A quick update to reward you patience for the usual summer sparsity of speed track tales lately. STT has just acquired an original copy of the 13 July 1938 issue of Motor Cycling covering the opening of the ISDT that precedes the issue of the 20th July covering the events and results that can be found in our issuu library.

The cover images is taken of two riders a few miles to the west of Abergwesyn on the old Tregaron – Abergwesyn Mountain Road, as they come from Tregaron. The old road, which was a regular favourite of the ISDT, is now a popular tourist route having been given tarmac surface in the past. This picture was taken at the previous years Llandrindod Wells based ISDT 1937. The riders are #181 A Fritsch of Germany on a BMW 730cc s/car who finished with a Gold Medal and is followed by #206 FC Perks on a privately entered BSA 496cc solo who also finished with a Gold medal, riding in 1938 on a BSA 496cc and retiring on the 5th day.

The road has changed little in the years other than the surface but in parts large amounts of commercial softwood forests have been planted on the valuable wetlands and the distant view of the road as it climbs towards Tregaron is now slightly obscured by forestry which hides the old road from view in this photo taken from Google’s ‘Streetview’

Fuller feature on the issue and the ISDT topics it covers coming shortly

This feature includes material reproduced from ‘Motor Cycling’ issue of 13 July 1938 which is being used here with the consent of Mortons Media Group of Horncastle who hold the publishing rights for the archive of ‘Motor Cycle’ and ‘Motor Cycling’ Publications and from whom consent should be obtained before any reuse is made of this material to obtain their consent.