Chas Hern- As a kid I didn’t do the traditional family holidays, but in saying that I was never home either. I remember getting hot jam doughnuts at a little roadside trailer on Springvale Road heading to Phillip Island, milkshakes at Mum’s favourite milk bar in Euroa en route to Winton, or panning for gold at Sovereign Hill via Mac Park. The track was where we spent all our Easters and summer holidays.
Being the grandson, nephew and son of classic motorcycle racers meant I spent most weekends watching my family working on and racing bikes. It all started with my dad’s Velocette. He loved racing but was better at building bikes than punting them around a circuit. I was always watching him or trying to help out so I could be like him. As I got older, I wondered if I would become a racer or a mechanic like Dad.
In high school I was racing flat track and dirtbikes, but road racing was always on my mind. One day I found myself going into Rex Wolfenden’s shop (K&W Motorcycles) just as he sold it off and started T-Rex Racing. The new owners offered me an apprenticeship, and I started almost straight away. I raced an RGV 250 under the K&W banner, although it was short lived because I crashed out of my first road race and spent a few nights in Mt Gambier hospital with a broken wrist.
Many years later Dad and I gave road racing another shot and finally we managed to get some attention with podiums, lap records and round wins all over Australia, in STK 600 and 1000, Supersport and Superbikes. We had support from a little workshop in Thomastown called C&C Motorcycle Engineering run by Rex’s brother Clyde, who was bloody good at tuning modern bikes. Unfortunately, this success didn’t last as we never had enough funding, so Dad and I started thinking about going back to racing classics.
A few years later, when I thought my racing days were over, Rex approached me out of the blue and offered an immaculate Harris-framed Honda CB1100 to race at the Southern Classic at Broadford. Of course I said yes and, although it wasn’t a big event, I felt at home on the bike and we took the win. Rex had a full-timer already but promised to stay in touch and it wasn’t long before he handed me a Bimota book and flicked to the picture of a YB5 for another exciting project.
Six months later we were heading off to Sydney for the 2016 Barry Sheene Festival of Speed, where I put the T-Rex Bimota on pole. After four epic battles, we’d broken the lap record five or six times and taken out the Top 50 feature first time out. We then went on to win the Southern Classic, Victorian Championship and two Australian Championships, on the Harris and Rex’s other weapon, the Yamaha FJ1200.
At this year’s AMCN International Island Classic I raced the Bimota YB5 in the unlimited P6 class and it felt great. We secured pole and won the first three races, setting a new lap record in each race. Unfortunately, I ran out of fuel in Race 4 and stopped before the chequered flag, costing overall victory.
In the International Challenge I was aboard the Harris Honda. This was the first time riding the bike at PI so we needed to work on our set-up fast, but it wasn’t that easy and I made a few mistakes in qualifying, which left me further back on the grid than I’d have liked. Despite making some great starts, our overall package wasn’t working right, which prevented me from finding the rhythm to stay consistently inside the top 10, far from the top five I’d hoped for. In the last race of the weekend, I retired when the bike dropped power again and was forced to watch the race unfold from the sidelines at Turn 1.
Still, it was great to be part of the Australian team and go head-to-head with riders from all around the world, some whom I’ve idolised for many years. I look forward to working on my Phillip Island set-up and with a little luck we can take Australia to victory next year!
It has been an awesome experience living my life at the race track and realising my childhood dream of ‘Racing for the Man’! Thanks for everything, Rex.
Photos Russell Colvin