Born late enough to miss the end of WW2 hostilities, Brian Payne arrived in Melbourne as a Ten Pound Pom, conning a job with the BSA importers despite a lack…
Who was Kawasaki’s first road-race winner in Australia? Ken Blake, Ron Toombs, Gregg Hansford? It was Richard Reid, in the Victorian 250 TT at Calder on 12 February, 1967. In…
Until the ISDT was rebranded as the International Six Day Enduro and Australia became affiliated with the Federation Internationale de Motorcyclisme (FIM), Aussie riders were obligated to compete under the…
There are precious few examples of men who were motorcycle racers and merchant seamen. John Warrian was one. Melburnian Patrick Bruce was another, with the added memory of half a…
At the outbreak of World War II, Kevin Rohrlach was of an age where he was mesmerised by machinery and was already recycling; disused farm implements, wire, leather strapping, bolts,…
Phil O’Brien had a great time on the Continental Circus in 1968-69. He returned with a son born in the Isle of Man, a swag of stories and the inspiration…
In the mid-1980s production-based racing was booming around the world. It came in many forms and with varying eligibility rules, the most radical of which involved ‘silhouette’ classes for highly-modified…
Ray Curtis hung up his leathers almost half a lifetime ago. He was racing at Oran Park’s 1973 Christmas Twilight Meeting when the Campbelltown Police sought him out to deliver…
The hip flask awarded to the first-ever winner of a motorcycle TT held on the Isle of Man in 1907 sold at a different Bonham’s Auction last month, where…
The Grand Prix record books show Mike Duff won at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps Finland’s Imatra public road circuits as a works Yamaha rider in 1964-65, and is Canada’s only GP winner.
In the farming hills overlooking the popular seaside town of Sitges, with its yacht club and marina full of expensive boats, sits an immense kidney-shaped bowl with banked high-speed corners…
Scan a baby-boomer bike nut’s book shelf and you’ll likely see the name Vic Willoughby. His works included Classic Motorcycles, The Racing Motorcycle, Winning Racing Engines, Exotic Motorcycles – A…
