1985 Action Park 3 Hour Dirt Track Race

[Graeme M]

I've just scanned in the first box of slides that I took at this event. Still got work to do to improve the quality of the scans but these'll do to get a look at it all. The Maryborough MCC in Qld ran this race every year during the late 70s and early 80s and it was the showcard event for the club. There were two big Dirt Track endurance events, this 3-Hour and the Nepean 6-Hour.

I believe that in 85 the event was won by David Armstrong riding solo on a CR500 Honda. There were classes for 125, 250 and Open if I remember right, and there were all sorts of mods to make the bikes last the distance and reduce pitstops.

Anyways, here's the first lot, more over the next few days.

[All Things 414]

Gee. I wonder if that CR 500 was feeling a little 'top heavy' for the first few laps? Might have been safer to tow a trailer.
Some pretty exotic stuff there. Very nice! 

[JohnnyO]

Dave won that race several times riding solo, stopping just once for fuel at the halfway point. He also won it earlier with brother Gary on a YZ465 i think.
It was a big event with all the good southerners coming up every year.

[090]

#17 cr500, i think that is the bike i rode. Mainly because of the Bennett Honda sticker.
The chap i rode with was Brent Todd i think.

[DR]

thanks Graeme, pretty certain I was there that year also, albeit as a spectator, made the trip with the Phil Beaumont entered KX500. A guy we called 'Fast Freddie' (not Spencer!) rode it but I can't remember the surname he didn't do very well but at least I was there

[Graeme M]

It was quite an event as I recall, lots of advertising in the local paper and so on. I actually rode it a couple of times, once as part of a C-Grade team on an RM500 and once as a fill-in for a guy who had planned to ride solo but then decided he needed a short break. It's a bit hazy now, but I think his name was Mueller, he was an A-Grader from Townsville, and the bike was a Husky CR500. I think. Maybe...

Anyway, he was quick and was going real well. I managed not to lose too many places and he was looking good for a decent finish when the chain, a name brand, cracked every plate. He didn't prepare for that and it was race over. A shame.

The track got real hard by about the 2 hour mark and you could road race it then. I remember going through the big sweeper pretty quick, feet up and knee out. It was a fun race.

[Husky500evo]

I would say that was Keith Muller, from Townsville, on the Husky CR500. He was a regular at the Action Park 3 hour . The crankcases from that bike are now in Glen Woolywobbler's Silver Streak . I only did the 3 hour once, in '83 or '84 on a KX500 & have got to say that I hated it . It just felt weird riding a bike that was designed to go over bumps, in an event that seemed like a mix of road racing & dirt track . Even though I had raced a season & a half on speedway solos I couldn't come to terms with riding on that oiled track . A shower of rain came across about half way through the race & the surface became as slippery as greased ice  .   

[Graeme M]

Keith Muller, yep that's the guy. And his Husky's cases are in Wollygruber's bike? Well there ya go... I'd like to have had a few more goes at the three hour as it suited me - it takes me time to get up to speed. So although DT is my favourite form of racing I was always crap at it because you have to be fast from the start. And yes, the old oiled dirt tracks got skatey when wet for sure. I once won a race because it sprinkled before the start and I figured it wasn't enough to change the track and gambled on going as hard as I could in the first lap. And what do you know, everyone else took it carefully and I won by half a lap. I think that's the only race I ever won in my life...

[Graeme M]

Some more, looking at these it looks to be a mix of shots during the race and some taken during the previous day's practice.

[090]

Some more, looking at these it looks to be a mix of shots during the race and some taken during the previous day's practice.

Thanks Graeme. Thats me on the cr #17. I had pretty much forgotten about the 3 hour. Thanks for the memory jog.Would like any others you have of myself. Never really got many pics back in the day.

[Graeme M]

I think there are a couple more of the #17 bike, so might be with you on board as well. I'll do the rest tomorrow or Monday night.

[JohnnyO]

Who did you ride with Brad? Your 500 or a dirt track riders bike with those wheels?

[090]

It was his bike . He rode for Bennett Honda. I am sure its Brent or Brett Todd. The old man reckons its Todd Brenton or something similar.  Got together through a mutual acquaintance. 

[JohnnyO]

Todd Brennan i would say.

[Graeme M]

Yes, I was just going to say that. He used to write a DT column in ADB for a while and I think he ran a team in later years with the Stauffers as riders.