Historic Nationals Report

Under sunny skies, the Shannons 2013 Australian Historic Road Racing Championships has been run at Barbagallo Raceway, Western Australia. A huge event with over 150 riders treated the spectators to a great show of some of the finest historic racing motorcycles Australia has to offer.

Victorian Michael Dibb has rounded out his first Australian Historic Title in the Period 5 Unlimited class, onboard his Rex Wolfenden prepared, T-Rex Racing, Harris-framed Honda CB1100, with a perfect result of 3 wins after qualifying on pole and taking the lap record.

“It’s gone perfect for us really, the bike’s been awesome all weekend, hasn’t done anything wrong, Rex [Wolfenden] was saying to me before, that they noticed a bolt had come out of the front wheel fender and that’s the only work they’ve had to do all weekend, so the bike has been awesome, its been good racing.” Said Dibb.

“It’s a shame that Adam [Senior] had a few bike problems because otherwise he probably would have put a bit more pressure on, but its been really good, and helped by the fact that I’m probably on the best period 5 bike in the country, in my opinion”.

After a monumental effort from Victorian Stuart Loly, who faced adversities to even line up on the grid, after a crash in the Southern Classic meeting two weeks prior, caused him to have to rebuild his entire bike. Loly managed to take his bike to a 2nd place overall after 2-3-3 finishes.

Consistency paid off for local Tony Hynes who took his Motoplast Suzuki GSXR to a respectable 3rd place overall.

One of the busiest men in the paddock, Western Australian and current Australian Superbike competitor, Adam Senior, was competing in 4 different classes for the weekend, coming away with title wins in both the Post Classic 350cc and Forgotten Era 350cc classes.

Unfortunately after two straight wins in the Forgotten Era 500cc class, and an early lead in the final race, a mechanical issue on the second last lap meant Senior slowed up and crossed the line in 7th, losing the lead in points and dropping to 3rd place in the championship (64pts), with the Nico Bakker TZ mounted Terry Morris (66pts) taking the lead from Stephen Kairl (65 pts), in a championship top 3 decided by only 2 points.

Senior was also expected to be the local favourite for the Unlimited Forgotten Era class, however a crash coming onto the straight in the first race dashed his title hopes, and despite his efforts to remount was forced to DNF, scoring no points, eventually leading to a 7th place overall for the meeting.

Anthony McFadden has taken his Suzuki GSXR to a Period 6 title, after a thrilling battle in race 1 with Kawasaki GPZ900 mounted Ryan Taylor, he managed to run away with the rest of the races, leaving Taylor to dice it out with Tasmanian Chris Price, eventually coming in 2nd overall with Price rounding out the podium. After issues in practice with Taylor’s main engine he was forced to swap to his spare engine with less power.

“The start of the weekend wasn’t to plan, I’d say. But we finished up pretty good… I think we did two laps in qualifying which was lucky enough to get me into forth, but the time the first race came around we had it all sorted, got the win in the first race, and then two thirds in race 2 and 3.” Said Taylor.

After holding the Classic 500cc & Classic 350cc Australian Titles for the past 2 years in a row, South Australian Levi Day was hoping to back up his impressive performances and complete the hat trick of years and once again claim the titles in both classes.

In the Classic 350cc class Day stormed to an unmatchable pace claiming the title from Ian Glover & Bruce Marston. However after what seemed like a dream run came to an end after mechanical failure in the final Classic 500cc race forced him to stop whilst in the lead.

“It was so close to being a perfect weekend for me. I was racing in the P3 350 and 500 class. I put both bikes on pole for their races. I broke the 350 lap record by over 2 seconds and also set a new 500 lap record at a 1:05.9 which I was really happy with. I won all 3 races on the 350 and the first two races on the 500.

“I was taking it easy in the final 500 race to just bring it home, but unfortunately we had bike issues coming up to the final lap and I was unable to finish the race.

“It was disapointing to have a DNF but I have a lot of positives to take away from the weekend! two lap records and the Australian 350 championship, I’m very happy with that!

Thank you to Ron Angel Classic Racing and Jerry Kooistra for all their hard work and an really fun weekend!” Said Day.

With Day out of the running for the 500cc Classic championship it was fellow South Australian Jack Wright who steered his 1962 Norton Manx to victory in the final race claiming the championship from Graham Roberts and Greg Watkins.

“It wasn’t that easy, unfortunately Levi’s bike broke down, which was bad luck for him, but I suppose its good for me.” Said Wright, “The bike was going really good”.

Lindsay Donai and Christine Menzies piloted their Steve Riley Honda sidecar to a clean sweep of wins in the Post Classic Sidecar class, and breaking the class lap record that had stood for the past 13 years.

Local Tony Hynes has taken out the Unlimited Vintage Australian title onboard his 1938 Vincent HRD with a clean sweep of race wins, from Queenslander David Woolsey and Gary Tenardi rounding out the top 3.

The Classic Unlimited championship has gone to South Australian Joe Ahern on his Norton Domiracer, with Victoria’s Russell Craddock getting 2nd place, and Garth Francis taking out 3rd.

It was a Honda CB750 top 3 in the Unlimited Post Classic class, with each rider on the podium mounted on these machines. Simon Cook took out the top step with Rex Wolfenden and Nick Miller making up the rest of the podium.

The 2014 Australian Historic Road Race Championship is set to take place in Queensland at Lakeside Raceway, with details on the date still to be confirmed.

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