The Boonah Bash

This event came about after my discussion with Wayne Renz of Boonah; a keen AJS/Matchless owner and Vice President of the AJS Owners Club. I am a keen Norton Owner and we both lamented on the lack of events in Queensland catering for these brands. As these three and James, Francis Barnett and Sunbeam were also part of the AMC group, we decide to do something. Cindy Renz and Jude got it together, although under the Toowoomba Area for club insurance, and after six months of setting routes, organising catering and heaps of meetings, the weekend finally arrived. The weather was fine but unseasonably hot. There were 20 Matchless, 20 AJS and a dozen or so Nortons, one James, one Francis Barnett and one Sunbeam. The oldest bike was Paul Gillespie’s 1917 AJS. They all performed marvellously on both the rides, Saturday’s 40 miler and Sunday’s 100 miler. Saturday’s ride was to the North of Boonah with rolling hills and sweeping bends punctuated by a half hour stop at the bottom pub in Harrisville. The Boonah Show Society catered for Saturday night’s sit-down dinner and from what I could gauge, the crowd was pleased. We had about 25 small gifts to give away during the course of the evening. Sunday saw Wayne’s brother, Mike on the grill for brekky and lunch and what a great job he did. Wayne and Cindy’s children, Jeffrey and Kirsty and their daughter and son in law Susan and Wade put in a great effort with breakfast, smoko and lunch. The Sunday ride to the south of Boonah saw some great riding by the dams and over Mount Barney. This whole Fassifern/Scenic Rim area of Queensland makes for some pleasant and picturesque riding. Some of the corner workers were up to thirty minutes late for smoko (and I apologise) due to Graham (not his fault) from Toowoomba, the main back-up man with his ute and trailer. His run literally ground to a halt 15kms from the start when the rear vehicle wheel fell off, and was lost along with the brake drum. Our other back up driver for both days was also the Saturday ride planner Neil Moore, a local Boonerite who is close to finishing his Commando; a very welcome effort from him. The motorcycles were judged by a couple of mystery guests and not necessarily awarded to the shiniest machine. It is a rally, not a show after all. There were a lot of great machines and not enough trophies. Gaven Dall’Osto got quite a few nice shots of the weekend, and I would also like to thank Gaven for his time and effort helping to make this rally one to remember. Many thanks to the contingent from Pine Rivers who turned up on Sunday and were first out the gate to do some corner drop off. Also many thanks to Keith Clathworthy for bringing out the gas fired Brisbane urn for our Sunday smoko.