WA legends honoured

On November 14, three inductees to the Western Australia Hall of Fame were announced at the Night of Champions conducted by Motorcycling WA. One of the state’s most successful off-road riders, Charlie West, accepted his award at the annual ceremony. In the highly-competitive world of scrambles in the 1950s, Charlie won six Australian championships and 17 state titles in WA, NSW, South Australia and Queensland. In the early ‘sixties he went to Europe and competed at international level for three years and was a member of the Australian team which beat the British side in a one-off ‘test match’ at Brands Hatch. On his return to Australia, he switched to speedway solos with great success, then turned to midgets where he became a top-line competitor in a variety of cars. On the same night, Bill Watson, who turned 86 in December, was presented with a “Lifetime Competition Licence”, because he is still competing and has no intentions of retiring just yet. Born and raised in Kalgoorlie, Bill has been racing since 1947 in scrambles, road racing, trials and dirt track. He placed second in the Australian 500cc Championship held in Perth in 1955 and won the WA State title in 1972. As well as racing, Bill has been heavily involved in the administration of motorcycle sport, and is a life member of Goldfields MCC and the AJS MCC.