Serious period racing down under

Here's a photo of a serious period racer in Australia. Owner Garth Francis made his own heavy duty drive side case and crank. Designed his own cam. Runs it on Methanol with short Domed lightweight pistons and longer rods. He must be doing something right because he went a season with less than .001" wear on the cylinders. His competition is a 140 hp pan head harley with overhead cams and cam chains running inside the pushrod tubes. The fastest was a monster Vincent but has recently retired from racing. There's a lot of serious racing going on down under that we don't hear much about.



Garth's bike naked is his shop.

But whereisee , itsa bigplace .

Probably Katoomba.

Matt Spencer said:

But whereisee , itsa bigplace .

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He's in Victoria

The bike in the photo obviously races in Period 3 Historic which caters for bikes made prior to 1963. - What year were 750cc Commando motors made ? There are more 'Norton Atlas' racing in Period 3 than were ever imported. We have a heap of eligibility rules and compulsory log books for which the controlling body charges a fee.
Who owns the Harley with the OHC head ? I've never seen it, and there is no way it would be eligible.

http://www.barrysheene.com.au/

acotrel said:

The bike in the photo obviously races in Period 3 Historic which caters for bikes made prior to 1963. - What year were 750cc Commando motors made ? There are more 'Norton Atlas' racing in Period 3 than were ever imported. We have a heap of eligibility rules and compulsory log books for which the controlling body charges a fee.
Who owns the Harley with the OHC head ? I've never seen it, and there is no way it would be eligible.

http://www.barrysheene.com.au/

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So, serious racing, but is it period?

I guess with an Atlas timing cover and a magneto help to run as an 'Atlas', but.....

We have a simple rule in the UK, it should look about right at 10 paces.....I can detect the Feartherbed Commando engine plates a lot further away than that......

The excuse used is 'it COULD have existed', many machines are nowhere near authentic. The racing in Period 5 Unlimited is deadly, the Poms find that out when they come here to race at Phillip Island on Australia Day weekend in January each year. This year a few Yanks turned up, and I believe Kenny Cummins was here, My mate rode as part of their team in the Forgotten Era International Challenge. Apparently our turn one gave them a big thrill. If you can go around there without backing off, you are a better man than I am.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgnvb4G4X7I

You might enjoy this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8ohmD5FjPs

The Australian Championships are being held at my local track next month. Over 300 entries so far.
I'll try to take a few snaps and post them here, or over at advrider.com

There is a problem with historic racing in Australia, and I've complained a lot about it. A lot of the bikes that were originally 750cc such as the CB750 Hondas are overbored to up to and beyond 1000cc, which make competing with any British bike difficult. The result has been that the old twins have pretty much disappeared from Periods 4 and 5. Some of the bikes in the later periods are up around 1400cc with four valves per cylinder. These days we rarely see an old Ducati being raced in the 1973 to 1982 class or beyond.As it is these days there is not really an historic race class in Australia which really suits an old Commando, Triumph, BMW, Ducati, Guzzi or Harley. The best thing for our historic racing is a 250cc air cooled two stroke on methanol, if you can tolerate it. My preference is for something like BOTT or BEARS.

acotrel said:

There is a problem with historic racing in Australia, and I've complained a lot about it. A lot of the bikes that were originally 750cc such as the CB750 Hondas are overbored to up to and beyond 1000cc, which make competing with any British bike difficult. The result has been that the old twins have pretty much disappeared from Periods 4 and 5. Some of the bikes in the later periods are up around 1400cc with four valves per cylinder. These days we rarely see an old Ducati being raced in the 1973 to 1982 class or beyond.As it is these days there is not really an historic race class in Australia which really suits an old Commando, Triumph, BMW, Ducati, Guzzi or Harley. The best thing for our historic racing is a 250cc air cooled two stroke on methanol, if you can tolerate it. My preference is for something like BOTT or BEARS.

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Not really the place for this discussion, but I'll make one comment. I'd like to see a formula in which they allowed 750 fours, 850 triples and 1000cc twins .
There is a F750 class these days in which Nortons etc are more competitive.

Its a B.E.A.R. too . http://bearsracing.co.nz/

OZBEARS Racing run Bears of all types off the same grid simultaneously and rarely race in Victoria. If you think it is worth being on the track with a commando at the same time as a watercooled Ducati or Aprilia Mille, go for it. 'Heritage BEARs' would be great if the races were specific for those bikes only (raced without the modern stuff involved at the same time). The BEARs have raced at Victorian historic race events, however because they don't have historic log books, cannot run in historic races - thus raced separately, all in the one race. It is all bloody stupidity and not worth even discussing.
My own approach is to find out when the old farts meetings are being held, and have a ride there. The event held at Mount Gambier is sensible - single event licence, no log book, turn up pay the fees and race. The trouble is that Mt Gambier is a long way from Benalla. When my mate was alive I could stop overnight halfway there. When the old farts meeting is held at Broadford, the idiots get involved and the bullshit starts. For me the whole situation is a real turn-off. I know that if I want to ride again, I will have to be tolerant, however it is still a load of expensive crap. The last time I raced at the seniors meeting (old farts) at Mt Gambier I won a couple of races. There was nobody who mattered there and it was raining. I was brought up on old rock hard tyres so I'm always as quick in the rain as I am in the dry. The younger guys have always had decent tyres. I find that I don't need that much tyre in the dry.

Pommie John, Who runs the F750 race class ? Is it in Queensland ? I'd like to see the rules for it.

acotrel said:

Pommie John, Who runs the F750 race class ? Is it in Queensland ? I'd like to see the rules for it.

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It's National. There's F750 classes in the Aussie Titles here at Lakeside this month, and the class is mentioned in the MA handbook. The rules are the same for the respective period, but capacity is limited to 750

I've just had a look at the supplementary regulations for that meeting. The F750 class is Period 4 (up to 1973) and that is good, however the big capacity classes seem to be missing. At most historic events period 4 is dominated by oversize CB750 Hondas. It looks at though MA has finally decided that the bikes should no longer be grossly over-bored. I could just scrape into that class by declaring my 850 to be a 750, the motor looks similar to the short stroke 750 . However if it did well they might measure it. In any case it is always vulnerable, the 850s were 1973 in Australia and the cut-off date for period 4 is 1972.
It is all bullshit anyway. When I raced in the 60s and 70s it was in Allpowers C grade and it was open slather. My bike was always under-capacity, however I did OK most of the time. Their whole mindset is a great big turn-off. For years the historic guys have neglected the simplest however most important factor - capacity classes. Also the mixed grid of two strokes and four strokes is very damaging and it looks and sounds so wrong anyway.
If you watch Period 5 at the upcoming championships you will probably see RG500 Suzuki and Yamaha TZ750 GP bikes racing against 1300cc Superbikes - it never happened.
This is what actually happened - there is only one superbike in this race, have a look where it finished :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxzOmI2zat0