Whos Robin Groom ? your Tiler or your Courier freaky
" Who's Robin Groom?" Here's a bit of Nats history ......
Steve and Mike Groom were top Husqvarna riders from SA who competed all over Australia throughout the 1970's. Mike won the Australian 500cc title at Tivoli in 1970, and was runner up in the 250cc title at Clarendon in 1971. Robin's Dad Steve was also a top rider, and still plays high level rugby here in SA in his 60's! Those were the days Dave Basham dominated here in SA, but the Grooms, Jim Dowsett, Chris Hall ( Pirie 593 on here) Lester Rowley and many others gave him a tough time on many occasions.
Robin rode Uncle Mike's original 250cc Husky at Crystal Brook last year at the Nats, and won the 30 to 39 age title. He and Steve Melvin ( Alison's son) won a heat each of the pre 75 250, and were dicing it out for the title in the 3rd heat when Robin threw a chain on the final lap. Steve and Mike were both there to see him ride Mike's bike, and it was great to see them both after 25 years - although I still struggled to tell them apart or understand their accents.
Robin comes from a great scrambles/MX background.... grandfather Frank Franklin was the legendary track announcer in SA in the 70's and 80's, grandmother Jean Franklin was in charge of lap scoring, Mum Pam and Aunty Linda ( Harris) are both long serving officials at the Levis MCC in SA, Uncle Phil Franklin was Australian unlimited sidecar MX champion in 1980, Uncle Tony Cook was a top A grader in the 70's....and as Freaky said sister Shannon runs Revolution timing supplying all the transponders here in SA these days. That's all I know but there's probably much more.
It was great to see a 2nd generation rider competing on the same family bike with such a great history.
Robin is a very nice guy so say G'day to him at the Nat's! I'm sure he's going to try and repeat Uncle Mike's feat and win a National Title in Qld, 42 years later. ( Go the Croweaters!!!)