History has it that blokes on bikes started racing in tight circles around the Maitland Trotting Track in December 1923. A great idea, quickly adopted along Australia’s east coast. They…
Anthony Gobert was the very antithesis of a modern professional racer. In every way, except for one. He was really, really fast. The sad yet unexpectedly affirmative story of his…
Cecil Sandford held a unique place in motorcycle grand prix racing. The Englishman gave MV Agusta its first world title. Until his death on 29 November 2023…
In senior high school, Phil Aynsley was a slightly nerdy science whiz and model aircraft maker with the ambition to be an air-traffic controller. Then he…
Ivan was blasting around the Jurien Bay sand dunes on his quad when he first met Vern Strange and the two struck up a lasting…
At a time when a bicycle cost the average punter more than 10 weeks wages, motorcycling was restricted to the wealthy man-about-town and a four-wheel voiturette was the province…
Rimini, Italy, 1950s. Every Sunday an Italian boy walks from his house to the barber for his weekly trim. The barber always talks to the boy about his great…
Thirty years ago Daryl Beattie scored his maiden grand prix victory on a Honda NSR500 at Hockenheim in Germany. At 22 he was the country’s youngest GP winner…
During the four weeks before the decisive and last race of the 1983 grand prix season, Freddie Spencer didn’t sleep very well. In the middle…
Back in the mid-1970s, with the inaugural Katherine Carnival imminent, riding mates John Pfitzner and Lofty Evans found themselves at a meeting hosted by carnival organiser Sylvia Wolfe. Sylvia…
Towards the end of his successful racing career, two-stroke aficionado Charlie Edwards grafted a Yamaha 347cc twin-cylinder, air-cooled two-stroke engine into a Hagon speedway chassis. This powerplant…
Ralph Hubert ‘Sonny’ Barger Jnr passed away on 29 June 2022 when, after previously surviving throat and prostate cancer, he lost his fight against liver cancer.
