BSA) downed Dave Powell in the 350.
Peter Ricketts brought his G45 Matchless
home first in the 500 race, but was
beaten home in the Unlimited by
Powell’s Norton. This meeting entered
local folk law when Sam Hughes, at full
noise heard a bang and lost power.
When he pulled up he found that under
the tank the head mounting bracket
held a small amount of metal with
nothing below it. The motor was spread
all over the track and it was made worse
by the fact that it was a borrowed bike.
Leading Sportsman class rider Laurie
O’Shea had a brand new 350 Clubman’s
Gold Star BSA for the October 1957
meeting. More and more local riders
were also crossing to the mainland to
race and the story pointed out that the
star of the meeting would be Peter
Thurley who the weekend before had
placed 3rd in the Junior TT at Fishermen’s
Bend. Not crossing to the mainland to
race but “crossing over to the dark side”
was Max Stephens who was down to
race a Buchanan MG car. Only a year or so
later Dave Powell was to do the same.
Cars, many of them home-made specials,
had all along been on the support card
for each meeting usually with 3 or 4
races in an up to 15 event program. In
fact on many occasions these basic cars
were raced with the sidecars, usually in
handicap races as sidecar stars like Trevor
Jowett with a 350 AJS could give them a
lap start in a 4 lap race and still win.
O’Shea’s new toy was a winner straight
out of the box beating Ian Tilley (348
BSA) and Dickie Lee (250 Velo) in the
Sportsman class race. The combined
125 and 250 class went once again to
Ev Sadlier on his home-brewed special
from Don Thompson’s rapid Bantam,
while Dave Powell took a 350/500
double on his Nortons.
Australia at the time was trying to
increase the population with quality
imports called 10-pound POMS. If
someone would sponsor a family and
find work for them the government
would pay most of their passage. The
Tasmanian Motor Cycle Club decided to
get in on the act and sponsored 5 men
whom had a motor cycling background.
Bill McGregor, a handy racer on the rise,
was one of them and won the B Grade
Clubman race. A combined 125-250-350
Sportsman handicap showed the officials
were on the ball. It was won by Ian Tilley
from Peter Thurley and Laurie O’Shea, all
on 350 BSAs. Although the bikes were
the same, Tilley was a rising star, Thurley
top line “A” grader and O’Shea almost a
star with a new bike. Chief handicapper
Jack Bratt allocated handicaps based on
times from previous meetings.
Talk of the meeting would certainly
have been that in 4 months a new track
near Hobart was to be opened called
Baskerville – the first purpose-built circuit
in Tasmania. It opened in 1958 to a
reported 20,000 crowd to show the popu-
larity of road racing following the great
success of Longford. Symmons Plains near
Launceston opened two years later and
both are still in operation. It was the time
spent “airport racing” at Valleyfield and
Quorn Hall that had set the foundations
for road racing in the state, but it was
time to move on and lock the gate, as
the Tasmanian Road Race Association
under the control of the Tasmanian Motor
Cycle Club, with the added expertise of
some other club officials shifted their
focus to Longford, Baskerville and a
continuation of beach racing. ■TOP CENTRE
Max Stephens
exits the main
straight on his
KTT Velocette
in 1952.
ABOVE Ev Sadlier- almost ready
to go racing.