Mablethorpe Motorcycle Festival

Time to say farewell as the sands of time run out

• BeachRace

Mablethorpe is a small seaside town on the Lincolnshire coast between Skegness and Cleethorpes where the illustrious Mablethorpe Motorcycle Sand Racing Club has been running since 1970.

The club, now in it's 44th racing season, holds races for bikes and quads on the beach at several times throughout the year. Racing takes place on the Main Beach during the winter months. Here is a link to the timetable of events for this year http://xtreme-action-images.com/sandrace/dates.html

In 2010 two motorcycle afficionados Gary Barnes and his partner Tina Ambridge decided to set up a Mablethorpe Motorcycle Festival to coincide with the 40th sand race season in Mablethorpe.  The  Festival has been a great success up until now with various attractions such as stunt motorcyclists performing in the towncentre all day. And as its popularity has grown it has attracted more folks form further afield and packed out the town bringing a boost to businesses ahead of the summer holiday season.
It is sad to report thought that 2014 was to be the last of the voluntary Mablethorpe Motorcycle Festivals as this great event has had to fold in 2015 due to a lack of funding.  However at least the 2014 event went out on a high note with record numbers of people attending. It was dedicated to the memory of Karl Bomber Harris, who died during the TT races last year.

Joint organiser, Tina Ambridge said:
“It is with great regret that the Mablethorpe Motorcycle Festival 2015 will not be going ahead due to us being unable to gain the necessary funding needed to run the event, as the costs are sadly increasing year on year.
As a voluntary event, and we think a very successful one, it is a shame that money is always an issue.
We have had a great number of people giving up their time to help on a voluntary basis each year and both myself and Gary would like to thank them as well as the businesses that donated and sponsored us. We felt like we helped to bring the biking community to Mablethorpe and also bike groups have set up around and about the local area since the event began.”
Tina added:
“We have loved every second of running this motorcycle festival and have come to meet some amazing people along the way, so we must thank all of them for their support and of course to everyone who came along to support this event over the last five years.”
But local business owner Linda Pratt, of Linda’s Pavilion, believes that everyone should rally together to save this event.
She added:
“We can’t lose this event over money, there must be something or someone that can help us do this.
The event could be cut down slightly if needs be, there simply has to be a way we can save it.
It is a fantastic event that boosts the economy and the people of Mablethorpe need to fight to keep it.”
Clearly a very popular event locally and with the motorcycling community which will be missed unless someone out there has a brilliant plan to save it! At least the beach racing is set to continue and that's well worth a visit.
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