86 amcn.com.au
Perhaps the best example of lateral thinking
was Greg Pretty’s chain-drive XS1100. Tuner Mal
Pitman realised the shaft spline on the engine’s
right-angle drive unit would fit a countershaft
sprocket from a TZ750. He used TZ wheels and
sprockets, and made up a swingarm to suit. The
engine also received a race kit from Yamaha,
another indication of how close some Australian
retailers were to their manufacturers.
Also memorable was John Pace’s exotic
Kawasaki-powered Moriwaki, which ran a nylon
drive sprocket in 1981, and the MV Agusta that
William McCulloch raced at Bathurst in 1982.
In 1983 Andrew Johnson took Honda’s V3 Grand
Prix RS500 to a new lap record. Later that year
Freddie Spencer would win a world title on an
RS500. Mal Campbell took over RS500 duties for
the 1986 meeting.
Kevin Magee won the Arai 500 in 1986 in only his
second year of competition on the Mountain. His
Yamaha FZ750 had a factory race kit fitted. Also
in 1986, Michael Dowson won the 250cc-350cc
double on GP-spec Yamahas.
Andre Bosman and Dave Kellett then made a
clean sweep in the 1987 Sidecar races on their
immaculate outfit.
And after a six-year absence the bikes returned
to Bathurst in 2000. Kevin Curtain won all his six
races on Yamaha’s R1.GLORY DAYS BATHURST
Bad Bathurst
Bathurst’s popularity for motorcyclists waned in
the mid-’80s after years of riots.
In response to big clashes on the Mountain in
1981, police brought in the newly formed Tactical
Response Group the following year. Sadly, the
situation didn’t improve. There was the annual
confrontation and dozens of police and fans were
injured, with more than 100 bikers arrested.
As well, draconian police monitoring of the
crowd, which could involve several policemen
confronting a solitary rider entering the
campground, dulled spectator enthusiasm.
A study undertaken later by the NSW BureauTo p. The massed starts
were as breath-taking
as the race across the
Mountain itselfAbove. Camping at the top
of Mount Panorama was
a Bathurst tradition that
became almost a rite of
passage for motorcyclists