THE word did not have the same connotations back in the conservatively grey days of 1958. But dope was in short supply at the big July sand race meeting of 50 years ago and the Evening Press made a big issue of it when covering the Vazon meeting, which would have drawn as big a crowd as anything seen that summer in local sport.

The ‘dope’ which they referred to was the special fuel the racers put into their machines and the fact that there was not too much about was down to the dock strike in the UK.

The greats of that mid-summer day, men such as Len Le Picq, Jonny Machon and Dick Henry, were given extra time to adjust their machines to the alternative fuel, but the report remarks on no noticeable lack of speed or excitement.

Sand racing legend Bill Green, by now commentating, remarked that in 40 years of racing he’d seldom seen the sands looking better and they certainly suited Le Picq on his 500cc JAP, who won the big over 350s 10-lapper from Machon on his Triumph 500.

Five years earlier, there was nobody quicker on two wheels than Ken Tostevin, who dominated the up to 350s section, while Green was on top in the over 350s.