Mike Steele

Born in Hastings, NZ, MIKE STEEL raced for just one season before heading for Australia in 1969. Arriving in Sydney he then drove to Perth, bought a new Bridgestone 350 GTR and rode to Broome, where he found work on oil rigs. Within a year he was back in Sydney where he met Len Atlee, at that time the sales manager of Chrysler dealers Louis Motors, and Len offered him a job as a salesman along with Chris Lewis. Len recalls that Mike began racing on a Bultaco that seized constantly, before moving on to the ubiquitous Yamahas. However he hit the headlines in 1972 when he sensationally won the Castrol Six Hour Race at Amaroo Park, teamed with Dave Burgess. Joe Eastmure crossed the line first while Steele crashed with five minutes to go and remounted the battered H2 Kawasaki entered by Adams & Sons to cross the line in second place. The post-race scrutineering saw Eastmure disqualified and the Steele/Burgess duo was awarded the victory. Mike continued to race and riding with Atlee, won the 750 class of the New Zealand Castrol Six Hour but had a bad accident at Manfield the following year when he crashed the XS1100 Yamaha he was sharing with Atlee. In business for himself, Mike traded in cars and trucks imported from Japan, operated Chatsworth Motorcycle Accessories in Sydney’s Wentworth Avenue, returned to New Zealand for a time to operate a Yamaha dealership, and later opened a motorcycle shop in Perth, Motomax, with his son Rick. He was still working in the business when he passed away in October from cancer.