One day to remember
“I recall Stu Avant leading for some time and then coming off after the bike seized and finally Ken Blake on the blue Suzuki hit the lead and started moving away from Ago.”
Further to my letter published in
OBA 76, here is how I secured Ken Blake’s autograph at the Australia TT at Laverton.
It was 1976 and I was 12 years old and had owned my Honda XR75 for four years. My sister Sue had her Honda MR50 and my father John was a happy engineer (well, as happy as motor engineers get) as he had not only a Vincent Series C Rapide but had finally secured a stunning blue and silver Velocette Thruxton which he had been after for some years. It was also a special year because finally in my young life the international stars of motorcycle racing were coming to race my Australian heroes such as Gregg Hansford, Ken Blake and Warren Willing at the Australian Motorcycle TT on Feb 7/8. Italian hero Giacomo Agostini was riding the beautiful sounding MV Agusta, Paolo Pileri would be on the Morbidelli and Walter Villa on the Aermacchi, plus Stu Avant from NZ and Pat Hennen from the USA were coming and a host of others. Better still, we had secured tickets to go. So my father and I rode down on his Velocette Thruxton with his long time friend Geoff Fullard and his son and my friend Alan on their Velocette. Geoff’s oldest son Keith was on his Ducati Desmo 450. I remember the ride down being uneventful apart from just motorcycles and motorcyclists of all shapes and sizes making their way to the Air Force base at Laverton where the races were to be run. Once there Alan, myself and another friend got our programs and headed off to watch the races, talk with riders and find the hot dog stand. I remember the racing being amazing and the rules for spectators very, very different than today. For example, I recall standing with many others literally on the edge of the track at the end of the main straight watching the Unlimited 750cc event with Gregg Hansford chasing Pat Hennen and seeing both of them go past at probably 220km/h and watching Gregg slide up the inside of Hennen under brakes lap after lap with the big green Kawasaki twitching and complaining under him. As the laps counted down we kept moving further onto the track cheering Gregg on. As I think about it even now, it was absolutely dangerous what we were doing and I remember finally the officials came down and asked us to move back. I am not sure whether this was for our safety or to let the riders through. Finally the main event arrived. I do remember Ago initially leading and then fighting it out with Ken Blake and Stu Avant who was riding brilliantly that day. I recall Stu Avant leading for some time and then coming off after the bike seized and finally Ken Blake on the blue Suzuki hit the lead and started moving away from Ago. I also remember all the crowd being nervous as Ken had led many races in recent times only to “bin it” in the closing laps. All the crowd cheered Ken on by yelling “go Blakey”, “stick it up em Kenny”, “Stay on Ken” and other words I can’t write here. On the last lap when Ken had it in the bag with Ago in a safe second and local hero Greg Johnson in third we three boys decided to head back to the start finish area to see our champ come in. As we got there we found a gap in the grandstand I recall and we were able to get right up near the start/finish area or what would now be known as Parc Ferme. Just as Ken pulled in – no doubt exhausted and exhilarated from one of the biggest wins of his career – all three of us boys saw a gap in the picket fence in front of us and in a fit of youthful exuberance and no care for consequences we squeezed through the gap and ran with programs and pens in hand straight to Ken who was literally taking his helmet off as we approached, yelling “Ken you’re our hero, Kenny you’re a legend”, and asking him to autograph our programs. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the media and officials also approaching but Ken who must have been stuffed, greeted us and as he bent down said, “Thanks boys, quick now give me a pen” and he then signed all three of our programs and then said, “quick boys you’d better get out of here”. We thanked Ken called him a legend a few hundred times more and managed to outsprint the officials and others back to the gap in the fence to make our escape. I know there is some debate about his name now but I think whether he was Ken, Kenny or Blakey he was just happy to race motorcycles and I will always remember him as a passionate, professional sportsman who gave his all on the race track but had a heart of gold off the track. In somewhat of a postscript to this story 42 years later at the Island Classic in January 2018 I finally got to meet Ago. He was quite astounded that I still had the race program after all these years. We discussed the race itself, the location and many of the other riders who travelled out. He remembered Ken’s name and remarked that he was too fast that day and a worthy winner. I hope Ken heard Ago that day and had a smile on his face.