Back to July 2nd, 1921. The first incident was when Read's back tyre came off his big Dot and jammed the wheel. He suffered tom hands, so walked back to have them attended to and resumed, until several hours later a leaking tank stopped him. Greening fell from his Coulson-JAP and was slightly concussed. The smallest bikes, Levis, New Imperial, and Acme, were lapping at about 50mph. It became a battle between Davidson and Dixon until both had tyre trouble; wheels were changed as this was quicker than mending inner tubes. After 100 miles Le Vack had averaged 80.27mph.
Somersaults
Claude Temple had been riding the big Harley hard for 34 laps when tyre and engine failure stopped him. Davidson then had tyre trouble, allowing Le Vack to make up his lost time until he too stopped again to put in another wheel as a precaution. By half-distance the leaders were Davidson's Harley, Le Vack's Indian and in the 500cc class Vic Horsman's Norton was ahead of all the British big-twins. Then came news that Dixon had lost his front tyre, which had resulted in a skid lasting for almost the length of the Railway Straight and he had turned three somersaults. The tough Freddie then got the Harley to the pits so Le Vack led at 400 miles, at 71.40mph.
Shermans' fast Triumph had slight clutch slip from oil from the crankcase and a Dot's engine seized, Emerson's Douglas needed attention to the valve rockers after only three laps, a Morris-Warne's rider was allowed to change its cylinder head, a Scott needed a new induction pipe and Longden, who had a broken toe sustained in the TT, cured overheating with a change to a different brand of oil for his Coulson-JAP. The Duke's rider had a tyre detach and chain trouble, and was disqualified for outside help. Valve faults occurred on Harry Martin's Martin, a Coventry-Victor, a Martinsyde and a Zenith, and leaking petrol tanks befell others. A piece of flung concrete damaged one of Bashall's legs when he was leading the 750cc class for Martinsyde; a car took him to the Paddock for attention but he returned so that these bikes should not lose the team-prize. Baldwin's Zenith and a Levis had broken frames, a Blackburne a broken crankshaft, etc. Kaye Don's Zenith and a Douglas needed new magnetos, the latter's fetched from Weybridge Station.
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