Graeme Sigley
WA star
Graeme Sigley was passionate and just loved his racing, but he took it seriously and was always fastidious in his preparation. Quietly spoken and measured, Graeme became one of the most successful road racers at a state level in Western Australia (WA). From 1971 until his retirement from competition racing at the end of 1979, Graeme won 13 State Titles, more than any other solo rider in WA during that decade. He also dabbled in some racing nationally, which included competing at Bathurst over several years, culminating in a second place at the Australian GP in the 500cc class in 1979.
His passion for motorcycle competition started when he was 14 and bought his first bike, an Ariel 500 Red Hunter. It cost him 5 pounds and needed a bit of work but was within his very limited finances. “In bushland not far from where we lived in Floreat was the abandoned Brooklands air base,” he recounted. “I was able to ride my bike along laneways to this bushland and around the base, which was popular for scramble bike riders. Quite a big group could be seen riding there, including some who were already successful in competition. I clearly recall seeing top riders like Bill Watson and Charlie West out there practicing.”
Graeme’s father, Walter Sigley, was a motorcycle mechanic and also raced sidecars. Consequently, Graeme acquired his mechanical skills at an early age. “I found I could get old bikes cheap, do them up and make a few bob by selling them. I’d ride them for a few months and then move up into a better bike,” he said.
“A cousin who was road racing a McPhee BSA Bantam invited me to ride one of his 500 Ariels in some of club races. That got me interested in road racing and my father converted a 350 rigid framed Ariel into a swing arm variant and I joined the Lightweight Club and started competing. But I couldn’t get an open license until I was 17.
“While my father had been successful on the track and won the sidecar title at Claremont speedway in 1961, he wasn’t very supportive of my racing. But he did give me some good advice. One day he asked if I really wanted to race bikes. I replied that I did, to which he said, ‘well don’t become a motorcycle mechanic because you’ll get sick and tired of it and won’t want to work on your race bike when you get home’.
“That was the best advice I ever got, so I took an apprenticeship as a carpenter and worked hard to fund my racing. But as soon as I gave up racing, I got into a motorcycle tuning business, so I ended up there eventually,” he said.
“In those early days, my father couldn’t commit to taking me to events and when I turned 17, I gave competition away for a bit. I must admit, I went a bit stupid tearing around on public roads for a couple of years on a 1960 Triumph Bonneville 650 that I’d bought.
“During that time I found myself going down to Collie to watch the Round the Houses racing and thought ‘I could do that’. My girlfriend at the time was tired of getting around on the back of a bike and put some pressure on me to get a car. I soon bought an old Holden ute and stripped the Bonnie down for road racing,” he said.
“In 1964 I competed in my first road race at Caversham. I borrowed some leathers that were way too big and rode around looking like the Michelin man. The first race was an unlimited state title event and I finished sixth. At the end of the day, they had a 20-lap handicap, which I won, so I was pretty happy,” he recalled. ‚
Graeme’s days of cutting loose on public roads, which he concedes you wouldn’t get away with now, proved to be good training for him with Round the Houses racing and set the scene for what was to come. After this first foray into serious racing, Graeme decided his Bonneville was too good for racing, so he bought a second Triumph for the purpose.
“I built up this bike as a dedicated racer,” he said, “and modified it with Norton front and rear ends and brakes. Success was slow in coming though as the machinery wasn’t really up to it.
“In 1967 I didn’t have anywhere to race so I went to Claremont Speedway after putting the Triumph
650 engine in a sidecar. Rod Chessell was my passenger and we were up against a lot of HRD 1000 Vincents, so we didn’t do very well. But it was fun, and I reckon it did help me later with right handers.”
Wanneroo Park Raceway opened in 1969 and Graeme returned to road racing. He soon progressed to a Triton and started to get noticed. His first break came with an invitation from Lloyd Chapman, a well-known racer and motorcycle dealer.
“Lloyd was the Bultaco dealer and he was mainly selling Motocross/Enduro bikes. In 1969 he imported a 350cc Bultaco factory road racer and offered me the ride. Straight away I loved it. It was fast, light and handled much better than my earlier bikes. The only thing was the brakes weren’t up to scratch. On my third outing, I had a fast crash on it. I thought I knew what went wrong and decided that if I was going to race it, I needed to buy it so I could do the preparation myself.
“By the start of the 1970 season, it was mine. I had felt that some of the issues stemmed from its manufacture in the Spanish factory, where components seemed to have been assembled dry and weren’t assembled right. I actually broke the gearbox early on and found that one of the bearings was the wrong size. With things like that happening, I had to go right through it,” he said.
This was a good approach and in stripping the bike, upgrading the brakes and going through everything with a fine-tooth comb, Graeme was ready for the start of the 1970 season. It paid dividends and he clean swept all three classes in the State Championships: the 350, 500 and Unlimited classes, as well as the inaugural King of Wanneroo.
Talking of the season, Graeme said that the competition was really close, with Brian Cartwright, Phil Scott, Peter Senior and several others all in the mix. An established Kiwi rider, Bob Shields, had crossed the Nullabor to compete and was proving to be the one to beat on the last round that featured the King of Wanneroo.
“I was pretty lucky to win the King of Wanneroo,” Graeme conceded. “Most of the riders were on 350 Yamahas, which were a bit faster than the Bultaco. Bob Shields was quickest that day and Lloyd Chapman said to me before the race, ‘see if you can push him and he might just do a crank’, which the
350 Yammies were renowned for doing. I managed to stay with him and was pushing him as hard as I could. And then, on the last lap, that’s exactly what happened; he did a crank!”
Back in those days, the WA Championship series was split between Round the Houses events and track racing at Wanneroo Park. This provided an interesting mix and really tested the riders’ skills as conditions at each of the road circuits varied greatly. Round the Houses racing also brought motorcycle competition to regional areas across the state and were really popular with spectators who could get close to the action.
“I really liked attending Round the Houses events, but I did take racing seriously and so I didn’t get into the partying and stuff many other young riders often did ahead of a race. I’d sometimes shake my head and think, ‘are you really racing tomorrow?’.
“In those days, you didn’t get much for a win, about $75. But that was enough to cover the costs of attending the race. They were always exciting races and I particularly remember the first one at Geraldton. It was a fantastic circuit that took you right through the centre of town, where crowds would gather close to the road forming a tunnel as you raced down the main street.
“The race was also memorable as they graded riders of different abilities in three classes and they’d all race together. You’d often find yourself lapping the slower riders by the fourth of an eight-lap race. Peter Senior and Brian Cartwright were with me in both the 350 and 500 events and I won both, but in the last race, the Unlimited, Peter managed to find a bit more speed and was pushing me hard,” Graeme recalled. ‚
“We came across a slower rider approaching a corner who suddenly braked earlier than I’d anticipated, and I knew I was going to hit him. I hit the brakes, locked the front wheel, went down, and found myself cartwheeling and sliding for some distance. Of all things, I remember sliding down past the Kentucky Fried Chicken store. That fall did a bit of damage, including a broken collar bone, and set me back a bit,” he said.
“Then, in 1973, I was fortunate to get my hands on the first TR3 Yamaha to come into Australia. The TR3 had a completely new bottom end,” he said, “the same as with the R5 road bike, which was a lot stronger than that in the TR2. It was still air-cooled, which was the only real difference with the TZ, which came out a bit later.
“Ken George sold me the TR3 at the landed cost and asked me to ride for one of his dealers, Alan Dawson Yamaha. Alan was a lovely guy and had a shop in Morley, so I rode for him with a bit of sponsorship.
“The following year both Brian Cartwright and Peter Senior got new TZs, but I still had my TR3 going faster, which no doubt annoyed them a bit,” Graeme chuckled. “My biggest problem was that I only weighed 62kg and so the push starts were difficult, but once underway, I was right.
“For the 74 season I got a TZ. It was quick, but I didn’t get along that well with Yamaha as a product,” he commented. “Eight months after I got it, one of the two down bars on the front of the frame broke while I was riding, which didn’t give me confidence and I just felt it wasn’t that great a product.
“I’d already been riding Triumphs for Mortlocks in the Production bike racing. They were also a Suzuki dealer and when the Mk 1 RG500s came out in 1976, they managed to get me one. Only 50 were built worldwide and my bike was #17. They were basically the same as what Barry Sheene won the 1975 world championship on and, as soon as I jumped on it, I loved it. I was really glad to get the ride,” he said. “I believe that bike ended up for some time in Action Suzuki’s museum in Sydney, but where it is now, I wouldn’t know.”
The RG500 turned the racing world upside down; both on the international GP circuit and with privateers. It broke with convention of the day by being a square-four 500cc two-stroke, heralding the beginning of the dominance of large capacity twostrokes and went on to win seven consecutive constructor’s championships and four world titles. Graeme only had the bike for three weeks before taking it to Bathurst, primarily for the 500cc GP. Three other RGs had been imported into Australia and were taking part in the event, with two others coming across from New Zealand. The new Suzukis filled the first three places in the Senior, with Kiwi John Woodley on the winner. Graeme didn’t do particularly well that year at Bathurst, but it did provide valuable experience.
Shortly after returning from Bathurst, Peter Senior also acquired an RG500 Mk1. Each benefitted from their intense rivalry on the same type of bike, but the pressure was on as expectations were high and the TZ Yamahas were still really competitive on the tight Round the Houses circuits. Both have soft spots for the RG and Peter still has his original Mk1, which is campaigned regularly in Historic racing events by his son Adam.
Graeme explained that Suzuki had an interesting approach with the RG500. “Rather than putting another rider in the world titles, they decided they’d get better exposure by building 50 and placing them around the world, making them available to privateers for the cost to build them. I bought mine at an unbelievable price. It was $4,000 and that included all the spares and parts needed to campaign it for a year,” he recalled. “That strategy really worked as Barry Sheene continued to win internationally and Suzuki was also winning a lot of races at the more local events around the world,” he said.
“In my first year with the Suzuki, I won the 500cc and Unlimited state titles. It was probably my most satisfying season. I rode that bike right through until mid-1978 and also ended up competing in three Bathurst 500cc GPs on it. In 1977 I got a 6th place and in 1978 a 3rd. I also rode in the Unlimited class on it and did OK all things considered, with the best result being a 6th.
“It’s a really fast and demanding circuit and I remember that a 100mph lap was 2’19”, which I only managed once when I was dicing with a 750 Yamaha in an Unlimited event. Once you get in the zone on a circuit like that, it’s almost like being in slow motion as you forget all about the countryside tearing by and you’re just gauging yourself with the other rider. It’s almost surreal and you end up riding as fast as you’ve ever gone, but you’re doing it easy. It’s the most exhilarating and fantastic feeling,” he said.
In 1979 Graeme was selected as State Representative for the National Championship. He almost bit off more than he could chew, and the year took its toll. To help with travel costs, he received some sponsorship from Midland Suzuki and, as State Representative, received some financial support from the Motor Cycle Racing Club of WA. He’d replaced the Mk1 500 with a Mk3 midway through the previous year.
“It was a really tough season, mainly because of the travel I was doing and time away, which was ‚
the biggest challenge,” Graeme said. “Apart from the National Championship, I was also competing in all the state rounds and trying to hold down my job, which meant I was working really long hours to make-up for the lost time.
“You’d load everything up and head off after work on the Tuesday evening to make it to the track by Friday. Then you’d have to get everything set up and try to qualify on the front row of a track you’d often not even seen before, which was pretty hard. I especially remember Oran Park, where I was up against Wayne Gardner on his home track. He was blindingly quick and was doing lap times on a 350 that I couldn’t do on the 500.”
After a poor start in the first of the National Championship rounds at Simmons Plains, Graeme gradually found his feet in the series and consistently improved, posting some decent results throughout the championship. He also placed second in the Australian GP 500cc class held at Bathurst that year and won both the 500cc and Unlimited titles in the State championships.
“I really liked racing at Bathurst,” he said. “It was also a great leveller because all the other riders only raced it once a year too. But at the end of the 1979 season, I was mentally and physically exhausted.
Both me and the bike were worn out and it had been a bit of a plan to give racing away in 1980, so that sort of sealed it and I decided to retire from racing.” Asked about the many different bikes he rode during his racing career, Graeme said his favourite would have to be the Suzuki RG500. Apart from being fast and state of the art at the time, he said it was reliable and handled like a bigger bike; it was very stable. And of course, it was the bike that delivered some of his most memorable achievements.
“The Mk3 was sold in 1980 to a young Victorian rider, Bruce MacGregor, and several years later was bought by Don Hollick. He only raced it three times and I bumped into him at the inaugural Australian motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island in 1989,” recalled Graeme. “He said he still had it and that it was parked up. Eventually I bought it and, while it was in a pretty sad state, it came with a whole heap of spares. So, I did a complete restoration on it.”
As is his way, Graeme’s restoration of the bike is fastidious and faithful. The result is stunning and Graeme still has the bike, which takes pride of place in his lounge room. “I last rode it at the Broadford Bonanza in 2016 and it frightened the hell out of me,” he said, “but I loved it.”
Now in his 78th year, Graeme still enjoys tinkering on his small collection of bikes and getting out on the track for a ride when he can. He regularly attends ‘TrakDayz’ events at the Collie Motorplex, where he enjoys having a ride around the circuit on his more modern Suzuki GSXR 600.
He may have hung his racing gear up years ago and has slowed down, but it’s clear that Graeme’s passion for the sport that has defined his life is as strong as ever.