Ken’s book
The launch of Ken Young’s book “100 Clicks” The History of the Tasmanian Motor Cycle Club, the third oldest such club in the World, was held at the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania in Launceston. Over sixty members and supporters heard from motor sports legend Barry Oliver who introduced proceedings and spoke on the club’s history. Young then spoke about the hard grind it had been over the 8-year journey to bring the idea to fruition. Among the guests were Laurie O’Shea, one of the best riders the club produced who features on the book’s cover on his 350 Norton, and Ian Tilley who could give Laurie some competition and was a successful motor cycle dealer. Others included John Sturzaker who was very competitive on the airfields and the beaches, Terry Brooks who excelled in road trials but made his name as a long-time club Competition and General Secretary, and Robin Yates who was a competitive member of the Yates brothers trio who gave the club great support on and off the track. John Barrenger was very competitive at anything he turned his hand to, Mick Damon who is still racing in Historic Racing and was the man who pulled the team together to finish off the book, Les Walkden who was the pilot of the SC 500 Yamaha and 750 Norton Wasp MX sidecar that he and Young scored state titles on. He was to team up with another guest in Sam Hughes to be the long standing “Dynamic Duo” of Chief Steward and Clerk of Course for many years at Symmons Plains. A very pleasing aspect of the launch was that 11 of the 12 life members were in attendance. Laurie “Lectric” O’Shea stayed on at the end to sign covers of the book and relive many of his exploits for the “younger” members in attendance. The photo was taken by Ian Brickhill who took over as Competition Secretary from Brooks and took on writing a weekly column in the Saturday Evening Express before he handed the column to Young for almost another 300 weeks.