Due to the sheer number of photos from this rally we’re splitting it into three parts. In part 3 we’ll have Booga’s view of the rally and we’ll also be speaking to one of the organisers. If you missed part one of our Isle of Wight coverage click here.
Here’s Col’s version of events…
All systems go!
From the minute the IOW 2021 rally was given the green light go ahead, I think we all knew it would be massive (as was the organising task to make the new venue happen). There was a real buzz of excitement through what felt like the whole month of August. I’m a real creature of habit when it comes to booking and planning things, and always do this at the same time of year. And so I was quite surprised to find, that when I went to make my online ferry booking sailing from Southampton most of my preferred sailing times were already fully booked, and this was fairly early in the month!
A very uneventful journey in great riding conditions, with just one déjà vu moment near Oxford. I saw the large travelling pack of riders that is Skegby Scooter Club pull across a roundabout in front of me at the exact same place I saw them all en route to the last IOW in 2019 (strange). It’s good to see large packs still doing long distances together. Arriving at the Red Funnel ferry terminal on Thursday afternoon, some of the staff were already looking quite flustered. At the ticket control booth, they told me it was already the largest number of scooters and so the busiest start to an August Bank Holiday, they’d ever had.
A quick cruise
The hour-long crossing to East Cowes is just enough time to make use of the bar, and onboard refreshments (I’m told the Portsmouth crossing is quicker). For more than 20 years arriving on the Island, I’ve ridden from East Cowes and headed further East to the town of Ryde for the obligatory journey along the seafront and then back inland slightly to the Smallbrook Speedway Stadium, which was the official rally HQ and campsite. It’s been rumoured for some years now that the re-development of Smallbrook would see the end of the rally being hosted there. And so, with that looming, the decision was made to find a new official home for the rally – and what a venue it was. The Sandown Airport with all its facilities and rolling fields accommodated us perfectly I thought.
Pleasure flights
By Thursday evening, the campsite was filling up quickly, and as before on previous I.O.W rallies, the numbers easily matched what other rallies achieve by Friday evening. For many rally-goers, this has become a 4 or 5-day event.
The description Airfield/Aerodrome is possibly more apt than the image ‘airport’ conjures up. With a small grass runway about half of a mile long in the adjoining field to the camping area for tents, it made for a great spectacle watching small Cessna type planes, microlights and helicopters all swooping in directly overhead. The main landing flight path dissected straight over the main camping field, just skimming over the tops of the fancy glamping tents.
During the course of the weekend, a constant stream of people were queuing to go on paid pleasure flights in helicopters, on and off the airfield.
An overall welcome change
The facilities were very good with an on-site bar and bistro all overlooked by the small control tower. It’s hard to describe to others that may not have attended the rally, but the overall area with food caterers and dealers village seemed a far bigger area than any previous I.O.W rally. The main marquee tent and aircraft hangers hosted all the live music acts and the custom show (the results for this were in part 1 of this article). 30 trophies up for grabs, all sponsored by the good guys in the scooter scene.
Musically, another very diverse rally too with DJs playing plenty of northern soul and regular rally tunes. Playing live on Friday night were Angelo Starr and Team a.k.a. (The Edwin Starr Band – The Team) an outstanding bunch of musicians. Is it really 18 years since Edwin sadly passed?
On Saturday afternoon, Neo-rockabilly punk band “Tasteless” played. Then, on Saturday evening mod revival-new wave lads “The 5:15” played a set, before King Salami and the Cumberland 3 played an extremely energetic set of punky rhythm and blues 60s garage type sounds (I think that sums them up). Each of the nights ended in a silent disco in the main hanger, where pretty much anything seemed to go.
The Sunday rideout is a big thing for many scooterists visiting the island. This year was from Ryde seafront back to the Airport campsite. I offered my services to help marshall/guide the scooters into the parking area once back at the site. I was literally blown away by the sheer numbers of scooters riding onto the site, as I stood there in hi-viz like a human signpost. Never before have I seen so many different brands of scooter. It is true to say that never has scootering being so diverse in its taste of machines (see Sticky’s great video)
The I.O.W rally generates much debate about how people get to the rally or how some riders decorate/customise the scooters they ride around on. But this year the age old and boring debate didn’t seem anywhere near as topical as usual. Maybe and hopefully, people have realised that after the dreadful pandemic that we’ve all just gone through, there far more important things to bother about than other people’s styles and tastes.
It is what you make of it
Some people gauge the rally as the be-all and end-all of scootering. Some arrive and make a weeklong holiday on the island out of it. But for me, and the people I hang around with, it’s just one event out of a possible nine events in the yearly calendar; admittedly the biggest and most diverse rally, and usually the one I spend the most time at as there is so much to see.
The I.O.W scooter rally has been very good to the Smallbrook Stadium over the years and extremely good to the town of Ryde. But, I personally think its new home at Sandown and the airport worked superbly. The shower blocks are certainly worth a mention, lovely and clean, all weekend. I can’t ever recall a rally where the first visit to a new venue ran as smoothly as this one, and certainly never one this large in numbers. A sublime effort from the true scooterists that gave up their weekend to make this happen, I can only see this venue going from strength to strength in years to come.
After what has been nearly a two-year enforced gap between large scale rallies “It’s good to be back”.
I was a little unsure of how people would react to each other after such a long break, but any fears I had were put to bed immediately when the infamous Blazing Glory Scooter Club from Loughborough turned up, they took off their riding gear, pitched their tents, got armed with beer, and then set about mercilessly ripping into and teasing friends from all over the country and beyond, with some of the funniest banter I’ve heard in ages. To quote Dave Gould “We’re just picking up exactly where we left off.” Long live the scooter rally, and long live genuine scooterists.
Weston Super Mare in a few weeks anyone?
Ride safe Slukers: Col
