Some miscellaneous Norton items from the Velobanjogent's archive....

I'm not "one eyed" you know!
Velocette is may be my main interest in motorcycling, especially at my age, but my archive holds lots of other interesting memorabilia...
So I opened a folder "Norton" and the follwing is a little from it.....
Some items could have appeared earlier in another post from me....
Apologies.... no particular order or theme....

Bat Byrnes at Bathurst, NSW on the Mt. Panorama circuit, unsure of the year...likely 1938,39 or 40...
He won the Senior Australian GP there in 1939 on a Norton...

1935 record breaking Norton of Jimmy Guthrie...114.092mph...

Err...a broken frame amongst other things.....

Detail on the 1961 Manx Nortons....

 

Paul Adams and friend with their Nortons, somewhere in California....

From "The MotorCycle", 12th June 1952...

26th June 1948, Dutch TT, Artie Bell and Joe Craig....Franta Juhan behind.

 

Dennis Fry pushes off in the Feature race at Oran Park,NSW,  1972...the only Norton still racing in title events in NSW then, likely Australia.

Aghhh..."caught"...The Velobanjogent rides one of Dennis Fry's 350 Manx Norton's at Bathurst during an historic race in the 1980's....friend John Herrick seems bemused at the line I'm spinning him....

Geoff Duke astride the 1912 Norton "Old Miracle" at Beaulieu....

A letter in reply to Alan Schafer from Norton Motors.....

The Filtrate Oils trophy...a Manx Norton crankshaft....

 

1928 Junior TT...#33 Stanley Woods.....

1933 IOM TT...J.M.Muir, 3rd Senior TT, 490cc Norton.....

1937 IOM TT J.H."Crasher" White, Senior Norton in the paddock area....

1937 IOM TT Jimmy Guthrie, Senior Norton in the paddock area....

More of DQ's negatives from the past, printed now for the first time...the 1976 Castrol 6 Hour Race with most featuring the BMW R90S entries,some with Helmut Dahne...

I had an email months ago from an Italian chap regrettably whose name escapes me ...he was writing a book on the BMW R90S and was interested in photos of Helmut Dahne, I had some in an earlier post on my 1974 and 1975 IOM TT negatives. I knew I had taken extensive photographs of the 1976 Castrol 6 Hour race here in NSW at Amaroo Park Raceway on the outskirts of Sydney, but where they were stored in the mess I call my office eluded me.
Well I found them yesterday and again like a treasure trove they have never been printed, only a contact print sheet made by me....
My photographic enlarger is now gone, so I succumbed to hours of time consuming scanning of some and they are worth a look....
I utilised Jim Scaysbrook's complete history of the race from 1970-1987 and a page of two follows....

 

I'll just tantalise you with the first page of the 1976 report of the 11 on that years race, prolifically illustrated with photographs, several of which are mine from some of those negatives....

 I mentioned the top German rider Helmut Dahne was out for the races...

There was a big push by BMW in collaboration with Metzeler Motor Cycle Tyres Australia, whose principal, my good friend John Galvin, felt this was the year for both his tyres and BMW...

Four R90S's were entered and they all had good riders....Tony Hatton and  Kenny Blake; Helmut Dahne and  Bryan Hindle; Joe Eastmure and Dave Burgess; Maurie Taylor and Dave Ralph....

The downside for BMW and Metzeler was Lindsay Walker of Team Avon was also on a push, had some quick Z900 Kawasakis and equally good riders....Murray Sayle and Greg Hansford; Jim Budd and Roger Heyes to name a few....

At the end of the day, despite the BMWs one less pitstop, Hatton and Blake were beaten into second place by a lap with Jim Budd and Roger Heyes coming out victors....

A bitter pill for BMW considering the effort put in....

Enough waffle and comment from DQ...lets look photographically at the BMW effort.....

This is the first public or private viewing of them for that matter...

Murray Sayle, Bryan Hindle with back to camera, Greg Hansford and Helmut Dahne...

Don Bain in white overalls...you'd have to think him the tactician in the BMW camp...a highly successful racer in the 1930s,40s and 50s and ran the NSW BMW Distributor, Tom Byrne Pty Ltd workshop...makes a point to Dave Burgess while Joe Eastmure looks on...

 Photos taken during practice....

 #8 Joe Eastmure

  #4 Helmut Dahne

#8 Joe Eastmure

#2 Kenny Blake
The following are two different refuelling and rider change sequence obviously 2 hours apart, as the BMWs could do three, 2 hour stints, whereas most of the Japanese machines did four 1.5 hour or even five 1 hour stints....

Helmut Dahne is the rider coming in with co-rider Bryan Hindle preparing to take over....
In the five photo sequence below, Bryan Hindle is the rider with Helmut Dahne taking over...

I mentioned the "tyre war" between Avon and Metzeler...the word in the pits was the rear Avon  tyre on the leading Z900 was "shot" and the stewards should force them to change a rear wheel...quick as Team Avon was in rear wheel changing... they did 11 seconds fuel stops only in their hey day, it would likely loose them the race...
In came the Budd/Heyes Z900..the following photo shows the chief steward, Chris Peckham running to try to see the tyre and make a decision, but  that lightning fast last pitstop saw them out of his reach and onto victory...

What were the respective first and second tyres like after the race....6 hours of a virtual sprint around Amaroo Park...?

The second placed BMW R90S's Metzeler.....

The winning Kawasaki Z900's Avon.....

171.600MPH from a single cylinder Velocette at Lake Gairdner, South Australia..!!!

Wow....an email from Australian Velo Clubmember Stuart Hooper with the news that at the speed week trials on the salt lakes at Lake Gairdner in South Australia his supercharged single cylinder Velocette did 171.600mph.....
Stuart has set previous records at Lake Gairdner and also at Bonneville Salt Flats....

His email follows....

Hi to all,

For the first time in many years Lake Gairdner Speed Trials were unaffected by wet weather.  The surface was initially a little rough and the weather very hot requiring a careful eye on engine temperatures and excessively rich mixtures to ensure the engine survived the meeting. After a steady sighting run to check out the new body and steering geometry the Big Velo ran 166 mph on its second outing !!!!  This was good cause for celebration as the Velo was now the Worlds fastest British single surpassing the fantastic Vincent Might Mouse of Bryan Chapman.

 After a photo session day I decided a higher speed was possible and lined up again with a bit higher gearing and a higher ratio supercharger drive. The third run was only 152mph but this was against a 15 to 20 mph headwind so it was back in line for another 8 hrs for one final run. Friday morning was calm and cool, ideal conditions.......... but the morning ticked inexorably by with one delay after another and a headwind starting to flutter the flags and things looking like the meeting could be cancelled without another run. Finally the track was clear and the Big Velo boomed away from the line with its nearly 100mph first gear into a 7 to 10 mph gusting head and slight crosswind. By the time I changed up from third into top at 156mph the bike was weaving and darting about somewhat in the ruts on the track and the odd gusts of wind, but with the throttle hard against the stop one hand hovering over the clutch lever and the revs climbing towards the 6500 mark the track markers started to slip by faster and faster  until the final timing light flashed past and it was time to slow down with the old Venom single leading shoe brake smelling as only red hot 50 year old asbestos can. Back to the pits to see the crew flashing lights, cheering and jumping around !!!!......... 171.600 mph !!     .....  A fantastic end to a great week....... The Velocette name is again in the record books where it belongs !

Worlds Fastest Velocette.

Worlds Fastest British Single

Worlds Fastest Single Cylinder Sit On Motorcycle.

A sincere thanks for the support to my crew and all of you over the years,

Stuart Hooper

ps..... Just how fast can a Velo go ?

In the preparation for this attempt, Stuart supercharged the single cylinder engine and sent these photographs... 

Pen and Ink illustrations, cartoons from my usual sources....been a couple of years since I run any....as mentioned back then, I'm a great fan of them.....

As I'm currently running a section in the Australian Velocette Owners Club magazine which I edit...FTDU or FishTailDownUnder...on technical pen and ink drawings this is as good a time as any to review some more in my blog.
The two major English motorcycle magazines from the early 1900's up into the 1970's, "The MotorCycle" and "MotorCycling", ran many as did the French magazine"MotoRevue"...
All great resources....
Relax with me as we wander back in time.....But before we launch into the drawings, a photo I like a lot...
The original was in poor condition as you'll see by the bottom LH corner...
Two Aussies hard at it on home built 250 DOHC Velocettes...#31 is Les Diener on his newly built 250 DOHC based on a pushrod MOV and still in a rigid frame...hard on him is #15 Alan Burt riding the Waggott 250 DOHC Velocette based on a KTT engine and again in a rigid frame..taken at the races in Mildura, Victoria on the NSW/Victoria border, but unsure when...DQ will have to do some research and correct this post....