Here's the last two of Mark's pix from Young and a bit of a rave on from me
Michael Cady heading down past the pits, some TQs in the background
Mark having a bit of a spell next to his Ossa and JAP musta been before the races.the bikes are clean
Looks like #541 in the background is using the top frame tube as the fuel tank !
All these pix, thanks to Mark, got me thinking about Young, here's a bit of a yarn about me at Young
Y’know, posting these Young Short Circuit pix of Mark’s got me thinkin’. As I said before, some good memories of Wambanumba and some not so good.
The good ones, where do I start?
Top of the list, as a C grader, was watching the late Geoff Curtis there as he blasted his way around Young. One tight corner at the top of the hill before you went down past the pits, most guys including me, braked hard on the way in then on the gas out of it. Not Geoff, outta the right hander before this corner, he never even shut off, full noise, out in the cushion, spraying dirt into next week !!!, One day, One day !! , I says to me-self !!!
Then there was Charlie Edwards, bloody hell that man could steer a slider !! Watching him off the end of the main straight was something else again. His bikes were always VERY quick and he did a lot of the engineering on the motors himself, cast his own barrels and heads etc.
As a rider, he never gave an inch and he was a great guy. He borrowed some bits off me JAP at one meeting, couldn’t thank me enough. As a lowly C grader, Charlie and the rest of the A graders were like Gods to us young fellas.
And what about the Pom Vs OZ Test matches there?? That wasn’t Short Circuit racing, that was bloody WAR !!
Slides has got a DVD showing a big Pom/ OZ prang in one of the Test matches off the end of the main straight, no place for the faint hearted , I can tell you.
There was great camaraderie amongst the riders, as there was at most Short Circuit meetings
OK, the not so good,
A mate lent me his Mantossa chookie to ride in the 250 C grade, got some BP Zoom for it on the way down. Didn’t go too hard in the heat and semi just made sure I got into the final. No need to show your hand early on, ya know !!
At the start of the final I got the hole-shot an bolted. Three or four guys slipped past me into turn one, so I rounded them up in the twisty bits and got back onto the straight in the lead. Only two got past me on the straight that time but I could hear the pack coming like a swarm of bees.
Into the twisty bits again, I gotta get a real good lead this time and got it going onto the straight, head down bum up, here they come, but I gottem !! Into turn one flat stick, and the world turned upside down an any which way. The photo of the prang made the Area News. Bloody bike was stompin’ on me , upside down!! in all the tactics, I’d forgotten I was on a chookie not me Hagon !!!
When I came to, the Ambos were there. “ Where’s me bike?” says I. “Forget it, Sonny” says the man in white. “ You ain’t riding anymore today, you’ve been unconscious for five or ten minutes”. I still have the scar and lump under me chin to remind me.
EA, in the pits, is having fits, ‘cos the announcer is sayin’ things like , “454, Garvey’s down on turn one, it looks bad folks ,he’s not moving !!” Did I get an ear-bashing from her on the way home!
Fast forward a couple of years and it’s the ’75, I think, NSW Titles at Young. I’m a B grader by then, Elstar 4B JAP, flash leathers and all. EA didn’t come to this meeting, bro Jim and me Dad did.
In the Unlimited, I drew a good heat, not too many top guns in it, got into the semi, and then made the final. “Phaark” thinks I, this is the big time, gunna have a real good go at this one. I front to the start line, hangin back a bit so me rear wheel doesn’t spin up on the oil from the total loss system. Other riders playing head games, got called to the line, into second gear, staged, all fired up then they called the start off, @#$@#, back into neutral, to save the clutch, paddled backwards to get out of the oil. They call us up again, flag goes an I’m still in bloody neutral, jammed it into second and gave chase. Got the shits big-time, out of turn one I’m fourth, got into third place going up to the left-hand sweeper, Langy is out in front, bolting. I pushed the guy in second all the way onto the straight. He clamped me down in turn one, so round the outside I goes, got him !! Into the sweeper sideways, flat in top, and this bloke tries to push up the inside, collects the inside of me front wheel an OVER she goes, OTB goes I. Don’t remember much but it seemed forever for the world to stop spinnin’. The bike stomped on me a few times, broke a few bones and put others out of place. Me helmets rooted, the front wheel spindle is back past the JAP’s crankshaft, all the guards are buggered, front wheel like a pretzel, and when I came to, old mate in white is trying to cut me leathers off !!
“Leave them.” says I. “Your going to hospital was the reply” Not bloody likely !! “Me missus will get them off me, then I’ll go to the Docs”. Didn’t tell him it was 150 or so clicks back home, middle of winter in a leaky old Studebaker Lark station waggon with no heater. Shit I was cold when I got home.
EA got me leathers off, after giving me quite a serve. Took me to the Hospital next morning where they put a few bones back in their rightful place, an’ they gave me a serve as well !!
Aah well, we’re still here and EA and I are still best friends, AND we’re still hangin around Dirt Track, It doesn’t get much better.
Foss and EA
