With  Dave Harpers’ sad passing a  team have jumped in to keep the championship viable. The team are:

• Paul Hughes will continue to produce race reports, and in the future regular news updates and publicity for the wider classic community, across a range of media.

• Alan and Nicki Graves. Nicki will continue her race scoring and points allocation for the championship. Alan will be liaison with other clubs and bike shows where we intend to establish a Greeves Championship presence. The Graves’ gazebo in the paddock will be the point of contact and information hub on race days.

• Tommy and Rachel Cooper. Rachel has taken on financial and accountancy duties, and Tommy will be conflict resolution – any lip and he will sit on you!

• Ray Wood has already done much of the organisational heavy lifting to get us this far and is a natural fit to be our nominal chairman.

These are all flexible roles, and it is really a matter of helping each other out and working together to keep the championship going. We are all totally invested in the championship, and sincerely hope you will all get behind us and help out when and where required.

Changes for 2024:

1. In Daves’ honour, the race series will be known as ‘The Dave Harper Greeves Championship’. I don’t think we will get anyone disagreeing with that change.

2. Rider Grading. We are separating the championship scoring system from the rider grading system. In future, there will be no bonus points applied to the championship for lower grade riders. Instead, rider grading will be calculated at the end of the season, taking into account an individual’s finishing positions throughout the season, and producing an average finishing position. This, when compared to all the other riders, will give a grade. This removes the somewhat subjective nature of the previous system and allows riders to move up and down the grading system throughout the year, based purely on their results.  There will be no award for best Grade A rider. Previously the overall championship winner would automatically win best Grade A, making it meaningless.

3. Rider Bonus Points. We have added a rider age bonus. Over 60 = 1 point, over 65 = 2 points, over 70 = 3 points.

4. Machine bonus points. These will remain as Dave originally set out, with points awarded based on engine capacity, type of forks, machine age / class / specification.
   

5. Machine eligibility. Whilst we want to encourage machines to be as original as possible, we have decided to allow some period changes which were common practice in the day and / or improve reliability with no direct performance improvement. 

   ·      Frames must be original but strengthening and gusseting to swing arms and use of needle roller bearings will be allowed without penalty. However swing arm must be original Greeves design. Aftermarket alloy swingarms are not permitted.

   ·      Use of Mikuni carbs is acceptable for all classes.

   ·      Use of the Griffon gearbox on the earlier Challengers will now not be  allowed. After much discussion, we decided there a 1 point penalty per race if used.
   

6. Registration. Cost of registration remains at £10.00. Championship points may not be awarded until registration is received. To ease the admin and scoring duties for Nicki, all championship riders must fill out a bike eligibility form for all bikes to be raced. This will make it much easier for Nicki to accurately apply bonus points. On race day, if a rider has multiple bikes, the rider MUST inform Nicki if they are changing bike BEFORE each race. Failure to do so may result in loss of any points earned from that race. This is purely to ensure we get accurate points allocation. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
   

   N.B. Registration is not necessary to race with us. We encourage any Greeves rider to join us on the track, but unregistered riders will not receive championship points.
   

7.  We will bring in additional trophy categories to recognise and encourage riders across the ability range. We can’t all be contenders, and so to build on the principles of inclusion and mutual support that Dave wanted within the Greeves championship, we will offer awards such as;

   ·      Best rookie award

   ·      Most improved rider

   ·      Rivet counters cup

   ·      Best competition machine

   ·      Riders’ rider of the year

   ·      Wooden spoon award

   
   Of course, without the continued support of our sponsors, we wouldn’t have awards to offer, and realistically we probably wouldn’t have a championship either! So many thanks to Villiers Services, BritishBikes1970, Barry Keymer Motor Repairs, Geoff Nunn, The Sullivan Family, and The Greeves Riders Association. Please support them, as they support us.
   

   BritishBikes 1970

   Villiers Services

   The Greeves Riders Association

   Barry Keymer Motor Repairs Ltd | Tel. 01284767913

   Jeff Nunn Tel. 07765692584
   

   To get the season off with a bang, I am donating a vintage silver trophy for the best prepared competition bike entered into the Championship. This will be awarded at our first meeting at Woodford on 17th March, and before we have crashed and battle scarred our ‘beautifully presented’ machines. Peter Griffith, on behalf of our hosts at the Northampton Classic Club, has agreed to be the independent and impartial judge. We could fall down a rabbit hole of how to judge this – originality, functionality, engineering excellence, concours appearance, - so I have asked that Peter judge on first impression and gut feeling – if it looks right, it probably is right. So get in the garage and pretty up the old girl, everyone has the chance of a pot on the first day of the season.