by Roy and Chris
The full title of this book is the “NW 200 90th Race and Road “
What an outstanding book this is!! A lot of work went into writing this – well done to Ian Foster. This hard backed book is A4 in size and has nearly 500 pages long with hundreds of photographs and covers the ninety-year history of these races. This is a 2-in-1 book – once you have read the race book you then turn it over and read the road book!
It starts with a chapter covering from 1900s to 1919 and is about the racing and reliability trials. In 1904 In Northern Ireland a road race covered a distance of 200 miles, and it was disguised as a “reliability trial”. Later came the “Irish End to End Run”. Muriel Hind, from London, was the first lady competitor in an Irish road race and she completed this race in 1912.
Each subsequent chapter covers a 10-year span.
The “200” of the title refers to the 200-hundred-mile length of the earlier races. The first NW 200 took place on Saturday 20th April 1929.
As you would expect there are loads of famous riders in the photographs. I also particularly liked the period adverts and race programmes. There is so much history on these pages.
As mentioned before this book comes in two parts – the race part is the larger with 400 pages; however, the road section is very much a trip down memory lane. The photos in this section date from 1904 to 1985 and include a photo of the author’s ancestors, on their 1915 AJS and sidecar.
Although a bit pricey I feel that it is excellent value at £36. In Northern Ireland some local businesses stock it or you can buy it and have it posted. Ian may do a follow up book for the 100th Anniversary in 2029 if there is enough interest. All the proceeds go to help raise funds for their annual expenses and donations to their chosen charities.
To order the book go onto Facebook search:
“NW 200 90th ROAD & RACE”
ISBN 978-988-74511-2-9