TONY Starke, landlord of the Portobello Inn in Albert Park Road, is one of the local competitors who will be taking part in the Malvern & District Motor Cycle & Light Car Club's "Malvern Magic August Bank Holiday Weekend Annual Motorcycle Grass Track Races" which takes place at Mick Moseley's farm in Birchwood Lane, Storridge on Sunday (August 27).

Situated 400 yards off the main Worcester-Hereford Road, the venue will be well sign posted from the Birchwood Lane turning opposite Storridge Church. The action is due to commence with practice at noon, whilst the racing itself is scheduled to begin at 2pm.

This Sunday will be the first venture into grass track racing for the Howsell Road based club since April 1993 (as reported in last week's Malvern Gazette) and, in the words of the Malvern Club's grass track competition secretary and secretary of the meeting John Banner: "There has been a lot of hard work by a relatively small dedicated band of helpers, and I am delighted for them as much as anyone that we are finally going to see the results of our efforts".

"I am also also delighted with the quantity and quality of riders and drivers (sidecars) entry list that we have managed to attract. Quite a few experienced people told us that our chances of getting enough riders to run a meeting were virtually nil after such a long absence from the scene, especially with a major national event taking place in Lincoln the very next day.

"I must admit that when the Bewdley Club, which isn't a million miles away, had to cancel a recent meeting because they only attracted 29 riders, and they haven't had a 7 year break, it did make me wonder whether we could achieve our minimum target of 30," he said.

"To be honest I was always confident we could do it and Tony Starke, who rode in our 1993 meeting at Suckley, was one of the first to get in touch and welcome us back into the field - he also chipped in with some useful sponsorship assistance to!"

In actual fact more than 50 competitors will be converging on the area for the day's 40 race action.

Joining Tony on the start line will be many top class solo competitors such as Phil Ashcroft (Tividale), Geraint Ford (Mold), Jon Roberts (Stockport) and Mike Bowden, all the way up from Plymouth, plus Shropshire Country & Western singer Cyril Jones, who rides in the Pre-75 veteran class!

There's plenty of local interest too with Nigel Newman, his father Pete, Simon Gittings and Jonathan Sims (all from Worcester), Maurice Jones from Holmer, Matthew Klassen (Woolhope), Nigel Hibberd (Bromyard), Neville Clegg (Broadwas), Michael Gosling (Droitwich) and 500cc Sidecar class driver Chris Salisbury from Lower Broadheath, who has assisted in some of the course preparation.

Admission to the event is £5. There will be concessions for deserving cases (OAP's, accompanied school children etc) and car and motorcycle parking will be free.

Programmes will be available on the gate and, for anyone who can't make it, full details of the meeting will hopefully be included in next week's Malvern Gazette sports section.

If you need any further information phone John Banner on (01684) 569285 and he will be pleased to assist you.