a little more money in the bank (hidden in our van in a steel tool box !) we joined the other competitors at the prize giving and celebrations put on by the Auto Club and town of St Wendel, before leaving, with delicate heads, for Hungary the following morning.

As already mentioned, all foreign riders had to apply and collect entry visas at the Hungarian Embassy in Vienna before they were permitted to cross the border into Hungary. This was accomplished after some delay but on arrival in Budapest we soon found ourselves enjoying the luxury of a Grand Hotel in the middle of this historic city which the race organisers had kindly provided for us — what a change after camping and living mainly in the van for over 6 weeks!

The Gold Cup races were held in a Park on the outskirts of the city which for the duration of practice and racing was closed to the movement of public transport. The circuit was almost circular and lined on both sides with trees! The only other notable feature was a large roundabout with tram lines the riders had to cross!

On arrival at the circuit for practise the following morning we found ourselves parked next to Vernon Cottle and his wife. Vernon was a seasoned Continental Circus 'privateer' with more experience in the UK and the Continent than most. A man of few words Vernon was nevertheless considered to be one the very best riders and a competent mechanic too among the 'privateers' and Works riders alike. He embarrassed many a Works rider by outpacing them on his not so new 350 AJS 7R & 500cc Manx Nortons in the 60's

Having parked and off loaded the 256cc Parilla for scrutineering (my only entry for this meeting) nearly 2 hours passed before Vernon showed any interest in us or our Parillas, eventually he wondered over and after 15 or 20 minutes without speaking gave us the benefit of his thoughts "pretty, I hope it lasts" and that was it! Things did improve, just before going out for the first 350cc practise session Vernon turned my way and advised "stay back and let the locals climb the trees before you go out " how right he was the session had to be suspended on at least 2 occasions whilst the race marshals cleared the track of fallen riders!

The following morning we came to the line for the 350cc race, this turned out to be a pretty uneventful race for me after all the heroics of the local riders on the previous day, of course there were less of them now! I was pleased with 10th place against 350cc machines and happy to see Vernon win the race. As you might have guessed he did not stay to make a speech at the prize giving!

Competing in Budapest gave me my first opportunity to see another side of life for Continental Circus 'privateers' in that when racing behind The Iron Curtain some riders became 'traders' This came about as a result of the riders only receiving, at best, half their start money in a hard currency and the remainder plus any prize money in the local (non tradable) currency. The experienced riders/traders would use their local currency to buy Leica cameras, crystal and even hand engraved quality shotguns which they would exchange for hard currency in Vienna on their way back from behind the Iron Curtain.