In late 1968 Brian Cartwright had been running his Motorcycle Shop in Belfast for most of the sixties.
He had the local Agency for Bridgestone Motorcycles and thus had many dealings with Bill Smith - The UK Bridgestone importer.
Brian had been a road racer, but was retired several years at this point.
When he first had dealings with the 350 it occurred to him that the engine had a lot of potential for a race bike.
He contacted Bill Smith and soon had bought a brand new engine complete with ignition from Bill for the pricely some of 100 pounds sterling.
Brian had a 3/4 year old 250 Bultaco production racer in his shop that the 350 Bridgestone engine was to be fitted to.
This bike was built up over the winter of 68/69 ready for its first test run at Kirkistown in March of 69.
In those days this circuit was not locked and the Bridgestone and 3 people were there to test it. The circuit was otherwise empty. Brian Cartwright, Ivor Greenwood and Ronnie Weatherall
All 3 tried it out with Ronnie getting a little excited and failing to take the fast left hander and taking to the grass.
Ivor Greenwood had been calling to the shop through the winter to observe the bikes build and was dead keen to get the first race on the bike.
The first race meeting of the year was at Maghaberry, a local short circuit.
Ivor raced this meeting and indeed Ivor was dicing at the front of the field but eventually fell off due to an exhaust pipe strike on the ground.
The bike however had ran very well and showed a lot of potential.
