Old Bike Australasia — Issue 68 2017

52 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA

TRACKS IN TIMEWINTON

Rumble after Hinton ran off the track on

the third lap. In the Senior GP, Hinton

made no mistakes, winning the race

(shortened to 10 laps with daylight

fading) and lowering the lap record to

1.18. The action was no less frantic in

the graded races, with wins going to

Vince Tierney (650 Norton, Senior B),

Dave Pawson (BSA, Junior B), and Peter

Highland (Yamaha, Junior C and Senior

C). As always, the sidecars put on a

thrilling display, with Lindsay Urquhart

defeating Ray Foster and Ron Hempel to

win the Junior GP in an all-Norton finish,

with an identical result in the Senior

Sidecar GP. Foster set up the first sidecar

lap record at 1.25.

Finding a date on a crowded calendar

wasn’t easy, but a second meeting at

Winton took place in September 1963,

but there were no lap records as the

entire meeting was conducted in very

wet conditions. However this negated

the power advantage of the bigger bikes

and produced some surprise results,

with Ken Rumble, Len Atlee, Steve Oszko

and Bill Barfield all taking double wins.

It was Ron Angel who captured the

feature race, the first running of the Tom

Phillis Memorial Trophy, leading all the

way. Allan Osborne scored the first win

for an Aermacchi in Australia with

victory in the 250 race, while Barry

Thompson won the Sidecar race by

inches from New Zealander Bill Russell.

Winton secured the Victorian Grand Prix

for New Year’s Day 1964, and the event

would become a regular fixture at the

track, as did the Tom Phillis memorial.

Winton can also lay claim to pioneering

Historic motorcycle racing in Australia,

staging the first-such event in March

1973. The race was sponsored by
      Australian Motor Cycle News and won
      by Peter Hern on a 350 Velocette. “I was
      lucky enough to cross the line first in that
      inaugural classic race at Winton” says
      Peter. “It was run as a handicap event and
      as I was about to tip into Turn One after
      getting the chequered flag, my friend
      Clint Bradley on a Manx came past. One
      more corner and his name would have
      been on the trophy. Peter Lord and Derek
      Pickard put a lot of effort into getting that
      first race organised.” The AMCN Trophy
      race became a regular fixture and stayed
      on the program for several years, with the
      boom in Historic racing resulting in the All

state hero Ken Rumble, local stars Allan

Osborne, Barry Smith, Ron Robinson and

Alan Hopkins, South Australian Peter

Richards and all the leading sidecar

crews, was a 1.26 mile track laid out of

fairly flat grazing land, beside the Old

Hume Highway halfway between

Wangaratta and Benalla. Ten

corners had been jammed into

the layout, the signature being a

sweeping left hander that

tightened into a hairpin at the

far end of the circuit, originally

referred to as the Water Tower.

Although there were many

outstanding performances, the

star of the day was Eric Hinton,

who took three wins including

both the Junior A and Senior A

Grade races. In the Senior,

Hinton and Rumble (who

finished a close second) were

credited with the first outright

record for motorcycles at 1

minute 19 seconds. Richards

took out the 250cc race and

Osborne the 125. The first of

the two feature races, the

Junior GP over 12 laps, went to

Ron Toombs won three

successive Tom Phillis Trophy

Races on the Henderson

Matchless.

ABOVE RIGHTTight field in a

350 race circa 1966 with

Steve Osz ko (78), Ron

Toombs (63), Trevor Pound

(behind Toombs) and Fred

Hamilton (21).

LEFT Peter Jones about to head out for a 1966 Production race on a Suzuki T500.

ABOVE Graeme Treasure tests the limits of adhesion in 1972.