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Archive photo: The Ulster Grand Prix

In the Ulster race, there were three classes, for 500cc, 350cc and 250cc, all which ran concurrently, with the 500s setting off first, then the 350s and finally the quarter-litre runners and rider. Here, the 500cc class push off, in response to the traffic light turning green and a maroon having been let off.

It’s possible to identify several of the riders – numbers six and four are Johnny Lockett and Artie Bell respectively, both on works Nortons, with 15 Les Graham (AJS Porcupine). Next to him would seem to be like-mounted Jock West (number obscured) while a little further back come 11 Nello Pagani, seven Carlo Bandirola, eight Arciso Artesiani (all Gilera fours), three Bob Foster and two Bruno Betaccini (Moto Guzzi V-twins), five Harold Daniell (Norton) and 30-something (partly identifiable behind Betaccini) is most likely Rex McCandless (Norton).

Other Nortons – though riders are impossible to positively name – are numbers 25, 27, 29 and probably 36 while the other machines it’s possible to identify include Triumphs 10, 20, 31, 22 and 35. Most are Grand Prix models (certainly 10, 20 and 35, probably 31) though there were two Tiger 100s in the race (one of which would seem to be 22). Number 19 was another Triumph, ridden by EH Callaghan – he’s only possible to identify because he was incorrectly given by the scorers on the day as the early leader; they’d mistaken his number for that of 15, the real leader Les Graham.

Next group are the 350cc gang – among those we can pick out are 40 Freddie Frith, 52 Frank Fry (both Velocette) and 43 Reg Armstrong. Behind the official, on the left of the front row, is most likely number 41 Charlie Salt (Velocette) while it’s possible to pick out a couple of the faster Nortons (45 and 46), with 44 an AJS 7R for sure, with 42 most likely the same model. Ted Frend and Aussie Eric McPherson were the other – alongside Armstrong – works Ajay riders, while Norton’s 350cc team was made up of Irishman Louis Carter, Englishman Dickie Dale and Australian Harry Hinton. The only other 350cc machine it’s possible to identify for sure, is number 83 (to the left, near the back) which is the 7R of HB Ranson.

The 250cc class was the third lot to set off – though it’s impossible to pick any riders out. The 250cc guys were only expected to complete 12 laps (198 miles), with the 350cc race over 13 laps (214½ miles) and the 500s 15 laps (247½ miles).

Les Graham was the early leader, with the Italian Gileras and Guzzis and Artie Bell’s Norton the main opposition. Graham’s opening lap, on the normally aspirated twin-cylinder Porcupine, was at 95.86mph, his second 97.43mph. Foster upped the ante with a 97.75mph circuit, though Graham put in the fastest lap of the race, on his sixth lap, at 98.08mph – which compared favourably with the 100mph circuit completed by Dorino Serafini on the supercharged Gilera four in 1939.

Graham stayed in front to win imperiously – he was to go on to become the inaugural 500cc motorcycle racing champion of the world. At the Ulster, Foster retired from second when he ran out of petrol having missed a pit signal instruction with impaired vision after a stone had smashed a goggle lens. Bandirola, running strongly, was forced out with a broken ht lead, while his teammate Artesiani made it to second on the final lap, before a stone entered a carburetor intake and that was his Gilera’s end. Tigerish Artie Bell was to take second, Pagani – who during the race became the first man to top a timed 120mph at the Ulster, but was later troubled by a loose mudguard – third, with Doran, West (both AJS) and McCandless (Norton) completing the top six and being the only men to do 15 laps.

In the 350cc class, Frith was imperious, as he had been all season. Early on Fry was the only one able to stick with him, though he lost out at the lap six pitstops and Lincolnshire’s Frith romped to his fifth classic win of the year. His teammate on the Nigel Spring run Velocettes, Charlie Salt, battled through to second, with Armstrong and McPherson third and fourth, Fry fifth and sixth, lead Norton man Dickie Dale. Frith was to claim his world title with maximum points.

The 250cc race was a battle royale between Bruno Ruffo (winner in 1947 and 1948) and Maurice Cann, the two Guzzi riders streets ahead of the British machine opposition. Cann was to take the win, with Ruffo (destined to be world champion) second, Ronnie Mead (Norton special) third, then the Excelsiors of Reeve, Doug Beasley and Dehaney rounding out the top six.