Huge crowds delay start of Grand Prix (1950)
More motorists and cyclists drove to the Ulster Grand Prix on the Clady Circuit on during this week in 1950 than on any similar occasion for the past 10 years, reported the News Letter.
Indeed, there were so many that they delayed the start of the great international motorcycling event for almost 10 minutes.
Starting out from Belfast, motorists, driving up the Crumlin Road by way of the Horseshoe Bend, found that it took an hour to cover the eight miles, for there was one continuous stream of traffic out of the city, resulting in frequent congestion.
A couple of miles from the nearest point on the course the road became a solid jam of cycles, motorcycles and cars.
Some motorists, getting anxious about reaching the circuit in time, stole out of the long line, and, with no policemen in the vicinity to see that everybody played fair, a “stampede” was soon on.
A mile from the course, however, authority appeared again, and the line was restored.
The many thousands saw what was probably the most memorable of all the 21 races, for the course, for the first time, was “lapped” at more than 100 miles an hour, and by a newcomer, G E Duke, on one of the newly-designed 500cc Nortons.
There were heavy showers during the closing stages of the racing, and it is probable that but for these he would have averaged more than 100 miles an hour, instead of 99.56.
The crowds watched Duke take the lead and hold it throughout, and at the end they gave him a hero's reception.
There were many, however, while giving honour where honour was due, could not but help regretting the absence of A J Bell who is still in a London nursing home.
At the conclusion, Norman Stronge, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland House of Commons, placed the laurel wreaths of victory on the shoulders of the winners in each of the four races.
After they had crossed the line the otherwise well-behaved crowd, apparently anxious to get home, encroached on the roads and gave the riders still in the race a narrow and dangerous passage in which to finish.