The Beau Show
• 1-3 April, 2022 – McNamara Park, Mount Gambier SA
Mt. Gambier Motorcycle Club 2021 Australian Historic Road Racing Championships
After twice falling victim to Covid, the 2021 Australian Historic Road racing Championships finally happened in April of 2022. The event covers Historic eras from Period 1 (up to December 1919) right through to Period 6 (ending in December 1990) along with Sidecars, although the Period 1 & 2 classes are getting pretty thin with no Period 1 bikes competing and only 7 Period 2 entrants. No doubt this is due to the riders getting to an age where racing is just a bit beyond them. On the other hand the
Period 5 & 6 bikes seem to be dominating the entries with a healthy number of Period 3 & 4 competitors. Riders ventured from most states and territories except Northern Territory.
Thursday was practice, Friday entailed two qualifying sessions and the racing was over Saturday and Sunday with each class having four races to determine the national champion. The weather was relatively kind over the four days with Thursday and Friday being windy and Saturday mid morning seeing just a few spots of rain although not enough to wet the track with Sunday being the best weather. Star of the meeting was Coffs Harbour’s Beau Beaton, armed with sensational machinery from the Irving Vincent stable. Beau annexed the period 4 Unlimited and period 5 Unlimited solo titles, then switched to the Period 5 Irving Vincent sidecar (with Noel Beare in the chair) and collected that trophy as well.
Otto Muller had his 250cc Adler ridden by Martyn Chambers in a very distinctive ‘black with brightly coloured dots’ helmet. David Short made an appearance on his 125cc Morbidelli with Peter Heles astride a CZ 250 GP replica. The Italians were there in numbers including a couple of Bimotas, 492cc SB2 and a 1000 cc YB6. Ducati was represented by a few tiddlers (250 & 350cc) along with TTs and Pantahs as well as a round case 900cc. Moto Guzzi fielded a sole bike in a standout colour scheme of white with red and green stripes and a red frame. There were also a couple of 350cc Aermacchis competing in Period 3. Shouldn’t forget the 1973 500cc
BM3 Paton which is part of the Ron Angel collection.
Some other rarish bikes were a Rotax, 1980 250cc Armstrong CM35, 1979 Nico Bakker Rotax 250 and a couple of Harrisframed Kawasakis. The Period 3 bikes have been around for quite a few years but some may consider them rare, at least in today’s age of the Japanese and Italian marques. Even so there was a fair spattering of the British bikes including BSA, Norton, AJS, Triumph, Matchless, Velocette, Manx Norton and the combinations of frame and engine such as the Triton and Triel.
Alex Trnovsky, president of the
Mount Gambier Motorcycle Club, echoed the sentiments of everyone when he said that the meeting was an outstanding success, both for the competitors and the large turnout of spectators. It was certainly something that was sorely needed to bolster the spirits in Historic Racing, which have been laid pretty low recently with Covid and the loss of the once-great Island Classic. For full results visit: https://www.computime.com.au/Meetings/index?MeetID=2022/AHC22/ ■