bathurst bike races

[shorelinemc]

i know not vmx but this should be good for a giggle ,1st bathurst managed to get home from bathurst to brisbane on $1.78 any more bathurst stories bikes only

[Lozza]

Was there camping for the 85 riots. Would take a month to type what I saw there

[Moto]

I was there too, Plenty of entertainment on the mountain those nights. I remember the VW beetle driving along one minute, then set on fire,then being kicked and punched flat all in the space of five minutes by a very angry crowd then rolled up to the police compound. I have never seen such aggro as they did to that car that night.

[Curly3]

The real motorcyclists ( competitors ), rarely ventured up the mountain.
My father sponsored several riders in the 60's and early 70's ( Billy Mac won the production race in 196? on a Suzuki T500 Cobra ) and we only ever went near the track on race day's.
We used to camp at the Caravan Park in town that was opposite the Trott's.

[Tim754]

Teenager.  naughty non genuine name ,ID  and racing license...early kneeler type two and four stroke sidecars over the mountain course!!!! Fooking unreal memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tim754              I mean have you ever been hanging on literally! basically laying on a modified two stroke 750 Kawasaki triples scraeming unsilenced chambers ( ) at who knows what warp speed coming down the mountain???

[shorelinemc]

crashed a gsx 1100 tranzac outfit in the cutting ,thought shit i survided that,thought the bike was handling a bit funny looked around and saw passenger getting dragged behind the bike,hit the brakes and pulled back.being young and stupid didnt think at the time that we should pull up and have a look,it did occur halway down conrod then backed to go into the pits for a lookjust after this decision(dropped down to around 40km by this time) the back tyre blew ,fought it for a bit -massive tank slapper/fishtail it flipped up on its side launches the passenger very surreal to watch whilst sliding sideways on the side of the outfit.passenger lands on his arse,continues sliding me still sliding sideways,gets down to i guess about 40-50 km he thinks oh good in i can stand up now wrong then procedes to fly thru the air absoluty hillarious

[Curly3]

One year a few mates and I ( 8 or 9yo ) were at the clearing behind Mcphillamy Park watching the Helicopter joyflights take off & land when one of the operators came over and offered us either $5 or a joyflight each if we carried their advertising sign around the track to all the spectator areas.
I wanted to take the fiver but my mates talked me into going up, I shat myself and had my eyes closed pretty much the whole time, that is probably where my fear of flying started.
Probably that same year we had climbed through the fence onto a rock ledge that hung over the esses somewhere, when a sidecar crashed into the armco barrier and severed the passengers left arm, I still have vivid memmories of the passenger laying on the track with a stump and his arm laying near the armco.
We went up there every year for several years and dad had to take up both road racing and short circuit bikes because there was always a meeting on at Cowra or Orange on the monday.
I loved those trips up there because I got out of school on the thursday before.

[steveo247]

i cant remember any bike races up there, bit young. but i ave ridden my yz250k around the track !

My family always used to go to the car races up there, and we used to sit on caltex chase right where the front yard of the new hotel is now. Dad and his mates used to drink and watch the races, that bored us kids and i can clearly remember dad lifting us over the fence so we could all play in the sand in the sandtrap at the end of the chase. complete with 270 odd kph cars flying towards us.

dont think that would happen nowdays somehow ! 

[pancho]

Went there every easter from '57 till around '72.
Have some hilarious memories from that joint, including Ray Curtis describing deep sea fishing using 'flat rabbits' for bait. and jumping out of my skin when somebody blue the rs out of a postal pillar box over the road from the pub.
 Dont know what was posted but it wasn't a letter.
cheers

[zorroz]

I was there too, Plenty of entertainment on the mountain those nights. I remember the VW beetle driving along one minute, then set on fire,then being kicked and punched flat all in the space of five minutes by a very angry crowd then rolled up to the police compound. I have never seen such aggro as they did to that car that night.

This is from http://www.acr.net.au/~davidandjane/riota_20020416.pdf about riots in oz:

Again the riot took the form of a kind of game; riot police charged, bikies ran away, and then reformed
in front of the station as the police retreated to safety from the barrage of missiles. After
a handful of arrests were processed, another charge would take place. At one stage a
Volkswagen Beetle was set on fire and then rolled end over end towards the police compound,
prompting another charge from the TRG.

[Lozza]

That was pretty much as I remember it.I watched some nutter keep 5 or 6 TRG at bay with a No Standing sign post. Swinging the lump of concrete around in a circle, he was on the top of that burning Channel 7 car for a while. I am certain there were elements of the TRG that looked forward to Bathurst as much as the bikies did. 'Half time change sides"

[Moto]

 I was there for most of the riot years.As you said Lozza the police used it as a live training ground.
 The article says that in the end they banned alcohol from the mountain and that ended the riots.
The reality was however that they removed the police and their compound and then peace returned to the mountain.

[shorelinemc]

the nutter holding back the coppers is a mate of mine ,wont mention his name ,also know who torched the  7 car. -it was a set up for tv footage,i know one of the cameras ended up in qld as a souvenier-old camera at that.xj 650 turbo trying to do burnouts in the toilets what a useless bike the owner torched it cause it was such a piece of crap

[JAP 454]

Bloody hell, it's all coming flooding back to me , 'Er Indoors and I were there the year the camera vehicle was wrecked, what about the sheila who tried , or did she succeed ?? , in doing a " hambone ", as it was called in the group I knocked around with, on top of the Cops building.Don't remember what year that was
By the way the same group that had met on the Mountain at Easter since 1959,and never missed a year, still meet every Easter at Sofala.
I did miss 1967 cos I was in Qld and didn't have a bike.
I was arrested twice at Bathurst , once for swearing at my stalled Walla outfit outside the Knickerbocker , told the agricultural piece of Yankee s**t exactly what I thought of it , got lifted of the Harley by the most Neanderthal looking Sergeant and given a right old flogging, gave a bit back mind !!, cost me 10 quid that did.
The other time , 1965 or '66 I think, I had ridden up to Bathust on the nicest little Trumpy I had ever had, an all alloy , swing arm ,Tiger 100, I arrived there with 10 quid, when they arrested me that evening, pint in one hand , matchstick in the other, letting down the third of the Bun Waggons tyres, once again outside the Knickerbocker, I had one and sixpence left, at least that's all the Cops gave me back
'Er Indoors brother, EA and I hadn't met yet, took the hat around the Pubs to raise me bail money, he got more than was needed,  but the Cops kept the change, bastards.
AAh well.See ya
Foss

[chrisdespo]

you just had to love the easter break in bathurst. We used to take our bikes up from vic and spend days trying to get the jets just right Rm125s in a road frame 117 mph down conrod it was good then no silly bloody chase . can rember a battle between Hansford and Willing both on big TZ yams must have changed the lead multi times every lap. and over the last hill at the wind sock near every bike either getting air or wheel standing out of sight. and the other thing you never forget is the weather. oh and as for the dickheads up the hill they could never really take the focus away from the racing try as they might.