CLASSIC RACER LANDMARK MOMENTS
and I was thinking to myself ‘If there are enough laps I’ll get to the line and he won’t have caught me!” Bill says laughing. “He’d catch me the first time at the top of the first hill on Conrod, and towards the end he’d pass me before the second jump, at the bottom of the dip where you go up the rise and then into Murrays.” By now the crowd were going wild and were cheering both riders on for the inevitable last-lap showdown. Would it be the local Australian or the former Bultaco works rider who took the honours? South Australia vs New Zealand, Yamaha vs Kawasaki – the race had all the hallmarks for a super-close ending, and so it was! On the final lap Molloy charged along Conrod for all its worth and left his braking to the very last moment to prevent Horsman’s lighter Yamaha from making a pass at the final turn, Murray’s Corner, since Bill was barely 10m behind. But, Ginger’s new twin discs were not up to the job. It all came down to that last corner where Molloy went outside of a lapped rider while Horsman darted inside. Horsman recalls: “He passed me at the bottom of the second dip, so we went over the jump together and he pulled away because of the extra speed of his bike, but he didn’t get that much on me. I’d say maybe three bike lengths, but because of his extra speed and because of the extra weight of the bike he had to get on the brakes earlier.” Ginger recounts: “On the last lap I did the two jumps as fast as I could and I was still getting into tremendous trouble. In the braking area I went down the left-hand side of the road into the final corner and was ready to peel off when I heard this bike behind crashing through the gears.” Indeed, Horsman had the front wheel skipping badly as he struggled to slow his Yamaha in time to make Murrays. “It was touch and go!” Horsman confirmed. “The front brake was basically locked and it was skipping along the road and jumping off the ground then going back down. I knew that I could stop, as while it was doing that it was okay.” Ginger again: “I thought ‘Bill's lost it’, and I momentarily lifted and he managed to slip underneath. If I hadn’t have lifted he would have crashed right into the back of me.” Even the crowd thought Horsman has too much speed on, however the South Australian made the corner in a big slide to put the TR2B hybrid in front! Horsman: “Ginger was on the outside of the road so that allowed me to get underneath him. So I got the first run into the corner, we went into the corner together but I was in front, and then I accelerated to the line.” Horsman won by an official 0.2sec ahead of Molloy, although Ginger still reckons he was only the thickness of paint behind. Bryan Hindle filled the podium. The crowd went mad and the titanic struggle between the two goliaths would go down in Bathurst history as one of the best races of all time. Molloy reflects: “I was on my 500 and I did a lap record on the last lap – both of us did! Bill said to me after the race: ‘I wouldn’t have rode that bike of yours Ginger, because you were getting into some horrible trouble coming over some of those jumps!’ and I was just going sideways.” Horsman: “We were both credited with an equal time for the new lap record. We both did the same time, but on different laps.” Horsman won the Senior, Unlimited and the Junior TT titles that weekend, which he added to his Junior, Senior and Unlimited Australian Grand Prix titles. The pair of them won the crowd that golden autumn day in Australia.