SA Championships
Historic Motorcycle Racing Register of South Australia – South Australian Historic Road Racing Championships
The forecast was looking scary a week out with possibly 38-39 degrees to contend with, but luckily for the riders the weather eased a bit, but was still trying on both days in the low 30s. Bushfires around the country saw a few scratchings and fully understood by the club running the championships. Now for 18 years the Historic Motor Cycle Racing Register of SA has conducted the State Historic Titles at Mac Park, primarily on the weekend after Christmas. Each year there are differences in field numbers and this year it was no different. Noticeably down were our hand shifter friends, and the 250 LC punters were down a bit in number but not quality of presentation nor speed. The 500 Period 3 field was just fantastic in size, quality and performance, with 16 bikes on the grid including 5 Manx Nortons, 2 Matchless G50s and a couple of Gold Stars. The meeting was a well-oiled affair with great experienced officials on hand. One thing The Register prides itself on is starting on time, and hence has a good record of getting through 18 qualifying sessions and 39 races over two days.
Philip Price on his Velocette MkV111KTT 350 was a standout, coming over from NZ he won the Period 2 overall against machinery a good deal larger in capacity than his machine. Nathaniel Wilson on his Yamaha LC 350 cracked a new track record for Period 5 500 class, while dicing with the previous record holder Chris Hayward on his SR500. In the same race on each leg XT 500 mounted Lindsay Russell, Colin Sarre on a CX500 and Danny Ahern on his TT2 Ducati could be covered by a blanket at just about every corner, shows you don’t necessarily need to be at the pointy end to have fun and come back into the pits smiling like a Cheshire cat! Evergreen Simon Cook raced his Period 4 Unlimited bike against a mixed field that included P5 Unlimiteds as well the period 5 350s, and Simon showed the way up front in every race. Simon then went on to blitz a disappointingly small field in the Ken Blake Memorial. As has been the case in recent years Rob Lewis lobs up with some nice surprises for the guys that made the podium in the race, this year was no exception and Rob’s passion does not go unnoticed and is greatly appreciated by The Register. Unlike the Ken Blake Memorial, the Bob Jolly Memorial was well subscribed and provided some brilliant racing throughout the field, 20-plus singles blasting off the start line giving the paying public great value.
With only one incident requiring the ambulance on track all weekend, the event was all over by 4 pm on Sunday, the bar eventually run out of alcohol, the canteen out of food, all great signs of one of the best run Historic-only events in the country, at a circuit that suits older bikes and to boot a circuit that is club owned. November 2020 sees the National Historic Titles at the same venue, my prediction is it will be one of the best subscribed events at this level for some five years.
Results of this event can be seen at www.orion-timing.com/results