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Johnny Helms Memorial - Update April 2010
Event HQ - Marthall Village Hall,  3 miles south east of Knutsford on the A537
3 x 7.9 mile laps, based on the Marthall, Booth Hall, Whipping stocks and back to Marthall
The course will pass three times through the villages of Ollerton, Toft, Peover Superior, 
Over Peover and Mathall providing excellent opportunities for spectators to find a great 
location to see these cycling legends up close and personal.

Past stars including Alf 'The King ' Engers and Super Sid Barras will bid for a £1000 first prize when they ride the Johnny Helms Memorial Invitation Grand Prix des Gentlemen charity time trial in October.

This inaugural event for 40 two-man teams is being organised by Warrington Road Club to honour their esteemed clubmate whose cartoons in Cycling Weekly entertained cyclists across six decades until his death in November.The event is backed by Zipvit and supported by Cycling Weekly.

The Warrington club felt that a race against the clock on roads close to his home would be a fitting tribute to Helms, a time trialling fan all his life.

Top names confirmed so far include:

Alf Engers, 'the King' of short distance TT five decades ago. He six times won the 25-mile national title, including five consecutive victories. He smashed the competition record for 25 miles four times between 1959 and 1978.

Stan Brittain, silver medalist in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic road race; yellow jersey in the peace race and Tour de France rider.

Colin Lewis, twice British pro road champion and Tour de France rider.

Les West, Milk Race winner and world amateur road race silver medalist.

'Super' Sid Barras, the undisputed king of British pro racing and former British pro champion.

Phil Thomas, another former national pro road and city centre TV champion.

Vicky Thomas, 1987 Tour de France Feminin rider who scored a best stage placing of ninth.

Glen Longland, former BBAR, and multi-TT champ.

The course is on quiet roads with little traffic. A trophy will be presented to the winning team. The organisers Darrell Webster- the man behind last year's CTT National 50 - and Ron Spencer, are asking each individual rider to nominate a charity and for the top five placed teams to donate their winnings to a charity of their choice. Each rider and marshal will be presented with a commemorative gift.

A keen time trialist in his youth, Johnny posted times of 1.05 for a 25. 2.15 for a 50. 4.44 for a 100 and 224 miles for a 12-hour. His big love was touring and he clocked up some 16,000 miles a year, many of them with his wife Ruth. He prided himself on cycling to club dinners whatever the weather, where he was in demand as a guest speaker. Everyone wanted to see the creator of those popular cartoon characters Baz and Honk, whose adventures and mishaps captured club life so well.

He was first published in Cycling Weekly on February 6th 1946. A few years ago Helms overtook illustrator Frank Patterson as our longest serving contributor, a record unsurpassed in IPC Media's history. He passed away on November 5th 2009, aged 85.

Article taken from Cycling Weekly 4/02/10.