Great Races..An Occasional Series about Outstanding
Races I Have Seen.
The first major race meeting that I attended was also
one of the most significant race meetings of its era, though I could not
have known that at the time. It was the Australian TT, held on a purpose
built airfield circuit at the Laverton Air Force Base just outside of Melbourne,
Victoria Australia. My wife and I travelled to Melbourne in our Renault
12 Wagon, an uneventful progress except for the mandatory speeding fine
for exceeding (by three kilometres an hour) the ludicrous blanket 100 Km/H
speed limit in Victoria. The fact that the Victorian police car allowed
several Victorian registered cars to pass me at much higher speed than
mine and chose to book my NSW registered car was purely coincidental (yeah,
right).
My wife was, to quote the classics, great with child, our daughter arriving
only two months after this excursion. This necessitated many stops along
the way and also put paid to my grand plan of saving money by sleeping
in the back of the wagon when we got to Melbourne. The weather was poisonously
hot for the whole weekend and economy was sacrificed for comfort and an
air conditioned motel room!
The Australian TT was an event steeped in history and the 1976 meeting
saw the revival of the event after a lapse of some years. Only one event
in each country was allowed to use the coveted TT title and so the meeting
was considered to be quite prestigious. It had originally been planned
to have the TT at Phillip Island, but this was not possible, so the promoters,
anxious for the best publicity possible, arranged with the RAAF to use
the airfields and ancillary buildings at Laverton instead. A private company
was formed to promote the meeting and this was to be the cause of much
“agro” later as the company went broke when the meeting failed to make
the expected profit. The result was that many of the overseas competitors
found their bikes and equipment impounded by Customs until outstanding
monies guaranteed by the promoters were paid.
This debacle went a long way towards ensuring that other overseas competitors
were to be much less likely to accept invitations to ride in Australia
for some years to come. But, while the meeting was a financial and organisational
disaster, few could have foreseen this as the lead up to the meeting unfolded.
The ultimate entry list looked like a smorgasbord of overseas talent such
as had never been seen in the one place in Australia before.
Such a star-studded line up would not be seen again until the '90's when
a fully fledged World Championship GP was held in Australia for the first
time, but, that's another story. Heading the entry list was the man upon
whose name the organisers pinned their hopes of record crowds, the legendary
Giacomo Agostini. After winning the 500cc Title for Yamaha the year before,
Agostini had voted with his heart and not his head (hey, he's Italian,
remember?) and had returned to his beloved MV's for another tilt (unsuccessful
as time would tell) at the 500cc Title. Everyone knew that the MV's were
going to be uncompetitive; the smart money was on Yamaha. I suspect that
Agostini knew too, but I think the cunning Count Agusta had offered his
“favourite son” so much money to return to the fold that Ago simply couldn't
resist. And the crowd who turned up couldn't have felt like the fastest
gun in the west as he lined up.
To use Aussie parlance, he was on a hiding to nothing. If he won, people
could simply say, “Well, he's the champ and so he should have.”. If he
lost, people would proclaim the one who beat him as a hero and he would
forever more be remembered as “the man who beat Ago”. This was confirmed
by the adulation surrounding Bryan Hindle who had beaten Ago at Oran Park
in Ago's only other trip to Australia some years before.
The supporting races on the card were excellent with the Morbidelli Pair
of Bianchi and Pileri winning the Ultra Lightweight (125cc) race and the
250 and 350 races both being won by the Italian Diemme Team. The Unlimited
race was a cracker with local Hero, Gregg Hansford (KR750 Kawasaki) just
beating American Pat Hennen on a "workd" TR750 Suzuki.But it
was the Senior (the 500cc) race that most had come to see. Could the great
Ago be beaten?
When the flag dropped, Ago immediately went to the lead and held it narrowly
until Lap 2 when he was passed by an unknown Kiwi called Stu Avant on one
of the new RG500 Suzukis. Avant led for several laps, stunning both Ago
and the crowd, most of whom had never even heard of him. It wasn't to last,
however, with the bike seizing and dumping the impudent Avant on the tarmac.
Those couple of laps, however, were enough to catapult the young Kiwi from
obscurity to fame and were to lead to much greater things. The rider that
totally dominated the first Canberra Road Closure at Macarthur Park was
the same Stu Avant, riding an RG 500 Suzuki for Dick Hunter.
Ago resumed the lead as the Suzuki challenge faded. Kiwi John Boote's Suzuki
had barely got off the line and was withdrawn immediately with over heating
and John Woodley's RG also seized while the talented Kiwi was holding fourth
place on the first lap. It must be remembered that the bikes were totally
new and not nearly enough was known here about how to fettle them and keep
them reliable at this stage. Behind Ago the two Australian RG's were still
going great. Kenny Blake was holding second with Greg Johnson in third.
I was unaware of the dramas that had affected the other entrants as the
PA system was useless in both the areas where my wife and I spectated.
However, even knowing little of who the riders were (apart from Ago), I
was aware enough to barrack for the Aussies and I had met Kenny Blake and
Jack Walters in the pits on the Saturday and something about the quiet
and friendly manner of Blakey had impressed me even then.
Once it became clear that Blakey was closing on Ago, the crowd went wild
(except for the partisan part of the crowd that was of Italian extraction
or heritage, of course). People began shouting, urging Ken on, while others
began to look despairing as the prospect of their idol being defeated became
more likely. At the end of lap 9, entering the pit straight, Kenny outbraked
Ago and established a narrow lead. Greg Johnson in what was probably his
best ride either before or since, was closing on Ago also but was not in
a position to pass and the laps were running out. Using all his talent
and experience, Ago held on grimly, but it was not enough. Blake crossed
the line the winner to the rapturous applause of the Victorian crowd.
Ago was close but soundly beaten in second and Johnson a fine third. The
Victory Lap was pandemonium, spectators setting a Victorian precedent by
mobbing their hero, breaking easily through the makeshift wire and star
picket fences. A contemporary report summed up the winner much better than
I so I'll quote it, “The man of the hour was his usual happy self amid
the excitement. Win or lose, World Champion or fellow Clubman, it seems
that nothing can dent the Ken Blake's even temperament.” There were some
other exciting races that day and I'll leave it to another issue to chronicle
them. But it is sufficient to say that I feel very privileged to be able
to say, “I was at Laverton and saw Kenny Blake beat Agostini.”
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