On Wednesday, April 27th, all was ready for Temple and Davidson to make their attempts on the British one-way Class E (1000cc solo) fs kilometre record, but because only one official timekeeper was present, matters had to be postponed till 6.00pm when another would be available - as required for record attempts. This delay was fortuitous for Bert Le Vack. At the weekend he had got wind of what was afoot, had spent the whole of Tuesday night preparing 'The Camel', his 994cc eight-valve Indian, and made posthaste to the track with it in his Ford van ready for the fray that evening. By 6.00pm he had already made an unofficial run over the kilometre at 103mph with a partially warmed-up motor and was confident that he could beat the Harley camp to do the first official 100mph in Britain on a motor cycle.
The evening was sunny with no wind to upset the carburation and with the arrival of the second timekeeper all three riders were raring to go. Both Temple and Davidson were wearing the new American-style crash helmets which were to become standard wear for motor-cycle racing the world over in years to come.
Claude Temple led the way, and, after a fast warming-up lap, swooped down off the Members' Banking on to the Railway Straight only to have his primary chain break. He was followed by Davidson, who came off the banking faultlessly and sped through the measured kilometre at 97.26mph - a new record.
Bert Le Vack came next on 'The Camel'. His red-coloured Indian machine was of shorter wheelbase than the two Harleys and pulling a 3-to-1 gear added over 1 � mph to Davidson's average with a new record speed of 98mph. But in the process he had broken a cam lever, smashed the timing case and lost a pushrod.
Davidson tried again but could not improve on Le Vack's speed. Billy Wells, Le Vack's sponsor, not realising the extent of the damage to his engine, signalled Le Vack to have another try at the record. Bert, however, was too exhausted by his previous night's tuning efforts to repair his motor before it became too dark for high speeds, and was forced to leave matters to the next day. A fatal delay to his hopes it was to prove.
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