From 1st October 2014, the paper tax disc will no longer need to be displayed on a vehicle.

If you have a tax disc with any months left to run after this date, then it can be removed from the vehicle and destroyed. This includes customers with a Northern Ireland address, however they will still need to display their MoT disc.

What this means to you

To drive or keep a vehicle on the road you will still need to get vehicle tax and DVLA will still send you a V11 or V85/1 renewal reminder when your vehicle tax is due to expire. This applies to all types of vehicles including those that are exempt from payment of vehicle tax or have a nil rate of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).

See more here

Plus Cholmondeley Castle & Hoghton Tower

Well an interesting and challenging weekend over the August Bank holiday for clubs and enthusiasts, traders and autojumblers, organisers and visitors alike. Sunday was a benign day all over the UK with literally dozens of traders, hundreds of classic cars and bikes and thousands of visitors at our Capesthorne Hall event in the north west and at Blenheim Palace in the south.

At around 8am at Capesthorne Hall the organisers were busy building up the four day “Rewind” music festival for this coming weekend and as I was banging in a £2.50 section sign with a hammer my dad probably bought for about three shillings before the last war, hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of plant and machinery was thundering through the site just past my left ear. I must say it did make me question how much I have managed to achieve over the last 30 years but thinking about it further I doubt that any of the visitors to “rewind” will currently be having quite as good a time as the classic car and bike enthusiasts who attended Capesthorne last Sunday. Horses for courses and all that and they didn’t even ask to borrow the hammer…

August bank holiday can be quite a difficult time for show organisers to get new things off the ground given that there is so much on in the calendar and everyone sticks to tried and tested events. It has taken five years of hard work and perseverance but this year we feel that Blenheim has finally become firmly established as the no 1 choice of event for many traders, enthusiasts and public over the bank holiday weekend. The turn out on Sunday was simply brilliant with all manner of classics from the Rolls Royce EC and Oxford Motor club etc but Monday was the really interesting day. Thanks to the met office & BBC weather everyone knew that Monday was going to be a wall of water from one end of the UK to the other and lo it came to pass.

However thanks to the hard work of Les Clayton in the arena and an impressive turn out of vehicles from the TVR car club we had an unexpectedly good show at Blenheim and managed to keep the event going until 2.30pm. Much the same story at Thoresby where we were 80% down on trade and visitors, and 100% down on ice cream vendors and bouncy castle providers! The next time a jumbler says to me “we always support you at Thoresby no matter what the weather” you might just see me raise an eyebrow or two. However the clubs and enthusiasts did come along with perhaps a total of two or three hundred cars and two motorbikes (count them) in total on site, all huddled together for warmth. Again Richard Lee and his team in the arena deserve a mention in dispatches for keeping the arena going until 2pm long after even I wanted to go home. In mitigation I did have a heavy cold but being a man I just soldiered on to the bitter end without hardly ever mentioning it at all.

So that’s the bank holiday shows over for another year and time to move on to our biggest one day event of the summer at Cholmondeley Castle this coming Sunday, 31st August. We have over 980 classic cars booked in to attend with around 40 owners clubs and we can accommodate classic cars that turn up on the day in our overspill classic car park. The bike section is always full to bursting with some impressive machinery and we always have an excellent trade and autojumble turn going right around the show field, well worth a visit in it’s own right. Set up for traders is 2pm to 7pm on Saturday and from 7am on Sunday morning. The following weekend we are at Hoghton Tower near Preston for our last all outdoor event of the year. Over the years we have had very good events at Hoghton in September and one or two very bad ones as well so fingers crossed but as always the weather decides.

Moto3 Wildcard entry for 17-year old Joe at British Grand Prix

British Motostar championship contender, Joe Irving, will make his first appearance at a MotoGP event when he lines up for the Moto3 race at Silverstone on August 31.

The 17-year old from Holmfirth has been a consistent force in British Motostar - the national equivalent of Moto3 - on KTM RC 250 R machinery, taking three wins and nine podiums in 2013 and is currently battling for the championship lead after seven rounds of the 2014 season, with four wins and three other podiums.

Trainee chef Irving will be aiming to impress the partisan crowd at the Northamptonshire circuit when he lines up on his familiar British championship machine, supplied and run by Loughborough-based KTM dealer, Redline Motorcycles.

We grabbed a quick word with ‘Joe Toad’ ahead of his Grand Prix debut this weekend at Silverstone.

How are you feeling?

Joe Irving: I’m actually less nervous compared to a British Championship weekend. I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Well, that’s what I’ve been telling everyone else! But honestly, there are no consequences and only good things can happen from this experience.

What you think the biggest challenge will be of riding at Grand Prix level?

I’m going to have to increase my speed dramatically to keep up with riders here, compared to British championship. The team and me will have to take really big steps this weekend to keep up, but we’re up for that and as best prepared as we can be.

Do you have a personal goal?

To qualify! I want to improve on my best time from the British championship round from here last year. Another goal is to finish the race. That may sound daft, but a lot of wildcard riders have been known to crash out. To break the top 30 would be good as the pace is hot. I’m just going to ride my bike as fast as I can.

Are there any particular riders you want to beat?

There’s a big group of riders that I’ve ridden against before. Jules Danilo beat me at Silverstone by 0.05 seconds when he did a wildcard in the British championship last season, so I need to get revenge on him. I’ve also raced against Ana Carrasco and Scott Darou before in Spain.

Do you like the Silverstone circuit?

It’s my favourite circuit we come to in the British championship. I just really like how wide and big the track is; it’s a proper Grand Prix circuit compared to the ‘normal’ tight and twisty British tracks.

Do you have any home advantage?

There are a few riders making their debut rides at Silverstone and, not including this weekend, I’ve ridden here three years on the trot so I’m reasonably comfortable here.

Have you made any changes to the Redline KTM RC 250 R?

We can run the twin exhausts from the KTM GP Race Kit as there are no noise restrictions here. They’re so loud - 10db over the British championship limit! I really like them, you can hear the bike a lot better.

The biggest changes are a few different stickers on the bike from new sponsors that have come onboard, such as Halifax Glass.

We are running the same specification Dunlop tyres as we do in the British championship, so there’s nothing new for me to get used to. Well, apart from the pace!

What have you been doing in the run up to the event?

Racing a lot! We were only just at Cadwell Park this past Bank Holiday weekend, but our race was rained off. But there have been a lot of British championship races in the past six weeks. I’ve been training on the push bike a lot in between working as a chef at my parent’s pub and the only weekend the team had off we did some display runs on the bike at the Brackley Festival of Motorcycling.

I also held a fundraiser to help cover the big cost of doing this wildcard and the support we had from people and companies donating prizes was amazing. People really stepped up and the auction was a big success, so I can’t thank everyone enough for making my Grand Prix dream happen.

Substantial Reward offered for their safe recovery

At around 11pm last evening, the inner foyer of the National Motorcycle Museum was broken into and a large amount of the Museum’s trophies and TT replicas stolen.

Each of the Museums trophy cabinets was smashed causing substantial damage to the displays.

Many of the trophies and TT replicas have little 'scrap' value ,but are unique and irreplaceable as part of this countries Motorcycling Heritage.

Because of the historical importance of these trophies the National Motorcycle Museum will be offering a substantial award of £20,000 for information which leads to the safe recovery of these important artefacts.

Anyone with any relevant information is asked to contact West Midlands Police or the National Motorcycle Museum on 01675 443311 or e-mail Museum Director James Hewing [email protected] 

The Museum has re-opened as normal this morning.

www.thenmm.co.uk‏

Jordan takes Lightweight Race in last lap thriller

For the second time in the day, Rob Hodson was left rueing his luck when leading a race at the IMGold Manx Grand Prix.  After his pit lane problems earlier in the Junior MGP Race, he ran out of fuel in the day's second race, the Manx Grand Prix Supporters Club SuperTwin and Lightweight Race.

In an incident packed race, Gary Gittins was leading the SuperTwin Race but came off on his final lap at Ballagarey leaving James Neesom to take the chequered flag.  In the concurrent lightweight Race, race leader Dave Taylor received a 30 second pit lane penalty when leading the race, which saw Mick Jordan come through on the last lap to take the honours.

Conditions remained good around the Mountain Course for the second race of the day, although Clerk of the Course Phil Taubman warned riders that the high winds were blowing debris onto the course.

Rob Hodson was first away and the Wigan rider was clearly hoping to put his earlier problems behind him. With Phil McGurk a late withdrawal, Stuart Garton was second away twenty seconds behind Hodson.

James Neesom, who retired at Sulby with cramp in the earlier Junior Race, led Andrew Farrell, fresh from his Junior podium, by half a second at the first checkpoint at Glen Helen with Gary Gittins, and Hodson just over a second behind the leading pair.

That remained the top four at Ballaugh although Hodson moved up to second with Ben Rea, the 2013 Newcomer C Race winner, holding fifth and that was the top five at the end of the first lap.  Gittins's 111.402 gave him a lead of less than a second from Hodson (111.336) with Farrell (111.135), Rea (110.057) and Gittins, riding the quirkily named 'family and friends' Suzuki (110.000), completing the top five at the Grandstand.

Hodson moved into the lead by Glen Helen on the second lap and had built a 6 second lead from Neesom by the Bungalow but with everyone at the Grandstand preparing for a likely pit stop, news came through that Hodson had retired at Hillberry having run out of fuel.

Gittins elected to go straight through on the second lap which put him forty nine seconds head of James Neesom at Glen Helen who was in turn fourteen seconds ahead of Farrell in third with Ben Rea fourth and 2014 MGP Newcomer B Race winner Dean Osborne in fifth. 

Gittins came into the pits at the end of the third lap with a 27 second lead but then news came through that he had come off at Ballagarey on his final lap. He was reported as conscious and treated by the medical team at the scene.

Gittins' accident left James Neesom with a commanding lead of over 20 seconds at the front of the field and the Hunmanby man duly came home with a final lap of 110.118 for an overall 1:22.34.608/ 109.658mph from second placed Andrew Farrell (1;23.03.484/ 109.023).  Callum Collister, the 2013 Newcomer B Race winner, secured the final podium place with 1:23.36.128/ 108.313.

In the concurrent Lightweight Race, Dave Corlett was in front by 1.6 seconds from Mick Jordan with Gavin Lupton third at Glen Helen but at the end of the opening lap Jordan (105.105) had moved into the lead from Lupton (104.423) with Rikki McGovern (103.334) in third ahead of Corlett (103.138) who dropped to fourth.

Jordan came into the pits at the end of the second lap with a six second lead after his second lap of 106.635 from Lupton (106.862) with Dan Hobson ((106.382) in third a further seventeen seconds back in third. Dave Taylor, who was fourth, elected to go straight through and therefore hit the front with a lead of twelve seconds over Jordan at Glen Helen.  Taylor duly pitted at the end of his third lap but any chance of a podium finish was ruined with a 30 second pit lane speeding penalty.

Meanwhile at the front of the field a battle royal for the race win was developing between Lupton and Jordan with the former leading by 0.4 seconds at Glen Helen on the last lap. However Jordan was on a charge and moved into the lead by Ballaugh, eventually taking the chequered flag ten seconds ahead of Lupton with Hobson retaining third place.