Mac attack
Easter 1982: Big crowds and big bikes. The Arai 500, now in its fourth year, was the showcase and ultimate gruelling test of the latest and greatest Japanese four-cylinder road bikes. As well as an engine having to survive three hours at full throttle, a rider had to hope the tyres and suspension could cope with the constant pounding of Bathurst’s unique mountain course. A few years earlier, 900cc was a lot of motorcycle muscle. Now production bikes were being raced in capacities up to 1300cc. The Arai 500 set an 1100cc limit for 1982, so there was a fair bit of last-minute activity to get bikes entered at the right capacity. Several ‘prototypes’ with one-off frames, had been entered in previous years. But they had yet to break through for a maiden victory. What won this event was factory reliability, not experimental technology. That all changed when Kiwi Rodger Freeth finally broke through to win on Ken Mcintosh’s Suzuki four-stroke special. Freeth’s Suzuki was down on horsepower and top speed compared to the frontrunners. It had finished the New Zealand season in 1200cc form and to get it back to 1100cc the high-compression Yoshimura pistons were replaced by stock GSX1100 items and milder cams installed for reliability. Pundits had their money on the Mick Hone Katana 1100cc Superbikes of Rob Phillis and Mick Cole. Despite appearing to handle much better than the Katanas, the Team Honda CB1100RCS of Andrew Johnson and Greg Pretty had been disappointingly slow and no one was counting out John Pace, on the Peter Molloy-built 1100cc Suzuki. An indication of how the top teams had detuned to last the distance was the fact that the Production sub-class of the race wasn’t that far behind the big boys in lap times. Some big names in this class were Peter Byres, Neil Chivas, Roger Heyes, Rod Cox and Neville Hiscock. Freeth spent the first half-hour shadowing the leading bunch of Phillis, Pace and Cole. Then, on lap 15, he picked up Cole and slowly reeled in Pace before closing in on Phillis. He was giving up at least 10km/h to Phillis down Conrod Straight, but the superior handling of the compact Mcintosh Suzuki came into its own over the top of The Mountain. But Phillis starting experiencing front brake and tyre issues. Freeth eventually finished a full two laps ahead of Byers, with Wayne Clarke another lap farther back. Finally, a ‘prototype’ had won the Arai 500. Freeth would finish second in 1984 and won it again in 1985 on a single-shock version of the Mcintosh chassis. By now nearly 30 road-going replicas had been built and sold. Eventually, 50 Bathurst Replicas were sold, many through Mick Hone’s Melbourne Suzuki dealership.