Barry Lack honoured
The annual Motor Sports awards night was held in Launceston on February 8th with Barry Lack added to the Motor Sports Hall Of Fame. Barry joins motorcycle racers Ian Tilley, Laurie O’Shea, Mal Campbell and Ross Allison and administrators Duncan Ramsay and Geoff Stagg. Barry started racing with the Tasmanian Motor Cycle Club at the beginning of the 1970s with a YDS Yamaha. It didn’t take long for his potential to show through and he could be relied on to finish in the top 6 in the very competitive national 350 class on a line of TZ Yamahas supplied mainly by Ian Tilley Yamaha. Where possible he dabbled in production racing on the Yamaha RD series winning the 500 class in the Tassie 2 hour.
Lack teamed up with Mal Campbell for two Castrol 6-Hour races, firstly on a Kawasaki Z1 and the next year on a Yamaha XS1100, both times qualifying in the top 10. The Z1 challenge ended when Lack was “dive bombed” and crashed into the retaining wall. Between 1973 and 1991 he was to collect almost 30 TMCC Trophies and a number of State titles. The list included not only race trophies but four Clubman of the Year and 3 Police Commissioner trophies for service to rider training. He spent time in the early years as a TMCC member, as a committee man and returned at the end of racing to rise to be the President for a few years. Now that his grandsons are showing interest in racing he has become their mentor at ride days and looks like guiding them on the path to racing.