The British Team won the Trophy in  ISDT 1953 in Czechoslovakia and by now followers of the sport are aware of the following drought. We almost snatched victory in ISDT 1954 at the home rematch in Wales where victory was handed back to Czechoslovakia only by a Jury decision. In the subsequent years Britain has hardly lacked riders of the calibre required to pick up a basket full of gold medals. But the question is asked  ‘why has it fallen short of winning the trophy?’ The problem lay in the British origin of the event as a testing ground for the reliability of the kind of bikes the average British man could walk into a Motorcycle dealer and the British Manufacturers loved it. They got good results it helped their global dominance and they threw a lot of resource at the event to ensure their bikes were adequately prepared and had the right riders to win Trophy’s and Medals.

photo of riders during the night stage of the ISDT 1953 (photo from Speedtracktales Archive)

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