SENIORS ROAD RACES by Laurie Fox ONCE again adding to the remarkable success of the annual events for riders of the age of 45 years and over since their introduction many years ago, last weekend's Seniors Road Race meeting at McNamara Park was outstanding. With over 100 competitors, many bringing two or even three machines for different classes, the 39 races were supported by excellent fields with riders continuing to turn out in good numbers on Sunday despite the threat of rain. Failing to comply with the weather bureau's predictions, some light overnight showers fell after dry track conditions throughout on Saturday but Sunday's early slightly damp surface brought no problems and gradually dried until late in the day when the effect of light rain was barely noticeable. In keeping with the most acceptable programs of previous seniors' meetings, the many races included categories that gave contestants enjoyable opportunities regardless of their ages and those of their motorcycles. Complying with the basic aim of the Over 45s designation, the various rider age group events were possibly the most popular although with no restrictions on the types of machines obviously those with the more modern models had an advantage. Apart from the seven final Cups where the fields were decided by the combined ages of rider and machine, all other classes ran over two legs with the results decided on aggregates. In the 45 to 53 years class for bikes of up to 500cc, local Darren Trotter, riding Dave Atkinson's classic 500cc G50 Matchless, ran out winner of both races but, as suggested last week, given no room for error by Victorian Keith Campbell on a 350 Honda while Victorian Craig Longhurst on a 400 Yamaha, and Mount Gambier's Sean Kelly and Adelaide's Ken Ball on 250s of the same make enjoyed tussles as next best each time, making the overall placings Trotter, Campbell, Longhurst, Kelly and Ball. The same age group but for machines of 501cc to 1300cc saw Trotter again successful but this time on a modern 600cc Suzuki, winning each day's leg from clubmate Brendan Greene on a modern 1000cc Yamaha. On Saturday BEARS rider Paul Edwards brought his 1299cc Ducati into a close third ahead of Mount Gambier club members Kym Bolto on a 600 Yamaha and Russell Crane on a 1000 Honda with Preston's Wayne Forrest next on a 750 Suzuki. With Edwards a non starter on Sunday, Bolto was third followed by Crane, local Wayne Saunders on a 750 Suzuki and Forrest, making the overall result Trotter, Greene, Bolto, Crane and, on equal points, Saunders and Forrest. In the 24 strong 54 to 59 years events, Adelaide's Cafe Racer Club rider Howard Sabey was outstanding on his 959 Ducati, taking out Saturday's first leg from late entry Nick Jordan on a Kawasaki 1000, 1290cc KTM BEARS rider Fergus Gibson, Mount Gambier's Kym Davey on a 1000 CBR Honda and Adelaide's Juventus Club member Les Donnon with a 750 Suzuki. Sabey repeated on Sunday, this time beating Davey, Jordan, Donnon, Mount Gambier's Graham O'Neill on a C20 600 Yamaha and Adelaide's Trevor Green, who was seventh on Saturday on a 1000
Yamaha, making the overall placings Sabey, Jordan, Davey, Donnon, O'Neill and Green. There were two bike capacity groups in the 60 years and over riders, an up to 400cc where Hartwell's Terry Morris on a Nico TZ350 headed the South Australian trio of John Strauss with a BRZ 400 Suzuki, Otto Muller on a TZ350 Yamaha and Chris Green's LC 250 with Mount Gambier's Mick Engberg on a 350 Suzuki sixth on Saturday while Sunday's placings were Morris, Strauss, Engberg, Green and the wonderful woman veteran Peggy Hyde on a 400 Yamaha followed by Hamilton's Les Toohey on his much loved 350cc BSA Gold Star. Overall, Morris was best from Strauss, Engberg, Green, Hyde and Adelaide's Ross O'Neill with a P3 350 Norton-BSA. In the 60 years and over for bikes of 500cc and larger, Saturday's race went to Hartwell's Albert Tehennepe with a 1200cc Harris Kawasaki, only just heading the Harley Club's Denis Ackland on a 1260 Kawasaki after a great battle, while HMRAV's Mark Lithgow with a 550 Kawasaki and Bob Rosenthal on a Matchless G50 had another tight tussle, heading Mount Gambier's Graeme Wagland with a 600 Suzuki and Toohey on his 500cc Gold Star. With a smaller field, Sunday's leg saw Ackland turn the tables on Tehennepe after another tussle followed by Rosenthal, Lithgow, Toohey and Adelaide's Murray Johnson on a P3 500 Manx Norton, making the final result Ackland, Tehennepe, Rosenthal, Lithgow and Toohey. Turning to the categories where the ages of the machines were the determining factor, the Up to 350cc Period 3 saw Saturday's first leg go to Hartwell's Darell Bailey on a 350 Ducati, beating 350cc BSA Gold Star exponents Toohey and HMRAV's David Wain, Ross O'Neill and Otto Muller with his 250 Adler. In Sunday s Leg 2, Toohey, had his first ever Mac Park win, scoring from Wain, O'Neill, Gosford's Mick Jones with a 250 MV Agusta and Muller making Toohey the overall winner from Wain, O'Neill, Jones and Muller. Most popular with 500cc Classic enthusiasts, the Over 350cc Period 3 brought a first leg victory to Trotter on the G50, beating Victorian Rosenthal and South Australian Danny Ahern on similar models, Adelaide's Johnson on his 500cc Manx and Gold Star BSA pilot Toohey while in Sunday's second leg, Keith Campbell, who failed to finish leg one, scored comfortably on his 600cc ESO Special, heading Trotter, Rosenthal, Toohey, Ahern and Johnson. In the two capacity outcomes, the 500cc went to Trotter from Rosenthal and Ahern while the Over 500cc saw Victorian Peter Grenfell with a 650 Tribsa best ahead of his clubmate Martin Gratton on a 606 Royal Enfield, and Campbell. In the Period 4 post-classics even the moderate sized field was divided into three capacity results. Leg one saw Preston's Eric Giggins on the only large capacity bike, a CB1000 Honda, a clear winner from Adelaide's Chris Pash on a 500 Suzuki followed by Campbell on his 350 Honda, Peter O"Neill with another 500 Suzuki and Danny Ahern on his G50 Matchless while on Sunday the second leg brought another first for Giggins, beating Campbell, Pash, O'Neill, local Mick Engberg on his 350 Suzuki, and Ahern. In the overall results, the 250cc went to the Mount Gambier duo of Wayne Peters from Ross Peters, both on Suzukis, ahead of Adelaide's Neil Watson on a Yamaha while Campbell headed the 251 to 500cc group, beating Pash and O'Neill while Giggins collected the Over 500cc award.
Period 5 was similarly divided but with much larger fields and variety In Saturday's leg 1 the race was headed by Horsham's Robert Ruwoldt from Hartwell's Tehennepe, both on large capacity Harris Kawasakis and followed by Harley Club's Ackland on a 1260 Kawasaki and Hartwell's Dean Castleton with a 1000 Honda, the three minor place-getters enjoying a close tussle. With the full field again starting, Sunday's Leg 2 saw Tehennepe just head Ruwoldt in a tight struggle with Castleton well in the picture ahead of Lithgow, Adelaide's Chris Hayward on a Yamaha TZ350 and HMRAV s Craig Longhurst with a 400 Yamaha while Morris failed to finish. In the three categories, the Over 350cc went to Tehennepe from Ruwoldt and Castleton, the 350cc to Andrew McDonnell from Chris Hayward and Terry Morris and the 250cc to Adelaide's Rodger Knape ahead of Wayne Fary, Paul Hoey and Wally Ryan. More than 20 riders were keen to try their luck on powerful modern machines and there was plenty of fast action with lap times down to the 1m13s. Leg 1 went to Trotter on his 600 Suzuki, heading Brendan Greene and Howard Sabey on 1000s, Kym Bolto with a 500 and Russsel Crane and Chris Brown on 1000s while a partly reduced field on Sunday saw Trotter best from Sabey, Crane, Bolto, Andrew Saunders and Graham O'Neill with Greene failing to finish. Overall the 600cc went to Trotter from Bolto, O'Neill and Mount Gambier's Irvin Kelkl while Sabey headed Crane, Saunders, Adelaide's Kym McNamara and Greene in the Over 500cc. Apart from the events for rider age and machine age groups, there was much further exciting racing in the support classes for solos and sidecars. Mainly for riders and machines that for one reason or another may not qualify for other classes, the Limited had a big field of over 20 and produced plenty of interesting action. In the Saturday's first leg Mount Gambier club member Tim Leighton brought his SV650 Suzuki through to head Adelaide's Ducati mounted Shane Zakelj by just over 3 seconds with Chris Hayward of the Historic Road Racing Club of SA only another three seconds away for third on his TZ350 Yamaha. A short distance back two more Mount Gambier clubmen, Martyn Chambers on a 450 Honda and John Quinn with a 690 KTM finished in that order after a race long tussle with sixth placed Hartwell's Terry Morris on his Nico TZ350. With the few withdrawals including Morris, the second leg saw Zakelj score and turn the tables on Leighton while Chambers finished third clear of Quinn after Hayward dropped out at mid distance making the overall placings Zakelj from Leighton, the two on equal points but separated by the tie break rule. Chambers held on for third overall ahead of Quinn, Scott Bradley and Chris Pash with almost all of the many contestants completing the event The 20th Century and 20th Century plus models combined for a single class and, despite being a small field, there were still close finishes between the leaders in both legs. In Saturday's race Kym Bolto took his 600cc Yamaha to an early lead and, lapping just a fraction better finished just over 2 seconds clear of Preston's Wayne Forrest on a 750 Suzuki, the leading duo well
ahead of another tussling pair in Mount Gambier club members Les Donnon and Graham O'Neill on Suzuki 750 and Yamaha 600 respectively. While only seven starters turned out for Sunday's second leg there was still a close contest for honours, with Kym Bolto finally scoring again, heading Forrest by just over a second with Donnon and O'Neill next some distance back, making the overall result the same for the top four with Preston's Mark Johnson and local Allan Bolto next best. Providing for the small number of other bike categories, the Period 2, Class C and all era 125cc machines ran concurrently with two scratch races on Saturday and two handicaps on Sunday. In the first scratch event the late model 125s showed marked superiority with Adelaide's David Short just heading Hartwell's Andrew Coghill and Mount Gambier's Robert Day, all on Period 6 RS125 Hondas, followed by Hartwell's Terry Morris and Horsham's Don Sudholz on Period 5 models. Of the older machines quite a way back, Class C riders Paul Gloede on a 350cc BSA and Paul Dempsey with his 500cc Triumph were next followed by three Period 2 competitors, Dave Bunnett, the sole Western Australian at the meeting on his BSA 500, and the Adelaide duo of Neil Watson with a 350 Velocette and Chris Lang on a 635 BSA. Apart from Coghill heading Short to win the second scratch race, the next five placings were a repeat of Leg 1 while Watson managed to head Bunnett followed by Lang and Historic Racing Register President Trevor Henderson on his P3 125 Bultaco. Sunday's handicaps both thrilled spectators with close finishes, Bunnett just managing to hold Sudholz and scratch rider Coghill at bay just ahead of Watson, Lang and Day while Short failed to finish. The second handicap was even more exciting, Short in a sensational effort carving through from his tough scratch mark to just head early starters Watson and Bunnett at the last corner and win by 0.176s with fourth, fifth and sixth going to fellow scratch starter Coghill, Lang and Sudholz only a few seconds away. Taken overall, Bunnett took the outright winner's trophy back to WA with Watson, Coghill and Sudholz next only one point apart. As always, the sidecars added interest to the outstanding program despite scratchings. The sad death from natural causes of intended passenger Victorian Greg Pound just a few days before the meeting brought the withdrawal of David McArthur's entry leaving six outfits for the weekend. Expected to add much interest to the handicaps, David Wain's P3 Triariel had engine failure after one lap in leg one following long lasts in the scratch races, leaving only five crews to complete the meeting. In the first of Saturday's scratch races, Mount Gambier's David Jones with Tom Jeffree led almost to the finish on their 1100 Suzuki but a momentary hiccup at the last moment was just enough to let the Hartwell team of Mark Leigh and Ian Robertson through for a half second win with the SA Mud n Tars Club Kawasaki 750 outfit of Neville Lush and Martin Scott just getting the better of Adelaide's Geoff Grant with Phil Treacy on their Kawasaki H2 after a race long battle Mount Gambier's Adrian van Uitert and John Bartlett were next on their 1100 Kawasaki while and Greg Ditchfield enjoyed their historical outfit outing well over a minute and a half astern. Wain
Jones made no errors in leg two, romping away to head Leigh by over 7 seconds followed by Grant, Lush and van Uitert while Wain managed three laps, making the overall result Jones, Leigh, Grant and Lush. The sidecar handicaps were somewhat disappointing despite some very fast individual performances. Given a big start in leg 1, Wain only lasted a lap leaving Jones to fly through from a not tough enough back mark and win from Lush and Grant in another tussle, Leigh and van Uitert. In an almost opposite leg 2 follow up, Limit starter van Uitert was never caught, finishing several seconds clear of second starter Lush and third away Grant. There was, however, keen action at the tail where Jones, from a seemingly impossible scratch mark, turned in a great effort to just overtake Leigh before the flag with a margin of less than a second. Calculated on points from the two legs, the overall handicap placings were Jones by one point from van Uitert with Lush only one more point away for third ahead of Grant and Leigh The 7 cup races concluded the two day meeting with interesting contests. The 45 plus Cup for the youngest riders with the more modern bikes brought another victory for Darren Trotter and his 600 Suzuki, narrowly beating Howard Sabey on a Ducati with the two well ahead of the next four, Russell Crane, Tim Leighton, Andrew Saunders and Martyn Chambers. Wayne Forrest on a 750 Suzuki took out the 71 plus Cup less than a second clear of Graham O'Neill on a 600 Yamaha with Les Donnon, Sean Kelly, John Strauss and Marty Lorenz on a 1200 Harley making up the top six. In the 80 plus group, Eric Giggins was too good on his Honda CB1000, clearly beating Chris Hayward, Keith Campbell on his 350, Denis Ackland, Rodger Knape and Wayne Fary while in the 100 plus cup Campbell scored using his 600 ESO, heading Trotter on the 500 G50 Matchless, Peter O'Neill. Chris Pash and Mick Engberg. Bringing out the more elderly riders with some of the older machines, the 110 plus cup saw Bob Rosenthal on a G50 score from Les Toohey on, of course, a Gold Star BSA, Danny Gleeson with a 750 Norton Domiracer, Peter Grenfell on a 650 Tribsa, Ross O'Neill with his Norton-BSA and David Wain on a 350 BSA Gold Star. The Mixed early models and 125cc Cup saw the first four on Honda 125s, Andrew Coghill, David Short, Don Sudholz and Robert Day, followed by Paul Dempsey on his 500 Triumph and the 350 Velocette of Neil Watson. Completing the Cups, the sidecars went to David Jones from Mark Leigh, Neville Lush, Geoff Grant and local Adrian van Uitert