Britbike forum Forums British motorcycles in general British motorcycles in general Tracing ISDT 1964 photos

Hello Britbike members.

I'm looking to trace any photos from the 1964 ISDT event in East Germany that feature UK rider number 267.

The reason being is my father raced in that event as rider entry 267.

I've included a link to my Flickr stream, where you can see a couple of pictures of him on his old Matchless G3 (not the bike he rode in the event).
But notably there's an image of his event entry badge which we still have, my father is still very much alive and we are trying to locate images from
this event and would welcome any leads/names for people we could contact.
ISDT badge

We are aware there are a lot of images from various sources, and the closest we have found is an image of the start marquee, where you can see my fathers bike denoted by his race plate 267, unfortunately he is cropped out the picture which features the rider 278, which of course is the legendary Steve McQueen.

Thanks for reading the post, have a great day and we look forward to any information.

Perhaps a look on eBay.uk might find a copy of an English publication of the time, (I believe titled "The Motorcycle"?) They were very good at reporting on the motorcycle sporting events of Europe. Given event to print time- allow 1 week to maybe 3 months beyond date of race to determine a rough possible publication date. Also contact old MC magazine vendors to see if they can help.

What was the date of this ISDT race? I can check my 1964 US MC mag collection.........

Thank you. I believe it was September 6-12th. Funny enough i've just found a UK copy of Motor cycle/17,9,1964/I.S.D.T. Report on eBay.

Might be worth contacting the estate/custodians of François Gragnon 1929–2018 who took the cropped photo

https://www.lagaleriedelinstant.com/francois-gragnon/

They may have access to the original negatives with a wider view.

National motorcycle museum?
VMCC?

Nice photo find there by K

These folks have an extensive archive of ISDT stuff.

https://speedtracktales.com/index-of-isdt-events/isdt-1964-e-germany/

No pic 267 there I can spot though.
Steve McQueen and Sammy Miller are though.
Doubtless they have much more

I believe Mortons hold all the original photos taken by the Blue'un ( "MotorCycle") and the Green'un (" MotorCycling") the two major British weekly bike magazines of the day.
This is about the time both magazines started to fade away but I think both were still around then. Whatever the case, Mortons hold their photo collections which includes all the photos their photographers took for possible publication but weren't used. Well worth a try.
Trying to find photos of ordinary Clubmen ISDT competitors can be a pain .Plenty of shots of the various official teams and factory bikes plus individual celebrities but far fewer of the ordinary club man who rode his own bike and paid his own way.
Usually its a backgound shot like the Steve McQueen example.
Best of luck with the search Ian,

Ian,
I checked my box labelled 1964, found a way too brief reference to the ISDT in an October or November issue of Floyd Clymer's "Cycle"; photo was of Steve McQueen. Not of any help, I believe. Best to you and your father in this search! Joe

Many thanks to all for your encouraging notes and checking materials you have.

I've made contact with Julia Gragnon, as I think it's worth asking if its possible to check through some of the contact sheets/negatives from François Gragnons archives of the event.

I'm also wondering if contacting the McQueen estate/family could yield anything.

I'll update the post if I find anything! Best Ian & Brian Nash.