The passing of a retail and short-circuit game changer
Paul Spooner, the British man who irrevocably changed short-circuit racing and motorcycle retail in Australia, passed away on April 28, 2025. He was 90.
Paul emigrated from England in 1959 with wife Eva to build power stations with Aitons, then worked at ACI in Moore Park, Sydney, but decided he wanted to run his own business instead.
The first motorcycle shop he had was at Chatswood, then Balgowlah, then he added the more widely known Brookvale shop — the first (and visionary) supermarket-styled motorcycle shop in Australia — during the 1970s, eventually shutting the Balgowlah shop.
Paul also competed in most forms of motorcycle racing and, in 1971, he and formidable road racer Tony Hatton, who worked for Paul, teamed up to come second outright in the Castrol Six-Hour, on a Yamaha XS650!
Paul was a member of Willoughby District Motorcycle Club, whose members came up with the exciting concept of the Castrol Six-Hour production race in 1970.
In 1975, the top 50 Yamaha dealers in the country (and their wives) were treated to an all expenses-paid trip to tour the Yamaha factory in Japan, with Paul and Eva among the chosen.
Paul and a lot of the motorcycle dealers and their families in Sydney, NSW, Queensland and Victoria were also very good friends.
Paul was also good friends with his staff and customers, plus his fellow racing competitors and trade suppliers: if they weren’t at work or racing bikes around the country they’d be having barbecues at each other’s houses.
In 1978, Paul moved his family to Bathurst, where he ran Paul Spooner Motors until the mid-1980s — which is when he moved to Valla on the Mid-North Coast.
In 1964, Paul was the first person to gain the national importation licence for Hagon frames — high-tensile, aircraft-quality, T45-steel frames — which revolutionised short-circuit (dirt-track) racing, dramatically cutting lap times because of the power-to-weight gains. It was lightweight but very strong, with a tensile strength of 45 tonnes per square inch — not like mild steel, which has a tensile strength of about 30 tonnes per square inch.
In two marketing coups, Paul not only got British speedway Test captain and the then current British 500 Grass-Track Champion Chris Pusey to race Paul’s own Hagon JAP at Salty Creek near Newcastle in 1972, he also sold the first Hagon frame to the then Australian 350 Short-Circuit Champion Herb Jefferson, with Herb taking his 350 Hagon BSA to the Old Bar circuit near Taree in January 1965.
English Test captain Chris Pusey shows his dynamic style on Paul Spooner’s Hagon JAP at Salty Creek in 1972. Spectators were hanging off the fence, mouths agape. PHOTO: Bill Meyer
Riders were mocking the spindly looking frame as they drove into the pits — “Look at that; it’ll fall to pieces!” — but Herb went out and broke the outright track record six times and afterwards people were clambering all over the bike with tape measures!
Paul had an exacting nature and this was demonstrated when he studied metallurgy at TAFE in the 1960s, topping the state. He was also an excellent mechanic and woodworker.
John Langfield, the only rider to have captained Australia in both speedway and dirt-track Test teams and who had a remarkably long friendship with Paul, often competing on Paul’s Hagon 84S JAP, said: “Paul changed the world of short-circuit/dirt-track racing when he moved to Australia.
“My world changed, too, when he sponsored me with Hagon bikes. He was a man of integrity — not a bad bloke for a Pom! Rest in peace, my friend — it was a pleasure to have known you.”
Paul is loved and treasured by his daughters, Helen and Wendy, and grandchildren Madeleine and Lachlan. As per his wishes there was no funeral.
