Simeone Museum Classic Motorcycle Show featuring Kevin Cameron, Cook Neilson and Nobby Clark

Motorcycle tuner extraordinaire, Derek 'Nobby' Clark was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Simeone Museum in Philadelphia from Sportbikes Inc magazine, a digital Sport Bike oriented motorcycle magazine. Sport Bikes Inc magazine Publisher and editor, Allan Lane was on hand with staff writer Michael Lawless to present the award to Mr. Clark, better known simply as 'Nobby'.

Nobby has spent a life in the using his engineering skills to tune both Grand Prix motorcycles and classic Ferrari automobiles. The list of 17 Grand Prix Champions that have enjoyed his services is staggering:
Gary Hocking, Jim Redman, Mike Hailwood, Luigi Taveri, Ralph Bryans, Kel Carruthers, Rodney Gould, Kent Anderson, Barry Sheene, Jarno Saarinen, Giacomo Agostini, Kenny Roberts, Marco Luchinelli, Phil Read, and Bill Ivy.

He's recently been back to his homeland, South Africa (formerly Rhodesia) to be honored at a festival to honor the late racer Gary Hocking. Nobby took the train from New York to Philadelphia's Simeone Museum for a surprise award. He was sure he was just coming to support friends Cook Neilson and Kevin Cameron to celebrate the history of Two-Stroke Racing Motorcycles, American Four Cylinder Motorcycles and Vintage Motor Scooters for the launch party of the exhibit. Mr. Clark was duly thrust into the spotlight when it was announced he would honored on this evening, much to the delight of his fans who were on hand.

Cycle World magazine columnist Kevin Cameron was introduced by longtime friend Cook Neislon, the former editor at Cycle Magazine in its heyday. Mr. Neilson also achieved a great deal of notoriety first on his drag racing Harley-Davidson and later his 1977 Daytona AMA Superbike race win on 'Old Blue', the legendary California Hot Rod built by Cook and Phil Schilling.

Flanked by a recently restored Yamaha 1978 TZ750 E model and a 1980 Suzuki RG500 Mk VI, 'Professor' Kevin Cameron took the attentive audience on a journey through the history of racing two-stroke grand prix motorcycles and how they evolved and eventually became extinct. It was insightful and entertaining with a depth of knowledge that only a lifetime in the pits and speaking with riders, technicians and motorcycle designers could provide.Kevin has a knack for taking complex mechanical theories and practices and explaining them in a manner which most folks can comprehend easily. His monthly column in Cycle World magazine and books, Top Dead Center and The Grand Prix Motorcycle, a Technical History.

Immediately after the seminar on two-strokes, a Yamaha TZ750 and Suzuki RG500 (ex-Gina Bovaird) race bikes were wheeled outside, where light rain was beginning to fall. Without loosing a moment, the two bikes were bump started and were running around the large parking lot behind the museum, where demonstrations of the facilities stunning collection of the worlds best sports racing cars takes place. And so it was with the two motorcycles which dominated the racing world for a decade. They had very different sounds yet both were an auditory delight to the enthusiasts ears who gathered around. These machines burn both oil and fuel and have largely been legislated out of existence. Seeing and hearing them in action has become a rare sight even at race tracks. There are, however a fervent group of die-hards who keep the flame alive. Several members of 'Team USA' will be taking some of these very machines to Philip Island, Australia in January 2013 for a " Forgotten Era' vintage motorcycle race that will pit riders from all around the globe on these classic two-strokes.

The exhibit runs until September 6, 2012. The bikes will be transported to nearby Radnor Hunt Club in Malvern, PA for the for the 16th Annual Radnor Hunt Concours d'Elegance where Historic Ferrari motorcars will share the bill. Don Emde, winner of the 1972 Daytona 200 race will be the featured guest at that event. His win on a Yamaha TR3 marked the first win for a two-stroke Yamaha at the famed speedway. It would be another decade before someone developed a better weapon (via a rulebook change) to unseat them.Please make plans to visit Radnor Hunt this September.

For more information, check out www.simeonemuseum.org and www.radnorconcours.org

For sponsorship opportunities with ' Team USA', contact TZRusty@yahoo.com

All photos courtesy of Eye of the Beholder, Inc , photograher Dawn Deppi