54 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
TRACKS IN TIMEWINTON
title in a crash-strewn contest that saw
Len Willing as the day’s top-scorer.
Perhaps the most significant
motorcycle race ever held at Winton – at
least in name – was the Australian Grand
Prix, which took place on the weekend
of October 31st – Nov 1st, 1987. Wayne
Gardner had just secured the World
500cc Championship, and Australia was
going GP mad at the prospect of holding
a round of the championship in 1989.
There was much manoeuvring going on
as to where such an event could be
held, and who the promoter would be.
The ACCA was lobbying for a revamped
Calder Park, Motorcycling Victoria
wanted Sandown, and a separate entity,
Barnard project Management, headed
by Bob Barnard, who had constructed
the Formula One circuit in Adelaide,
wanted to rebuild the crumbling ruins of
Phillip Island. To prove their bona fides
(and to demonstrate to the FIM that
their submission was superior), BPM
undertook to promote the Australian
Grand Prix, which in recent years hadbecome entrenched at Mount Panorama,
Bathurst. BPM spent a considerable
amount of money in the lead-up to the
event, and even organised a helicopter
to pick up Gardner and his fiancé Donna
Forbes from Melbourne Airport and fly
them to Winton, where the new WorldChampion demonstrated the new Honda
VFR750 – the only one in existence.
Three temporary grandstands were
erected around the circuit in anticipation
of a bumper crowd, who would also be
treated to an air demonstration featuring
the only flying Spitfire in the country.TOP LEFT Dennis Skinner’s
810 Honda outfit in 1974.
TOP RIGHT David McLennan’s
7R AJS in the AMCN Trophy
of 1974 – one of the
earliest Historic Racing
events to be held.
ABOVE 1974 shot of Gavin
Porteous and Darrell
Decker.
ABOVE RIGHT Seems like
Graeme Laing wasn’t the
only man to race a Suzuki
Step Through, as this ’74
shot shows.
RIGHT Greg Johnson aboard
the ex-Warren Willing
Yamaha TZ750 in 1976.