Doug Chivas
Motorcycle racing identity DOUG CHIVAS died at his mother’s home on the New South Wales Central Coast on Thursday, August 20 after a several years-long battle with cancer.
First bowel, then lung.
Doug is probably the only racer to have driven in the 1000-kilometre race at Bathurst (at age 16 – with his father Doug Snr. in a Mini Cooper) and also raced Bathurst on a solo (Kawasaki H2) and then as a passenger in a Sidecar (Peter Campbell) and finally as the driver – twice winning the Unlimited Sidecar GP on the Mount with New Zealand passenger Margaret Halliday. He also raced in the Australian Castrol Six-Hour race, the first time in 1974 on an RD350 Yamaha with Eric Soetens. They finished fifth in the 500cc class – ninth outright. In 1975 he and younger brother Neil teamed on a Kawasaki H2, finishing 12th. The following year the brothers team up again, this time on a Z1-B and finished 9th.
In his early years, Doug was a bicycle racer on velodromes and apparently made a gearing breakthrough that saw him become a winner. But his rivals quickly cottoned on and Doug moved onto surfing, and then water-skiing. For a period in 1977, Doug raced as a passenger with Paul Mahony at the Sydney Showground Speedway. They apparently made a week’s wages in one night…
After he and Margaret got together, they moved back to New Zealand, basing themselves at Timaru working for Josh Timms. They raced a Yamaha TZ750-powered outfit for a few seasons, winning a lot of races and two New Zealand Championships.
Doug also raced two New Zealand Castrol Six-Hour races at Manfeild: in 1978 on a Suzuki GS1000S Suzuki with Peter Waters and in 1979 with Trevor Discombe on a Yamaha XS1100.
In the early 1980s he and Margaret moved back to Sydney where Doug opened a motorcycle tyre business in Granville. ‘Chivos’ was the Sydney centre of sidecar road racing and lots of other racing activities too. Doug made time for everyone who walked into his shop and helped countless numbers of racers, rebuilding engines, frames and complete motorcycles. He and Margaret raced various sidecar combinations, won the Australian Sidecar Championship in 1984 and in mid-1985 they went to Europe to attempt to race in the World Sidecar Championship. They entered four rounds but failed to qualify. In 1988 they made another attempt, with the same result, except that at the final round in Sweden Doug qualified, made the race and gained a world championship point (15th). More recently, Doug raced in Classic Sidecar events, using a German Konig flat-four, rotary disc valve two-stroke engine.
Doug was just 71 when he died, but he certainly packed a hell of a lot into those seven decades. No matter the curve balls life sometimes threw at him, Doug remained chipper and upbeat his entire life. Once asked, when things were particularly tough, how he was doing, he responded: “I have never had a bad day in my life.” Rest in peace Chivo.