There were only three starters and all were sidecar outfits. The runners were: J. T. ("Bizzy") Bashall (964 BAT-JAP s/car), Billy Wells (994 Indian s/car) and E. Webster (976 Matchless-JAP s/car). Of these, the only single-geared outfit - Bizzy Bashall's - led at the end of the first lap, followed closely by that of Billy Wells, while Webster brought up the rear. The positions remained unchanged on lap two and Bizzy won by about a hundred yards.
SIDECAR SCRATCH RACE (up to 1000 cc s/car) over two laps. Fork start and finish.
1. J.T. Bashall (964 BAT-JAP s/car) 48.44 mph
2. W. H. Wells (994 Indian s/car)
3. E. Webster (976 Matchless-JAP s/car)
Only three out of eight entries turned out for the International Open Scratch Race over 50 kilometres, despite the excellent prize money of �10 for a first, �3 for a second and �1 for a third. An un�fortunate incident prior to this event put Oliver Godfrey (994 Indian) out of the race. Apparently, some ill-disposed person had sabotaged his engine by inserting a broken-off piece of workshop file into one of the auxiliary exhaust ports of his engine. This led to a broken piston on starting up.
The three starters: Charlie Franklin (994 Indian), Harry Collier (976 Matchless-JAP) and A. J. Sproston (499 Rudge), pushed off in the Railway Straight and finished at the Fork. At the end of the first lap the riders were in the previously mentioned order. In the next, Harry Collier led and Sproston withdrew. All that happened for the remainder of the race was that Harry gradually increased his lead. When at the end of the eleventh lap, he was over two miles ahead of Franklin.
INTERNATIONAL SCRATCH RACE (up to 1000 cc) over 50 km. Railway Straight start and Fork finish.
H. A. Collier (976 Matchless-JAP) ENGLAND 67.92 mph
C. B. Franklin (994 Indian) IRELAND 63.54 mph
According to Oliver Godfrey, one of his team mates in the 1911 Isle of Man IT Race, it was Franklin who had inadvertently discovered the so-called "squish" effect, whereby combustion turbulence is promoted, resulting in an increase in power. Apparently, in an attempt to raise the compression ratio of his o.h.i.v. engine, he had welded a lump of metal on to the underside of his cylinder head above the piston, and produced a pre-Ricardo "Ricardo-type" combustion space. This antedated the pioneer work of Sir Harry Ricardo on the effects of combustion, by almost ten years.
A week prior to this race meeting Jake de Rosier had arrived from the United States with Oscar Hedstrom, the designer of Indian Motor Cycles for the Hendee Manufacturing Company. Hedstrom was over here to look after the Indian entries in the Isle of Man TT Races. Jake, who was due to ride in The Island, was a spectator at this meeting, and was down in the race programme to attempt the Class E (1000 cc) five-mile record. This announcement was apparently unauthorised as Jake had no machine of his own available. Instead, he gave a demonstration run on Franklin's Indian during the tea interval, covering a lap at 64 mph.
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