Brighton Mondial 1969

The 1969 Brighton Mondial was a weekend of competition and sporting events jointly organised by the Vespa Club of Britain and The Lambretta Club of Great Britain. Although there was a lot of talk about “burying the hatchet” and of the benefits of utilising the talents of both organisations, the fact is that the sharp decline in scooter club membership at this time meant that neither organisation had the resources to organise an event on this scale by itself. A combination of rather iffy weather and public indifference to scooters meant that there were only a few onlookers along the length of Maderia drive – in contrast to the Vespa National rallies held at the same spot in 1952-54.

Below are extracts taken from an article published in “Scootering and Lightweights” in May 1969.

The spectacle of scooterists leaping their machines up to three feet in the air, of acrobatics by French riders on their Vespas and by rider after rider charging straight up the length of a see-saw was something even Brighton hadn’t seen before. It was great stuff – worthy of a Saturday T.V. sports coverage but what a pity it was a week late.

That short difference between Easter weekend and the day the Show closed was too much, it must have meant the difference of a couple of hundred of entries apart from a few thousand spectators. It will be a long time before a similar opportunity presents itself.

The site at Brighton was on the unique Maderia Drive, famous as the finish of the Veteran car run each autumn. The same veranda walk-way, the same wide pavement with the crowd-restraining chestnut fencing, a site which ought to have been thronged with watchers who could have seen some of the quickest slalom going.

No championship gymkhana course could have been set out more as a machine –wrecker and a spectator puller. The first obstacle was a big see-saw, ridden not gingerly but taken full-blooded and no waiting to pick up the odd bits which fell off. Ordinary run of the mill ramps, step-stones and troughs spaced the distance out till a last ramp over tyres which had anyone going at speed leaping two and three feet in the air. Most were able to oblige with virtual nose-dives after the “free-flight”.

Vespa trials exponent from Coventry, Dave Vaugham won this event with Nev Frost, then Brian Hull making it an Innocents day.

A novices gymkhana was won by Thames Valley Vespa Club rider P. Norman with one of the French visitors runner-up. The Ovaltine sash had to be stretched round two winners after a dead-heat between local Martletts girl Brenda Henderson and Epping Rakes’ Maureen Ison.

Return to the History Menu.