King of the Weir

Motorcycle racing in Albury-Wodonga 77 pages, soft cover ISBN: 978-0-9943997-1-7 RRP: $40 including GST and postage. Order at sharkbite@idx.com.au Guy Ellicott says he originally intended to add a single motorcycling chapter to a book on car racing at the sadly defunct Hume Weir circuit, but realising that subject was much greater he decided upon a separate book. Although this one concentrates on Hume Weir, it also covers two and three-wheeled racing at long-gone tracks, scrambles and hillclimbs, including Albury Showground Speedway, the Wirlinga road circuit, Albury Aerodrome, and of course, Bandiana Military Camp which hosted some very big events including the Australian Grand Prix in 1957. ‘The Weir” is covered in detail from its opening in January 1961 where future World Champion Tom Phillis starred. The text as such is mainly race reports taken from newspaper and magazines of the day, but there are some wonderful photos courtesy of Keith Ward and Rob Lewis. In 1970 Sandringham club had the brainwave to implement the King of the Weir race, an annual event that ran until 1979 that was taken out by some of the sport’s biggest names including Ron Toombs, Bryan Hindle, Ken Blake, Gregg Hansford, Bob Rosenthal and Murray Sayle. The end came for the circuit when the northern end of the track was destroyed in the 1990s when the dam wall was raised. Well worth a read.