The annual Victorian Historic Road Race Championships were held on the 7th and 8th of April, with Broadford turning on perfect weather for the event.
HMRAV again running a well organised event, who despite some delays on Saturday managed to run the full forty-five events for the weekend!
Machines from the 1940s up to the 1980s strutted their stuff with the riders’ ages reflected in the same spread.
Ken Lucas and Ron Mathews were racing before most of us were born and are still going strong! At the other end of the age spectrum, sixteen year old, Paddy Clancy piloted a sidecar with mum Chrissie in the chair; Chrissie also crewed Mick Alton’s Formula 2 machine.
John Clancy rode his post classic sidecar with Warren Grubb in the chair.
Highlights of the meeting included Chas Hearn blitzing the Forgotten Era Unlimited class on the T-Rex Racing Harris Honda; Hearn was circulating in well below one minute but still had time to entertain the crowd with the front wheel in the air.
In the Classic 500 class evergreen Bob Rosenthal battled a much younger Garth Francis, with the pair rounding the left hander at the start of the finishing straight handle bar to handle bar. Bob’s G50 Matchless just pipped Garths home brewed ESO special to the post and to a points win. Garth showed his versatility by then taking out the Unlimited Classic Sidecar class.
The growing Hand shift Battle pits Indians and Harley Davidsons against each other in a team format. Indians were victorious in round one but the battle will continue at Historic Winton in May and again at the Southern Classic in October at Broadford.
Not all went to plan at Broadford. Stuart Gorrie and Stuart Williams got it a bit wrong, at pit corner, with the BSA outfit involved in a frighteningly spectacular multiple rollover; Gorrie spent some time in hospital but is recovering well after surgery. Dad Doug will need to perform some surgery on the outfit, which he has been racing for over thirty years.
As usual the pits were busy with people working on their own and their competitor’s bikes.
Russell Craddock dominated the Unlimited Classic solos on Lady Penelope, despite yet again, spending much of the weekend working on other people’s machines, Craddock really personifies the spirit of Historic Racing, and he never fails to entertain with a “colourful” trophy acceptance speech! We won’t quote him here!
Full results are available at Computime: http://www.computime.com.au/meetings/index.aspx?MeetID=2018/VICHIST/
Photo Credit: SCE Photography – https://www.facebook.com/scephoto/