picked up two more at Calder, Victoria in 1967
(125 and 250), and further 125 championships
at Salisbury, South Australia, in 1968, Ipswich,
Queensland in 1971 and St Kilda, South Australia
in 1974. In addition to the Short Circuit titles there
have been numerous Australian Long Track
Championships and an almost countless number
of state titles across Grass Track, Scrambles,
Long Track and Short Circuit.
Although he was a dab hand on the JAPs, it was
two strokes that really interesting him, and he
continually experimented in search of the competi-
tive edge. In the early days with his 125 and 250
Bultacos, he developed what he called his “Variable
resonator exhaust” – a cable controlled system that
increased torque at low revs for engines that had
been ported for high revs. It was perhaps these extra
revs that caused the Bultaco pistons to fail. “The origi-
nal Bultaco pistons cracked around the gudgeon pin
area, so I wrote to Mahle Pistons in Germany with a
blueprint suggesting they should reinforce this area.
They wrote back and said they did not suffer this
complaint. I immediately started to cast my own
pistons but finally had a die maker in Newcastle
rough cast my pistons which I then ground and
machined the Dykes ring grooves, they were a great
success. I was surprised within a year that Mahle had
made this same modification.”
ABOVELook closely in this photo of Charlie leading
Kevin Fraser and you will see two cables from the right
handlebar. One is the throttle and the other leads to his
‘variable resonator’ within the exhaust pipe. The device
greatly improved low torque.
BELOW Nigel Boocock and Charlie Edwards in
England in 1975 with the Hagon Yamaha 350.
Charlie working on Len Norris’ JAP at
Griffith in 2007, with former speedway
star John Langfield on crutches.The team at Dubbo: Les Lewis Senior on the right, Charlie centre.ABOVE LEFT Charlie (right) with great friend Les Lewis.
ABOVE Charlie with the Hagon Yamaha. On the right of
the engine near the exhaust pipe is the tiny 6cc
auxiliary engine to lift the capacity above 350cc.
LEFT Charlie in typical all-action mode.