IMMORTALS OF AUSTRALIAN MOTORCYCLE RACING: THE WORLD CHAMPS

(Gelding Street Press)

Darryl Flack ISBN 978 0 6452 07057 Reviewer’s own copy

This is one of a series of books, which includes horse racing and cricket. The author has chosen 12 of Australia’s top motorcycle racers (although one of them grew up in Tauranga!) plus a number of ‘Honourable Mentions’.

It’s a good selection too, as there are champion road racers as well as motocross, speedway and endurance riders from the 1950s to today. The featured riders get a chapter each with a good range of photos. My main interest is in the guys competing in MotoGP and its predecessors, particularly the lethal 500cc two-stroke machines of the 1980s and ‘90s. During that period Wayne Gardner won one title and Mick Doohan was world champion five years in a row, despite both having suffered some pretty horrendous injuries in those far more dangerous days. Interestingly, Gardner and Kawasaki star Gregg Hansford both moved on to touring car racing with a fair degree of success. Another to race a car was Keith Campbell, Australia’s first world champion on a Moto-Guzzi, who briefly raced a Maserati 250F before he was killed in a bike crash in 1958. In 1961, Tom Phillis won Honda’s first world championship race and title but was killed the following year. Much later, Casey Stoner would become the 2007 MotoGP champion at the age of 22 then retired at just 26, after winning a second title.

World titles in the other disciplines were hardfought too; from the gruelling sands featured in the 9,000km Dakar Rally (Toby Price) to the sideways and brakeless bikes used in speedway (Phil Crump) and the acrobatic world of Supercross (Chad Reed).

An enjoyable, reasonably-priced and wellillustrated book.

$44.99 | Review by Mark Holman