Hume Weir, a road racing circuit on NSW/Victoria border..come back with me to January 1964....

Early in the 1960's I joined the Sydney motorcycle Club, the Eastern Suburbs MCC...I lived nearby to where it met in Waverley School of Arts, had become old enough to obtain a NSW riders licence, bought a Lambretta 125cc LD scooter, soon replaced by a 1958 Velocette MSS with Murphy sidecar and become chummy with Ted Greenfield who was in the club and raced a Manx Norton.
Ted had entered to ride at the Australia Day race meeting at the Hume Weir circuit on the NSW- Victorian border. 
Fellow club-member Kel Carruthers was riding his 1961 250/4 Honda sent out from Honda for a local Australian rider to "wave the flag" and presumably win races ( which Kel did...in fact he won over 150 races from as many starts on the Honda before he left for Europe and the "Continental Circus" several years later) and international Honda works rider Jim Redman would be there with 125cc and 250cc works Hondas as it was the European racing off season...would I like to ride a sort of lashed up G80 Matchless that Ted had.....?
I'd never been further south of Sydney than once to a farm at Braidwood, some 18o miles south and it all seemed pretty exciting...things like an ACU licence were needed, I guess I likely forged my mothers signature, I had a helmet, gloves and boots...Ted would loan me his leathers as we wouldn't likely be in the same race.....
Roll on 26 January 1964....

Hume weir is an actual weir on the Murray river, the border between the Australian states of NSW and Victoria and the circuit was laid out close to it, east of the border town of Albury.
Left click on images to enlarge....

The drive was some 8-9 hours south in those days, the State roads were usually a single lane each way and traffic travelled slower than today.
We camped nearby to the circuit with fellow Easts members Terry and Keith Smith, with who I became good friends.
I had a Kodak Box Brownie camera, so the following photos are not a patch on today's efforts, but they form a record, although regrettably I should have taken more and there appears not any record of the Matchless G80 I was to ride....

The circuit was poor in surface condition, but we knew no better then...following is a sketch I made at the time and a photo or two of some of the various corners....

#4 is Victorian rider Ron Angel,#88 is ex International Aussie rider Dennis Fry, Manx Norton, who campaigned Norton's in Europe for several seasons. Dennis and I became friends and remain so today with his other common interest, Velocette...

#80 is John Dodds on a 350 7R AJS. 
John was to travel to Europe to race and never to return to Australia...he married a German lass and settled into a small German town where he ran a florist.

Kel Carruthers, in leathers, back to camera with Jim Redman next to him.

Kel's 250/4 Honda in a restored condition, years later , the day before it was loaded on a Qantas jet to be sent to Kel, longtime resident in San Diego, California.
I believe it was in Kel's lounge room for many years and was eventually sold to the Barbour Museum in Georgia, USA.


After all that, what happened to DQ and his G80 ride?
I recall little  of it other than we suffered machine problems with the Matchless  and I retired...
A not really auspicious start to my foray into motorcycle road racing......
However the Victorian based motorcycle newspaper, Australian Motorcycle News...started in the early 1950's by the late George Lynn and still publishing today as one of the longest running motorcycle newspapers worldwide....did a report in their 7th February 1964 edition and the four relevant pages follow.
Read on to get a feel of the motorcycling journalism of the era and to find out who of the two works Hondas were the victors....

Fagan Park.....the NSW section of the Australian Velocette OC's Velocette Show Day.

For some time now the NSW section of the Australian Velocette OC has run a Velocette show day at an historic property on the northern outskirts of Sydney..."Fagan Park".

Originally the idea of  former Club member Warwick Nicholson in collaboration with fellow Club member and head of "The Friends of Fagan Park", Allan Foy, the event has become a major one in the Club Calender.
Held towards the end of August each year, this year's 2010 event on Sunday 15th August was one of the biggest yet with some 71 bikes in attendance including 31 Velocettes and four Vincent twins.
Surprise international visitor was US and Australian Velo Club member Olav Hassell in Sydney for a brief family visit as well as the Club's Patron, Anne Frampton ( nee Goodman) with husband Norbert down from the Queensland Gold Coast where they now live.
Anne is the daughter of the late Bertie Goodman, the last managing director of Veloce Ltd.
Anne brought some Goodman family photographs for display and two are included below.
My thanks to them both for their support and loan of the literature.
Left click on the images to enlarge.....

Norbert and Anne with The Velobanjogent....

Anne in 2008 on Peter Wolfenden's LE
Following are two Veloce publicity photos of Anne, taken in UK in 1965 for use in Velocette catalogues...

Graham Roberts' succesful 500 Velo short circuit racer...an Australian form of flat track racing.

Malcolm Sullivan's latest racing creation, a 500 OHV machine, likely to be ridden by Graham Roberts in Australian Historic road racing events.
Californian Olav Hassell, in stripped shirt, chats with John Herrick, others look on to the display of Groves Classic Velo parts brought along by Stuart Brown, immediately to Olav's left.
As well as the 2010 photos, I've included some of the 2008 display items. As usual this year had a good display, courtesy of several members, but I failed to take photos of it.

This year Drew Duncan brought along a Viceroy scooter engine and one of the failed LE Industrial engines imported to Sydney as the power unit for the refrigeration unit for the creamy ice cream "Mr Whippy" vans. They all failed within hours of going into service in the heat of an Australian summer, resulting, luckily for Veloce Ltd., a failed court action to recover lost ice cream sales.....

The remaining photos are scenes from the day.....

Keith Bryen continues in Europe on the "Continental Circus"...some photos of other riders who were constant companions during the season.....

In earlier blogs I've featured Keith's exploits and some of other riders who accompanied him across Europe during the "Continental Circus" odyssey.....
This blog continues with more of these riders....
My thanks again to Keith and Gwen for the use of their photo archive.....
Left click on the image to enlarge.....


Geoff Duke's special KTT Velocette...pannier fuel tanks fitted for possible non stop ride in IOM TT...in paddock at Oulton Park.

Walter Zeller, Rennsport BMW, IOM TT 1957

Victorian rider Roger Barker, IOM  TT 1957

Sydney rider, Eric Hinton, Norton, IOM TT 1957

Victorian Keith Campbell, works Moto Guzzi, IOM TT 1957

Jack Brett, IOM TT 1957

Aussie Bob Brown, Gilera/4, IOM TT 1957

John Surtees, IOM TT 1957

Sydney rider Dick Thompson,IOM TT 1957

Tasmanian Geoff Walker, IOM TT

Ray Amm, Southern Rhodesia at IOM TT weigh in 1953

Bernie Mack, Aussie sidecar driver..somewhere in the UK...

Jacque Collett, France...