Bathurst in the 1970s
What made Bathurst’s Easter races the most important motorcycle destination in Australia? In a two-part series, writer HAMISH COOPER and photographer PHIL AYNSLEY go back to the Seventies and Eighties to find out.
Another era of racing that happened at Australia’s most spectacular circuit. It delivered brilliant performance after brilliant performance that was peppered with wonderful viewing spots from the adjacent hills. Hamish Cooper tells the first part of the Bathurst story.
An unlikely circuit on the outskirts of a small Australian town was the country’s mecca of motorcycling for decades until the late 1980s. As well as being a showcase of local talent from its beginnings in the 1930s, the mountain circuit hosted some of the biggest international names in the 1970s. In this decade it also became a proving ground for the Japanese factories, with prototypes and works riders competing. To recapture the spirit of these times we bring you some snapshots of the Seventies at Mount Panorama. Next issue we go deep in the Eighties.
A golden moment
In the photograph, left, at the end of an Easter weekend, three riders share a joke while friends and family look on. Taken after the Unlimited Australian Grand Prix at Bathurst in 1974, the image sums up all that was great about Mount Panorama. It is also a snapshot of the moment when motorcycle racing changed forever in Australia, as a new international professionalism swept the sport. The man in the green Kawasaki leathers is Ron Toombs. Aged 40, he was known as the Master of Mount Panorama and had won more than 15 GP titles on Australia’s most challenging circuit. Five years later he would die on that circuit in a crash that rocked Australian motorcycling to its core. On his right, in the red leathers, is Warren Willing and the other youngster with the long blond hair to Ron’s left is Gregg Hansford. Toombs had battled all weekend with Willing and Hansford, who were barely half his age and had just a couple of years’ racing experience. In their last race of the weekend, Willing had just beaten Hansford to the line, with Toombs third. As well as being a spectacular race it was the start of a generational change in Australian motorcycle racing. In the photo, Willing has a Chesterfield sash around his shoulders, and a fat cheque for $A1000 from the cigarette sponsor heading his way. That will pay nearly a third of the cost of his Yamaha TZ700. Are the two young guns lording their victory over the old master? No way. There is a reverence here you seldom see on the podium these days. As you look into the background of this image you see a crowd sharing a special moment in the golden sunlight of a late afternoon spring day with the famous Mountain behind them. Most circuits lose their soul when the racing ends, but Bathurst was never like that. There was a unique bond between riders and spectators in a classic Aussie bush setting.
Mount Panorama was at its peak from the mid-seventies to the early Eighties. Its annual Easter races were both a pilgrimage for older riders and a rite of passage for youngsters. It was the same for the fans. You hadn’t lived unless you made at least one trip there on your motorcycle, with all your camping gear lashed to the pillion seat. High on the Mountain you’d set up a base for the four days with your mates. The chilly night was usually followed by early morning fog. This settled in the valleys below, so the campers were above the clouds, a slightly surreal experience. As the fog was burnt off by the sun, the sound of racing engines brought blearyeyed campers to the farm fences just above the track. The sheer pace was breathtaking. The bikes and sidecars seemed to be doing impossible speeds just metres below the spectators. Not only that, they were heading for a series of blind corners that got tighter and tighter, close to the edge, eventually funnelling the pack out onto Conrod Straight. This was the fastest circuit in Australia and, being part road, part dedicated race track, a unique challenge to riders.
Changing of the guard
There was a big buzz around Bathurst in 1974. Before then the bikes had shared the Easter weekend with cars. Now they had the Mountain to themselves. Chesterfield cigarettes helped bring the prize pool to a very tempting $A20,000, the equivalent of $A100,000 today. It was also the year monster two-strokes arrived, with 11 of Yamaha’s new four-cylinder TZ700 racers up against TR750 Suzukis and Kawasaki’s H2-R. These machines would blow the minds of spectators with their blistering speed of over 270kph down Conrod Straight.
They were just as spectacular slithering across the top of the Mountain as riders forced 100bhp through wheels rims as narrow as today’s Moto3 race bikes. Organisers also brought over several top international riders, including young American hotshot Pat Hennan and half a dozen top New Zealanders, battle hardened in Kiwiland’s new Marlboro Series. This started a trend that would result in factories sending some of their top riders and prototype machines to race at Bathurst. It was a weekend of new race benchmarks, the most impressive being the eight seconds shaved off the lap record in the famous Willing-hansford Unlimited GP duel. The sidecars were no less spectacular, with the Bayliss family dynasty dominating most races and lowering their class lap record by nearly seven seconds. You can get an indication of the crowd that year in Phil’s photo of Steve Bayliss and Graeme Mcgregor on their record-breaking lap. The fashions are a fascinating time warp, from Aussie ‘walk shorts’ and white kneehigh socks to the latest American-influenced funkster flat-caps and flared jeans.
Prototype or production?
One of Bathurst’s greatest mysteries was the epic victory by an injured Ken Blake in the 1975 Unlimited Production race. The ‘round-case’ 900SS Ducati (864cc) he was entered to ride at Bathurst was originally intended to be raced at the Castrol Six Hour in October 1974. This means it would have been built in mid-1974. And here the controversy starts, as production of the square-case 860GT, from which the 900SS soon evolved, only started in September that year. Ducati officially launched the 900SS (864cc), with square not round cases, in August 1975, long after Easter’s Bathurst races. But to be fair to history, Ducati had been racing 864cc versions of the round-case 750cc in endurance events since May 1973. At face value, Blake’s Ducati was a preproduction version of the new 900SS. The Bathurst controversy centred on its ability to beat the powerhouse Kawasaki Z1 900s on what was considered a horsepower track. Last away, Blake had 20 laps to get back into contention. One thing in his favour was that he could go the distance without refuelling, unlike the thirsty Z1s. In typical ‘Snakey Blake’ style, he applied
himself to the job, grinding out lap after lap at near record pace to win by the length of Conrod Straight. The victory was a world first for the Ducati 900SS model. As Blake rode into the pits, officials were waiting to take the bike off him. They knew nothing about ‘round case’ and ‘square case’ Ducatis. They were simply looking at the potential that it was massively oversized. Eventually, Ducati’s Bologna headquarters verified it was a genuine factory bike and not a hotrod bitsa, but doubts lingered in some people’s minds.
Factories fork out for fame
As Australian roadracing came into its prime in the mid-1970s, Bathurst became an important testing ground for the Japanese factories and their top riders. The 1976 event saw works rider Masahiro Wada bolster the Team Kawasaki effort while Yamaha sent out Ikujiro Takai on the latest OW31TZ750. Warren Willing became the first rider to break the 100mph lap record in a time of 2min19.5secs on his Kel-carruthers-prepared TZ750. The internationals soon got on recordbreaking pace as well. Takai won the main event, the 30-lap Unlimited GP, from Willing and Wada. A day earlier he was victorious in the Unlimited International race with three laps at over the magic 100mph mark and a top speed of 300kph. Takai returned in 1977 to repeat ‘the double’. Then in 1978 Yamaha sent out Hideo Kanaya while its American arm flew over top gun Wes Cooley and his Yank-tuned Yamaha. If that wasn’t enough to get the fans flocking to the Mountain, local Yamaha heroes Warren Willing and Murray Sayle were joined by Mike
‘the Bike’ Hailwood. The GP great was now a New Zealand resident preparing for his famous Isle of Man comeback. One of a few riders supplied with special long-distance fuel tanks, Kanaya made it a three-peat for Yamaha in the Unlimited GP while Willing did the same in the Unlimited International event. The introduction of the long-distance Arai 500 event in 1979 turned the focus from two-strokes to endurance/superbike spec four-strokes. This three-hour classic was won by Tony Hatton on a works-spec Honda RSC996 after fancied frontrunner American Reg Pridmore crashed his Kawasaki Superbike. As well as heralding a new decade, 1980 saw the Arai 500 reach its true potential. Here was a glamour race that fans, now riding the new wave of Japanese multi-cylinder roadburners, could really relate to. Among the 45 teams entered, Honda had several RSC racers, now boosted to 1062cc and other exotica included a Yoshimura-spec Suzuki and NCR Ducati. Centre of attention was the Kawasaki
Z1000SR ridden by Gregg Hansford and Jim Budd. The first year the factory endurance bike had been seen in Australia, the Z1000SR had led, but failed to finish a month earlier at Oran Park’s Coca Cola 800, missing out on the $10,000 first prize. The same amount of prize money was spread across the podium at Bathurst’s Arai 500 and fans expected a purpose-built endurance racer to win. But in an indication of how fast and reliable the big road bikes had become, the podium was filled with riders from the Improved Touring and Production classes. Michael Cole was outright winner on his Improved Touring class Honda CB900 with Garry Thomas second and Alan Hales third on their Production class 1100cc Suzukis. Like the Isle of Man TT races, it took more than just the latest technology to win on the Mountain.
How Bathurst started
With its twists and turns and lack of run-off, it’s hard to believe the circuit was actually built for motorcycle racing, not cars. The Mount Panorama circuit, just outside the small rural town of Bathurst, NSW, only got Government finance after locals said its main purpose was a tourist lookout. The first event was a combined meeting of the Australian motorcycle TT and the Australian Grand Prix for cars in 1938.
The track got the blessing of visiting Isle of Man TT racer hero Stanley Woods, the 1930s equivalent of today’s Motogp superstar Marc Marquez, who described it as “world class”. The Mountain hosted Australia’s most important motorcycle races decade after decade, right up until Phillip Island was reactivated for the World Grand Prix Championship. But in 1988, Mick Doohan proved this unique circuit could still change a youngster’s life. His win in the 1000cc Australian Grand Prix was a stepping stone to the world GP championship the following year and five 500cc championships.
A lap of the Mountain
Three hours across the Great Dividing Range from Sydney, NSW, the Bathurst track was a demanding, unforgiving but, ultimately, a fulfilling challenge for racers. While it doesn’t host motorcycle racing anymore, it still functions as a car circuit. Visitors can actually travel around the course anytime outside racing, at road speeds. From the start-finish straight, Hell Corner points you up the mountain to The Cutting. From there, a one-in-six gradient takes you to the top and presents you with a series of nasty bends, including the blind entry to Mcphillamy Park. It is here where the majority of campers would hang out, beers in hand, living their dreams through the efforts of the riders sweeping past in front of them. The Skyline marks the first steep descent through corners with such names as The Dipper and Forrest’s Elbow (famous racer Jack Forrest ground his elbow away after dropping his bike here in 1947). Soon you are on Conrod Straight, a scarilylong test of any engine builder’s ability. Then you arrive at a 90-degree corner to finish the lap.