Although the Laverdas had plenty of ground
clearance on the left side, Amaroo’s corners were
predominantly right handers, and the alternator
cover progressively wore itself away. Still, Rosenthal
and Barelli came home in eighth place, while the
Hughes/Byrnes 1000, which was originally listed as
finishing sixth, dropped to 13th after the lap scoring
charts were re-checked.
The following year, Rosenthal paired with Paul
Graydon on a new 1000 3C entered by Stanco, while
Lindsay McKay joined John Hughes on a Jim Eade-
entered 1000 3C. Bob Rosenthal recalls, “The bike we
rode in 1975 was a spoked wheel model. The 1976
bike had alloy wheels, which I think was about the
only difference. I think the wheels were made by
Campagnolo and were ultra-soft; tyre changing with-
out a machine resulted in bent wheels. We also had
problems with the hydraulic brake light switches
imparting sponge into the system, so we cheated and
by-passed them! But the 1976 bike didn’t really stand
a chance and although we did two more laps (327)
than in 1975 we finished way down.” The Hughes/
McKay faired better, clocking up 340 laps to be placed
12th, nine laps behind the winning Team Avon
Kawasaki Z1B ridden by Jim Budd and Roger Heyes.
That wasn’t quite the end of Laverda and the SixHour however. In 1977 Greg McDonald and Owen
Hughes brought the Stanco 3CL in 13th, although
the Jim Eade entry of John Hughes/David Braha
failed to make it to the finish. Owen Hughes on the
Stanco 3CL in the 1977
Castrol Six Hour.
Lindsay McKay on the
way to 12th place in
the 1976 Castrol Six
Hour Race.64 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
LAVERDA 1000 3C