OVER a hundred racers and 150 motorcycles converged on McNamara Park to contest the South Australian Historic Road Race Championships for the 17th consecutive year on the weekend.
Warm conditions greeted the riders for Friday’s practice, before mid-20s on the weekend, which suited the riders on the new widened and redeveloped circuit.
The increased track width and surface change saw lap-record times tumble, with the course now completely different than last time the classic machinery were in town.
The event was run by the Historic Motor Cycle Racing Register of South Australia and president Danny Ahern said the venue is in the perfect location, half way between Melbourne and Adelaide, which once again attracted big fields of competitors.
“This year we also had about a dozen flag marshals drive from Adelaide to help with duties,” he said.
“That was hugely appreciated by the HMCRRSA and made for a good safe environment to participate.
“While a few races were combined classes, there were quite a few with enough numbers to constitute a field on their own.”
Ahern said there was no shortage of action for the many spectators who made the drive out to the iconic circuit.
“Spectators were treated to non-stop action on both Saturday and Sunday, with 18 qualifiers and 40 races heavily contested and many battles throughout the fields,” he said.
“Each class had four legs to gain points toward the championships in their individual class.”
There were plenty of well-presented machines, with one row of sheds in the pits boasting four Ducati twins, two G50 Matchless and a pristine WLA 750 hand shift Harley Davidson for the spectators to eye off.
The results showed the quality of the field, with Chris Hayward able to lower his existing lap record for Period 5 500cc bikes in his first race of the weekend on his SR500 Yamaha, before the revised track caught him out and he crashed out on lap three.
Simon Cook also lowered his lap record twice over the weekend for the Unlimited Period 4 solos.
Greg Watkins blitzed the field on his two Manx Norton’s to clean sweep all nine races he contested, including the Bob Jolly Memorial feature race.
Cook once again dominated the Unlimited Period 4 races and the Ken Blake Memorial race after the absence of his major rivals who dropped out with gearbox issues.
Murray Johnson took top place just ahead of Ross Bolding in the Class C hand shifted bikes.
Adelaide racer James Doddrell, mechanically supported by his father Paul, cleaned up the 125 class and the unlimited class on his beautifully turned out Period 6 bikes.
Overall Ahern said he was again pleased with the way the event ran, with this year’s meeting already set down for December 28-29.
