Sport Down Under
MALLALA MOTORSPORT PARK, OCTOBER 9-11, 2015
A two-stroke charge at the recent Australian Historic Road Racing Championships will give fresh impetus to January 2016’s Phillip Island International Classic, Hamish Cooper reports. In only his second meeting on Terry Mckinnon’s 1979 TZ750 Yamaha, ex-gp privateer Johnny Allen made a clean sweep of the Period 5 750cc class at Mallala Motorsport Park, South Australia, on October 9-11. He set a new lap record in the process and then led a trio of TZ750S into a scrap for podium finishes behind EX-BSB racer and Triumph factory tester Paul Young in the Period 5 Unlimited class, which had the biggest grid of the meeting. This is the first time TZS have finished so strongly in the championships. It also sets the scene for an exciting new era in vintage racing. Lap records were smashed in many classes at the biggest motorcycle road racing meeting held in SA for two decades. The event brought nearly 200 riders out on more than 350 motorcycles, covering all periods of racing from Pre-second World War up to 1990. Allen may have put the big-bore four-strokes on notice but, make no mistake, they still have the upper hand. The proof? Paul Young was barely challenged for his three championship race wins on Rex Wolfenden’s Harris Honda F1 (featured in the last issue of Classic Racer). So what motivated him to keep riding as fast as he could? With the early withdrawal of reigning champion Cam Donald after a practice crash, Young began a weekend-long pursuit of the lap record. By the end of the meeting on the dusty 2.6km circuit he had hacked 4.42secs off the old time held by Mat Childs on a Mcintosh Suzuki. “I’d be happy with that time (1min11.6secs) on a modern Supersport in pre-race practice,” he said. Allen’s best time was 1:12.8 in the Period 5 Unlimited, a huge step up from his lap record of 1:13.7 in the P5 750cc class. The TZ tussle for third place in P5 Unlimited was a duel between Adam Senior and Craig Ditchburn. The last leg of the championship chase came down to a brave braking duel at the oil-covered Northern Hairpin. “The lap before I ran in deep over the oil,” said Ditchburn. “The next time I got a good run on Adam through the Sweeper and made sure I got all my braking done before I tipped in,” he said. Senior gave an insight into racing a TZ750 hard. “I couldn’t roll through the oily corner (to maintain typical two-stroke racing momentum) so I had to use first gear and that is a dangerous thing to do on a TZ.” These big two-strokes have a new lease on life Down Under with most of the major engine parts (crankcases, gearboxes and crankshafts) being produced by Australian firms. TZ expert and former GP racer Barry Ditchburn was instrumental in getting Consortium Racing to replicate crankcases in Australia. His son, Craig, came second to Allen in the P5 750cc class and was third in P5 Unlimited. Real roads racer David ‘Davo’ Johnson, the fastest Aussie ever at the Isle of Man TT in 2015, was one of the meeting’s headline acts. He won a whole new legion of fans with some heroic riding on his father’s Post Classic Triumph Trident 750cc. ‘Davo’ won the Period 4 750cc title with a new lap record and stunned racers in the final P4 Unlimited race, finishing third and lapping within 0.6secs of championship winner Simon Cook (big-bore CB750 Honda). This race was perhaps the most exciting of the weekend, with Cook coming from third to pass Johnson and then overtake Dean Oughtred (CR970 Honda). Kiwi rider Terry Martin (Trident) was third overall. Several reigning champions from Lakeside 2014 successfully defended their titles, including Phil Paton in Period 3 350cc, Bruce and Graham Marston in Period 3 Sidecars and Lindsay Donai and Christine Menzies in Period 4 sidecars. Records were broken in 13 classes. Most notably Tom Bramich rode the Ron Angel Paton, the meeting’s most expensive motorcycle, with a new benchmark of 1:20.5 in Period 4 500cc. His effort on the DOHC twin-cylinder four-stroke made an interesting comparison to Adam Senior’s new record of 1:20.1 on his TR3 Yamaha two-stroke in P4 350cc. History repeating perhaps. Brett Simmonds set new lap records in P6 250cc and P6 750cc, while Dean Oughtred’s 1:14.397 in P6 Unlimited on a 1989 GSXR1100 was a gutsy effort on a model not noted for its handling prowess. Historic racers ate now looking forward to their next big event, the 2016 Island Classic. Among the first on the grid will be Johnny Allen. “I’ve missed the racing scene so bad,” he said of his eight-year absence from road racing. “What a weekend. I’ve now got a 25-hour drive back home to get the smile off my face. When you get to my age you see a lot of friends talking about the ‘what ifs’. This is my passion. I drove down from Brisbane by myself (a 2500-mile round trip) rather than fly because I wanted to do it like we all used to in the old days.” The Island Classic, held on January 22-24, sees Ireland joining teams from Australia, defending champions UK, New Zealand and the US. American Dave Crussell will be bringing out several TZ Yamahas but defending champions UK will be hard to beat being the most organised and strategic team last year.