The Bayliss dynasty Part 1
Part One: Over the next two issues, we look at a family that dominated Sidecar Racing in the highly competitive era of the ‘seventies.
As a teenager, I used to ride my pushbike far and wide from our home in Hurstville in Sydney’s southern suburbs. One day I was peddling down Rocky Point Road in Kogarah when I happened to glance into the service bay of the Scarborough BP Service Station. Lining the walls, actually on the floor, stood rows of Manx Norton engines, perched upright like garden statues. These, plus a Vincent twin or two, were the power plants for the endless string of outfits raced by Stan Bayliss, who even by then in the early ‘sixties had acquired legendary status, especially in the St. George district.
Stan’s fascination for motorcycling, and particularly racing, began in 1948 when he was just 17 years of age. Acquiring a 500cc MSS Velocette, he joined the Maroubra club and took part in whatever sport was going; at that stage limited to mainly sprints and club races. His first trophy was achieved in the same year for clocking up 108 mph on the Velo. His younger brother Mervyn, and elder brother Barrie were both racers of some repute, with Barrie making his Bathurst debut in the Junior Clubmen’s class in 1953, followed by Stan in 1954. Barrie won the hotly-contested Junior B Grade Clubman’s class at Bathurst in 1957 on a Velocette. Stan continued in the Junior and Senior Clubmen’s classes until 1959, and in the re-named Junior and Senior Non Expert classes until 1964 with a 350 Velocette and 500 Norton. In 1961 his stable grew to include a self-built Norton-engined outfit with which he contested the Junior Sidecar class with Keith Purcell in the chair. Gradually sidecars captured his attention; his last
solo rides at Bathurst were in 1964; the year he and Ken Teasdale managed a podium position with 3rd place in the Junior Sidecar TT.
As well as road racing, Stan was heavily involved in Speedway Sidecar racing with a constantly-evolving range of machinery that included an Indian, and Ariel Square 4, and 8/80 JAP (which destroyed itself by shedding its flywheels while being warmed up in the pits at the Sydney Showground), and finally a Vincent which did service for many years. With Keith Purcell and later Herb Turvey as passenger, there were trips to Queensland to compete at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds Speedway, usually in conjunction with a road race meeting at Lakeside, and on one occasion, a one-mile dirt track at Arthur Park. It was always a packed weekend; practice at Lakeside on the ‚
Saturday, then dash into Brisbane to ride at ‘The Ekka’, race at Lakeside on the Sunday and drive back to Sydney overnight ready for work on Monday.
It was a period of fierce competition in the sidecar ranks, especially if you had a fast Vincent, but on the Norton Stan and Herb Turvey enjoyed a successful Bathurst in 1965, finishing second in the Junior Sidecar and third in the Senior. A few lean years followed but for the Australian TT, held at Phillip Island on 3rd January 1970, Stan and new passenger Don Blair found themselves facing the future of sidecar racing. On the Manx, Stan and Don were blown backwards in the Junior TT by Lindsay Urquhart on his newly-built kneeler powered by the engine of the first Honda CB750 to arrive in Australia. Even with the extra grunt of the Vincent for the Unlimited, the result was the same – Urquhart first, daylight second. A few weeks later at Bathurst when Urquhart blitzed the field to win both races on the Honda, Stan knew what he needed and purchased the winning outfit. He also commissioned a second Urquhart chassis.
That did the trick, and in 1971 Stan and Don Blair took out both Bathurst sidecar classes – Stan’s first wins at the legendary track after 17 years of trying. Don Blair fondly remembers his time with ‘Team Bayliss’. “The first meeting I rode with Stan was the final meeting held at Catalina Park, Katoomba. We won both races in typical mountain weather – rain all weekend – on the Manx and Vincent outfits. Then after Bathurst in 1970 when Lindsay Urquhart won everything on his new low Honda kneeler Stan decided he had to have Lindsay’s bike and also asked him to build a second one. This was the start of many wins for us; 12 NSW titles, 2 Australian titles and the first NSW riders to win the Victorian Championship. At Bathurst in 1971 we lowered Lindsay’s lap record by five seconds. He was telling everyone that his Honda racing bits were coming from the USA but his cams were ground five minutes from his workshop by Watson Camshafts. The pistons in the Junior outfit were from a Honda car and the Unlimited pistons were from a Honda stationary motor. I stopped racing with Stan in 1974 in order to be with my young family, but will always cherish my trips away with Stan and his wife Tess in the bus.
There were also the run-ins with officials and even photographs; he thought he should receive payment for any photos of him. He never really got over the fact that he had to stop racing after heart problems and it left a void in his life.”
Stan himself presented a gruff figure that journalists found somewhat intimidating, but in reality his mind was invariably in the workshop, searching for another minute tweak. He was
however, outspoken when it came to the state of sidecar racing in particular. “We put everything we can into the sport, approach it in a professional manner, put on a spectacular show which the crowds always appreciate, yet we’re still treated as poor relations by promoters.” In terms of the ‘spectacle’, Stan had definite ideas. “There’s no real spectacle with sidecars on a clockwise circuit. All you see ‚
most of the time is the passengers leaning over the back wheel having a bludge. Run the other way, most of the corners are left-handers and the crowds can see them leaning out and really working.”
Extending the team
In 1971, Stan’s son Steve (always referred to as ‘Barney’) joined him on the grid, riding one of the Manx-engined outfits from the family stable. Steve had been thrown in at the deep end at the age of just 16 when Stan entered him for a meeting at Oran Park. “Stan had an old TD1-B Yamaha that he and Mervyn had raced years earlier. It had just been sitting in the workshop when one day he said to me, you’re riding this at Oran Park on the weekend,” recalls Steve. “In my first race I was leading when the throttle stuck open so I just pulled the clutch in and let it destroy itself. At the next meeting, they put me into Division 1, at the back of the grid, up against all the stars. It was an 8-lap race on the short track and on lap seven the leaders caught up to lap me going through the ‘Flip-flop’. Bryan Hindle went inside me and Ron Toombs went outside, but ran into the back of me and fell off. Rob Hinton was just behind and hit Toombie’s bike and fell off and broke a collarbone. I didn’t fall off and rode it straight back into the pits and never rode a solo again. Two meetings later Stan entered me on his Manx outfit. There was a practice day one week before and he said, there’s the Norton, off you go.
I couldn’t even start it, but I went out and I think my first laps were about 90 seconds, and by the end of the day I was one second off the lap record. I wore a Manx Norton motor out and a set of tyres out – I just went round and round all day. So the next weekend was my first sidecar race and I ran third behind my dad in the 500 and finished second to Stan’s Honda in the Unlimited. I rode at Oran Park and Amaroo Park but I didn’t go much on Amaroo. The Norton ‚
had no brakes – none – while the Honda had discs and stopped really well. I went to Lakeside and did a meeting at Hume Weir for the King of the Weir meeting.”
Tall, thin Steve persevered with the old Norton, with Dave Lanachy in the sidecar, scoring his first win in 1971 in the B Grade Sidecar event at Hume Weir. In the following A Grade race, the Manx broke a crankpin and made a mess of the engine. “Stan had a Mini-wheeled outfit with a Vincent engine that had been built by Brian Payne, and after dad bought Lindsay Urquhart’s Honda the Vincent just sat there, so he had Payne remove the Vincent and replace it with a CB750 Honda sleeved back to 650 for the Junior Sidecar class. We got it back from Brian the Saturday before Bathurst in 1972 and we
had to finish it all off and get it going. I got a second and a third in my first meeting there and dad and I were first and second in the Unlimited TT.”
In contrast to his father’s smooth, controlled approach, Steve was already demonstrating his take-no-prisoners style that was such a big hit with spectators. The father and son duo began to dominate the action in NSW, Stan (with Jeff Randall in the chair) on the larger Honda and usually at the head of the Unlimited class, while Steve (with Graeme McGregor) became the regular winner of the Junior category.
At Mount Panorama in 1972, the last year the Australian TT was held as the official Australian Championship, Stan and Steve took first and second in the Unlimited Sidecar, and first and third in the Junior. When the Australian Road Racing Championships became a multi-round affair in 1973, the Stan and Steve Show totally dominated. Stan won the Unlimited title with five wins and a second, while Steve took out the Junior (with future solo star and Isle of Man TT winner Graeme McGregor in the chair) with identical results. In each case, the missing first place was filled by the opposite member of the team and despite only having a 650, Steve was runner up in the larger class. The following year the result was virtually the same, both retaining their titles. Steve took his third Junior title on the trot in 1975. The team had been supported by New South Wales Honda distributor Bennett & Wood, but as the CB750 engine became less competitive, things got tougher. Stan had long harboured a desire to race in Britain, and in 1976 this became a reality, although it was a harsh lesson. Prior to this, both Stan and Steve were part of an eight-strong squad of Australian sidecar teams brought to the Indonesian Grand Prix in November 1975, primarily to show the fanatical crowd what three-wheeled racing was all about. The 4.47km Jaya Ancol circuit had been built in record time on land reclaimed from the Java Sea near Jakarta, but as the track surface settled it became more like a motocross than a road race. It was especially tough on the outfits, no fewer than four of the eight (including Steve and Graeme McGregor) snapping chains in the opening race. Stan held on for third but also snapped a chain – putting it through the crankcase – on the warm up lap for the second race. This time, Steve held on for second behind runaway winner of both races, Alex Campbell with his son Russell in the chair. Leg three, the final race on the day’s card, had to be abandoned after the massive crowd swarmed onto the circuit and defied the efforts of the strong police presence to remove them. The Indonesian meeting marked the first time Stan and Steve had raced outside Australia, and they were hungry for more. As soon as the Bayliss outfits were back home they were offered for sale at $3,000 each.