LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA: 11arrival on the Velo I was made very welcome with
lots of tales about racing. I left for home with two
large packages of tuning parts for the Velo which I
was told was tuned by Ray Petty. This bike I used
very successfully in Production racing. My first race
was at Silverstone and Pat and Les came along to
advise on gearing and lines through the corners and
set me on my way in racing.
David Kidd
Woodbury, Devon UK
More on Geoff Perry
Ross Charlton’s letterabout Geoff Perry in
OBA72 was much appreciated. Many of us have a
personal `top three’ riders they saw in action (as
opposed to riders they read about, that’s a separate
list). Mine is, in alphabetical order, Hansford, Hennen
and Perry. Geoff Perry raced in Australia just twice to
the best of my knowledge; the Trans-Tasman Match
races at Amaroo Park and the Agostini meeting at
Oran Park. I’m still not sure I wasn’t hallucinating
when Geoff went down the outside of three of our
best TZ350 riders while braking into Amaroo’s hairpin
- astonishing. Of course, he was on a very good bike,
the NZ-developed Steve Roberts-framed 500 Suzuki.
On the same bike he bested all the Aussies at Oran,
only Agostini finished in front of him. I vividly recall
Geoff’s unusual line through and out of Energol Bend,
sticking to the absolute inside to shorten the corner
and maintaining that trajectory along the straight,
which contrasted with Agostini’s classic open line that
took him near the outside fence on the exit. Both
tracks were new to Geoff, surely he was on the➢Mrs Pat Wise on her 350 Manx Norton.David Kidd attacks Woodcote Corner at Silverstone
in his first race on the ex-Pat Wise Velocette.