Essex village High Easter will be swarming with stars of grasstrack motor-cycling from all over Europe this weekend.

Saturday and Sunday sees the top quality meeting at the venue near Chelmsford with the highlight being the final rounds of the UEM European 500cc Sidecar Championships, being held for the first time ever in the United Kingdom.

Grassstrack racing, which celebrated its 80th birthday last year, is raced on fields and meadows with no brakes at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour.

Many of today's well known names - recently retired Arena Essex speedway captain Kelvin Tatum, Chris Louis and Sam Ermolenko learned on, and continue to ride on grass tracks.

Racers come from all walks of life and cover the age span from five to 75 years.

The weekend is a fund-raiser for the Essex Air Ambulance and promotes their own motorcycle run on Saturday, September 12.

Action is from 11am each day. Call 07974 152037 for information.

Published Friday September 3, 2004

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