Home     Discussion Forum    Calendar of Events    Past Rallies and Gatherings    Links    Cla$$ifieds    Rules    Awards   Jokes    Hefalump     Biker Friendly Places     Contact Us    Odds & ends   Sign Guestbook  View Guestbook   Friends of the 'cats   Sound & Video Clips   Recipes    Body Art   Wildcat Tats   View Old Guestbook    Hatched Matched & Dispatched    ABZ of RoadKill      Superbike Racing    Tell it how it is!    Emails and Press Releases     About Us   

Australian Historic Road Race Championships 2007 

The Australian Historic Road Race championships for 2007 were hosted by the NSW Post Classic Racing Association (PCRA) at Eastern Creek raceway 26-28 October.

The racing is open to motorcycles and sidecars classed in the periods 1 to 5 which equates to bikes manufactured up to 1919, 1945, 1962, 1972 and 1980.

(I think it was Crusty gave the PCRA a good rap when they hosted the Barry Sheene meeting in March this year.)

The events are classed by period and capacity.

My intention was to attend the races on Saturday 27^th.  I had to make an unexpected trip to Pemulwuy, an adjoining suburb to Eastern creek, on the Friday, so I took the opportunity to also spend about 3 hours at the track  on this day. Most of the photos I took were from the Friday session where most competitors were setting up and doing last minute adjustments. There were practice sessions only on Friday.

I spoke to one keen/impatient competitor who had traveled up from Warrnambool, Victoria. He unloaded his bike at Goulburn and did a few runs on one of the back roads.

One of the advantages of these events is that you can walk around the pits and get a close up view of the machinery and talk to the owners/riders. Most love to talk about their bikes. I even had my photo taken on a (state of the art) Matchless G5 no. 37. The bike fitted me but the required purse didn’t.

The weather at home (Padstow) was wet and bleak Friday morning but by the time I arrived at the track about 9.30am, it had dried out, although they had also experienced early morning showers. The storms were back Friday afternoon so a few practice sessions were cut short. Saturday’s weather was warm all day and although I didn’t attend Sunday, judging by the temperature at home it would have been hot at the Creek. 

There were about 190 competitors entered on the program and a large number of the competitors had entered more than one motorcycle. Many competitors had traveled long distances to attend this meeting and there appeared to be representation from most states. I am not sure what the final count on bikes was but they were certainly very pleasing to the eye. They ranged from fairly basic racers to some very exotic retro hand built machinery. The age range of the riders is also impressive. I noticed a couple of these chaps were not real mobile when walking around the pits but once they mounted their bikes and were out on the track it was a different story. It was on for young and old.

It was a very full programme with about 26 races both days. The racing on Saturday can only be described at spectacular. Much of the racing was very close. The sounds of these bikes hitting top speed down the long Eastern Creek straight is impressive, as well as their handling capabilities through the tighter sections of the track. Some of the smaller capacity machinery riders must think the straight will never end. The races certainly brought back a few memories as a spectator in my younger days. It was obvious the riders were having a ball and they certainly displayed their enthusiasm for the sport by both the bike presentation and the racing. As expected there were a few break downs and unfortunately a few offs occurred. Get well soon Richard.

 I took about 125 photos on Friday. They can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/16120081@N03/

Most of my photos are close ups of the bikes. I am not set up for photographing on track racing action but the PCRA will have plenty of shots on their website in the near future.  If you are interested the link is  http://postclassicracing.com.au/

Check out the website and the discussion forum, it is very interesting.

 I thought the PCRA management and numerous volunteers did a very professional job in the organization and the way things generally ran very smoothly. Well that is from a spectators point of view.

My only regret is that I did not attend Sunday. I will now look forward to the Barry Sheene meeting in March. If you get the opportunity to attend I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Cheers,

Phil

PS. For those interested click on the paws for some audio files of the bikes flat chat down the straight.

1

2

3