Old Bike Australasia — Issue 68 2017

OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA: 53

decade would take over as the premier

class in the country. But the early action

was centred around the Victorian circuits

at Winton and Calder, drawing big

crowds to watch the heroes wrestle with

the monster machines on tyres that

struggled to keep up with the

horsepower. Robbie Phillis on the Mick

Hone Suzuki, Andrew Johnson, on the

Syndicate Kawasaki, Scott Stephens, Paul

Feeney Malcolm Campbell and the

official Honda team of Dennis Neill, Mick

Cole, Alan Decker and Roger Heyes,

thrilled spectators with elbow to elbow

racing around the tight track. For four

years, Phillis claimed the series title,

which received a major boost in 1984

with the backing of insurance firm

Western Underwriters. The Albury rider

had already sealed his fourth series win

by the time the series concluded at

Winton in November, where Campbell

cleaned up on the day. One year later at

the same track, Campbell sealed the

TRACKS IN TIMEWINTON

Historic Winton meeting that began in
1976, featuring 9-time World Champion
Mike Hailwood as the guest star. Hailwood
rode a 500 Manx Norton belonging to
Charles Edmonds. Historic Winton cele-
brated its 41st anniversary in 2017,
making it the longest running event of its
type in the world.
As the ‘eighties dawned, Winton was
echoing to a new sight and sound –
Superbikes. The class had grown in leaps
and bounds and by the middle of the

ABOVE Start of the 1972

Victorian TT. Peter Jones

(18), Ross Hedley (137)

Ron Toombs (63) and John

Maher (32).

BELOW Darryl White heads

Brian Fisher in 1973.

BOTTOM LEFT Anything goes

at Winton, even a Maico-

Elstar grass tracker, seen

here in 1974.

BOTTOM RIGHT Graeme

Osborne holds off Owen

Ellis in 1973.

The battle for the 1973 Tom Phillis Memorial

Trophy between Rob Garner (38), winner

Kenny Blake (6) and Bob Rosenthal.