A look through the lens of Alan Schafer's camera during the 1939 Australian GP motorcycle races on the Mt.Panorama circuit at Bathurst, NSW, some 150 km west of Sydney......

I've introduced you to Alan Schafer before in several posts on my blog..... and I recently scanned in quite a few small sized photos that Alan had uncatalogued in  a plastic bag....
So I sorted through a 1938,1939 and 1940 Bathurst motorcycle race programs to endeavour to identify most of the pics, which in a way allow you to get a better idea of motorcycle racing in Australia in this pre-war period...
I've included some cuttings from the relevant motorcycle magazine of the time here in Sydney..."The Australian Motorcyclist".....

Now there has been motorcycle racing in the Bathurst area since the 1920's, during the earlier 1930's period it was on the Old Vale circuit, but a new purpose built road over the Mt.Panorama on the southern outskirts of Bathurst was unveiled to the visiting Irish motorcycle racing great..Stanley Woods, who was on a racing and promotional holiday for Velocette with starts in the South Australian Centenary TT at Victor Harbour in late December 1936 and then at Phillip Island in February 1937 and after visiting P&R Williams, the NSW Velocette distributors in Sydney he travelled with P&R sponsored riders Cec Weatherby ( pictured to the left) and Don Bain (second from the right) and is shown below, beside the then mayor of Bathurst ( in the black suit to the centre) on an area, later called Reid Park which would form part of the circuit...

The circuit was completed in time for the Easter races in 1938, although the track was unsealed, that is a dirt/gravel surface for this year and sealed for the 1939 races.

Bathurst town centre in 1939 at Easter for the races...
Well as mentioned, Alan had a camera, although I have no idea of the brand or it's capability for action shots, but Alan did take some and considering what might have been available I think he did a good job and for those interested in motorcycle racing in Australia it forms a valuable record...
So lets wander through the snapshots, which I've labelled where possible...

The start of the 1939 Australian Senior GP and the finish line.....

Through McPhillamy Park corner during the Australian Sidecar GP and Abercrombie handicap....#37 W. Hodgekiss 498cc Norton OHV and #87 N.Hilliard 596cc OHC Norton.

Same corner and race...#17 A.Jones 596cc OHC Norton...

 Decending the mountain in the infamous "esses", George Hannaford (Vic), on a 1938 Mk.7 KTT Velocette.

#19, Doug James, 250 Excelsior Manxman, 2nd in 1939 Lwt TT, in the esses at Bathurst.

#8 Leo Tobin 348cc OHC Norton and #7 Don Bain 348cc OHC Velocette.

#13 Cec Weatherby, 348cc OHC Velocette mk.8 KTT

Start of the 1939 Senior Australian GP...somebody got a "blinder" of a start...the mk.7 KTT is Dave Jenkins and #3 is Art Senior on his potent Ariel 500 special..

#8 Leo Tobin , Norton and #9 Wal Hawtry at the end of what later became called "con-rod straight"....due to the number of engines that broke conrods.
The straight was approx a mile and a quarter downhill....

A rider falls at the end of the main straight...I couldn't identify him....

Following the finish of each race, the first three places were impounded for scruitineering...this occured as pictured at what became known as "the green shed"...the Velo thethe left is Don Bain's 495cc OHC ex works Velo racer known as "The Monster", #25 is S.Sharpe,Norton and the Velocette Mk.7 KTT is likely Dave Jenkins.

Continuing with another selection from Allan Schafer's literature collection, now in my custody....

I'm on a roll with Allan Schafers photos.... the letter from L.Pratt and the photograph are self explanetary.
The Williams Bros., picture is in Wentworth Avenue, Sydney, which recently was the "home" to many motorcycle businesses and there is still one left... Action Suzuki.
The picture is in 1923 and a notice on the shop window refers to a success by Douglas, locally during 1921, and another refers to the 1923 models. The line-up of Douglas motorcycles is an order of 15 for the Australian Gas Light Company Ltd.... presumably for their gas meter readers to ride...
Left click on images to enlarge...

Pictures from my Archive… a frequent dip into photographs that I want to share with you….

Continuing with another selection from Allan Schafer's literature collection, now in my custody....
Allan Schafer of Grafton, a town in northern NSW, Australia as a young man was a prolific letter writer to overseas motorcycling "greats". These are some replies to his letters together with an autographed photo, from Jim Whalley and another of “Ginger” Wood astride a new 1937 New Imperial…”Ginger” was a flamboyant character in English motorcycling.

Left click on images to enlarge.

Interesting the comment on the back of the photo of Jim Whalley..he seems to claim he is ( presumably in 1937 ) to be the only motorcycle agent to have entered a machine that won the Senior TT (1930).

Well my records show Walter Handley won on a works Rudge, not Whalley…but in my comprehensive pile of TT programs, the 1930 Senior program is missing, so I can’t check on who entered Handley….

He may be correct.

Whalley rode in the IOM TT races from 1921 to 1930, retired heaps of times and was 5th in the 1921 Junior TT on a Massey.

Pictures from my Archive…Graham Walker and Rudge

Continuing with another selection from Allan Schafer's literature collection, now in my custody....
Allan Schafer of Grafton, a town in northern NSW, Australia as a young man was a prolific letter writer to overseas motorcycling "greats". This one is a reply to his letter together with an autographed photo, from Graham Walker, a factory Rudge rider, winning the Lightweight TT in 1931 on a Rudge and the photo shows Graham in the paddock at the TT after the 1930 Junior TT in which he finished 3rd on the 350 Rudge. Rudge machines finished 1st,2nd and 3rd in the Junior TT that year.

The gentleman in the hat in the photograph was John V.Pugh, the Managing Director and designer for Rudge in 1930.

Graham's racing career spanned 1920 to 1934 in the IOM. He then is better known as a motorcycle journalist, editing the Temple Press paper "MotorCycling" for many years.

His son, Murray Walker became a well known TV commentator of F1 car races.

The photo is credited at the time to "Sport and General" Press Agency, London.

Left click on the images to enlarge.

Pictures from my Archive… a frequent dip into photographs that I want to share with you….

Continuing with another selection from Allan Schafer's literature collection, now in my custody....Allan Schafer of Grafton, a town in northern NSW, Australia as a young man was a prolific letter writer to overseas motorcycling "greats". This one is a reply to his letter together with an autographed photo, from Les Archer, from a flamboyant family in English motorcycling, who ran a business, father then son, both Les Archer, Known as Archers of Aldershot and "The Riders Agent" . The first photo shows father and son with what many consider an example of the mysterious Mk.6 KTT Velocette. The model that was never released...I'll do a future blog on this model KTT... factory records indicate three were use in the 1936 IOM TT, I've photos also of one in 1937 and the Archer one was taken then.
The second is Les Senior on a works Velocette "Dog Kennel" 350cc SOHC racer, at Quarter Bridge during the 1934 Junior TT, in which he finished 6th.

The bottom photo is a still of Les,snr, on the 1934 works Velocette in the paddock of the IOM.
This photo is acredited to S.R.Keig Ltd, code 1934/66.

Left click on images to enlarge...

An introduction to Allan Schafer.....

Those of you reading my blog will have delighted in the photographs and letters written to Allan Schafer in reply to his correspondence in the 1930s....

I'd like to share a couple of photos of Allan as a younger man around this time.....

Allan is shown on his 1940 MAC 348cc Velocette, likely in the Grafton area of NSW where Allan lived all his life, running the family motorcycle, then later bicycle business. He was an excellent tennis player and was involved in tennis at a State level.

A prolific letter writer, he wrote to many famous riders, both in Australia and overseas, receiving delightful letters, now so historic, in reply, usually with an autographed photograph.


These have proved invaluable to historians today and Jim Scaysbrook, editor of "Old Bike Australasia" is keen to utilise them.
Not heard of Old Bike Australasia? A new addition to newsagents in the Historic/Classic literature field and now published bi-monthly, for details check out http://www.bandt.com.au/view_media.asp?mediaid=150150

I'd corresponded with Allan sporadically over the years in my Velocette research and met him several times and was delighted when he invited me to become custodian of his collection, sometime in the 1990s....this blog has to be an obvious solution to sharing his treasures with those interested.
The other photograph, also taken in 1940, at the Easter Australian GP races at Bathurst, NSW, is of Allan watching Tommy Jemison, a sponsored rider from the NSW Velocette Distributor, P & R Williams of Sydney, fettling his Mk.8 KTT.

Few Mk.8 KTTs came into Sydney in 1939, prior to the outbreak of WW2 and is likely to have been either of the two last Mk.8's made in 1939, engine numbers, KTT850 and KTT851 ( I owned the frame of KTT851, serial number SF55 for many years with another KTT engine in it..."nice piece of kit.." as they say).
Left click on the images to enlarge...

Pictures from my Archive… a frequent dip into photographs that I want to share with you….

Continuing with another selection from Allan Schafer's literature collection, now in my custody....
Allan Schafer of Grafton, a town in northern NSW, Australia as a young man was a prolific letter writer to overseas motorcycling "greats". This one is a reply to his letter together with an autographed photo, from George Brough a flamboyant character in English motorcycling, whose motorcycle business did not survive after WW2.

Perhaps his motorcycles were better known in the hands of T.E.Lawrence..."Lawrence of Arabia" who was reputed to have owned seven and was killed on one. An earlier blog featured Eric Fernihough who also used Brough Superior motorcycles.

As I said , GB was a flamboyant character and the illustrated reply to Allan shows that...

Strangly the name Brough Superior has passed through various hands since then and is in the news again with the report that the business, British Only Austria, has purchased the naming rights etc with the intention of re-manufacturing Brough Superiors.

Time will tell whether it is just another pipe dream.

Left click on images to enlarge...

Pictures from my Archive… a frequent dip into photographs that I want to share with you….

Continuing with another selection from Allan Schafer's literature collection, now in my custody....
Allan Schafer of Grafton, a town in northern NSW, Australia
Illustrated above, Jimmy during the 1937 Dutch TT with team manager Joe Craig and team mates Freddie Frith and J.H "crasher" White.
as a young man was a prolific letter writer to overseas motorcycling "greats", this one is a reply to his letter together with an several photos from Jimmy Guthrie, the great Norton factory rider on the mid 1930s, tragically killed in Germany on 8th August 1937.
Several of the envelopes containing the letter from Guthrie to Allan are illustrated and if you are observant, you'll notice the stamps contain the head of the English king, George 5th and the other the head of Edward 8th.

The interest is the Edward the 8th stamp, as King George 5th died on 20th January 1936, and his eldest son became king as Edward 8th. The dead king's stamps were continued to be used until new dies were stuck for the issue of Edward 8th stamps...then a constitutional crisis developed in England, as the new king announced he was to marry Wallace Simpson, the divorced American socialite... Edward abdicated in favour of his brother, George 6th and so relatively few stamps were produced as the dies were defaced and only a hand full of coins produced, believed to be mint sets.... The stamp illustrated is one of those few.

Guthrie's death shocked the motorcycle racing world in Europe and Norton Motors issued a condolance photo of Jimmy with the text illustrated on the back of it.

Possibly the last photograph of Jimmy Guthrie alive...taken in the pits during practice for the 1937 German GP...Mildred Woods, wife of Stanley Woods, Jimmy Guthrie and team-mate Freddie Frith.

Left click on photos to enlarge.

Pictures from my Archive… a frequent dip into photographs that I want to share with you….

Continuing with another selection from Allan Schafer's literature collection, now in my custody....

Allan Schafer of Grafton, a town in northern NSW, Australia as a young man was a prolific letter writer to overseas motorcycling "greats". This one is a reply to his letter together with an autographed photo, from Joe Petrali a factory Harley-Davison rider prewar...

Left click on images to enlarge...