Celebrating The Bexhill 100 Festival with launch of new website

THE MAY Bank holiday weekend was a time to celebrate in Bexhill with the 20th anniversary of the first Bexhill 100 Festival Of Motoring and the launch of a new website.

Alastair Hazell, whose father Brian was one of the original founders of what was a popular event in the town, said the festival may be gone but it's not forgotten:

"It was much loved and is now sadly missed. It once attracted over a hundred thousand people to our town for the May bank holiday each year, bringing with it business for local shops and cafs and promotion for our great town."

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To commemorate the event Alastair, who designed and built the award winning discoverbexhill.com website, joined forces with brother Mark, and another of the founder members of the Bexhill 100, Brian Storkey, to put together the story of the first Bexhill 100 and to launch a newly revamped website.

Alastair said:

"We built the new Bexhill 100 Festival Of Motoring website to commemorate the event and to tell the fantastic story of how five local motoring enthusiasts took a group of fanciful ideas and turned them into a hugely successful event.

"Over thirteen glorious years, the event brought vehicles from all over Europe and the show became one of the most loved in the South of England."

Sadly, due to rising costs, and lack of funds, after thirteen years the festival was no more.

Brian Storkey said:

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"We managed to keep the event going until 2002, the final agreed year of our main sponsor, Hastings Direct.

"Thanks to their continued sponsorship we were able to celebrate the Centenary of those first Bexhill races in 1902, on the seafront, in grand style."

Since the demise of the festival the committee and members of 'Bexhill 100 Motoring Club' hold a static Classic and Custom Car Show in the Polegrove Recreation Ground on August Bank Holiday Weekend.

Brian said:

"The club helps to continue to promote and keep alive Bexhill's unique claim of being The Birthplace of British Motor Racing, whilst at the same time raising large sums of money for local charities."

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The new website is packed with information on Bexhill's motoring history and includes a gallery of photographs from the original races in 1902, and from the time of the Bexhill 100. New photographs and videos will be added over the coming months.

Sadly, two of the original five who started the festival - Brian Hazell and Paul Foulkes-Halbard '“ have passed away. But the event that they helped to build and organise takes its place at the head of Bexhill's rich history.

Alastair said the website is a testimonial to them and to all the people who contributed to make the event what it was.

He added: "I would personally like to thank Brian Storkey for all the time and effort involved in putting together his memories of the event."

Visit the website at www.bexhill100.co.uk