As a postscript to my article yesterday, here is the peerless Kenny Blake at Bathurst 1977, heading up the hill on Rusty Cragill’s TZ350. Its inclusion also leads me nicely into another article of similar title to yesterday’s on the subject of photographs and memories.
My first road race meeting was Laverton, February 1976. I took my brand new SLR camera and I photographed the racing from the spectator stands. My next meeting was the Easter Bathurst carnival and again I photographed from the stands at the top of the mountain and also from inside the pits.
But that was pretty much the last time I did. It rapidly became clear that, if I wanted to get photos like those being taken by my photographic idol, Greg McBean, I’d have to get INSIDE the fence. And, despite how difficult I thought the process would be, it was, surprisingly easy. Despite not working for any media organisations Paul and I found that, if you asked nicely, it was easy to get a photographer’s pass that was pretty much access all areas. So, from late 1976 onwards, I was able to roam where I pleased and get the close-ups that I wanted to get.
I should add that, just before I close this section, some of the photos I took from BEHIND the fence were pretty damn good for the day.
For the next few years Paul and I followed the circus, travelling within NSW and also interstate, photographing national and international meetings as well as domestic stuff like “C”Grade days and even the humble club days. We helped to defray the expenses by selling photographs to the riders and mostly at least covered our fuel and (sometimes) our processing costs (developing and printing was very expensive). Our decision to follow and photograph the “minor” meetings was probably our salvation as the up and coming and club riders knew us well and knew that, if they wanted to get some racing photos of themselves, we would try and do it for them. The “pros” covered the big meetings and were never even seen at the minor shows.
And unintended consequence of this decision is that we got to photograph many riders who went on to become stars and we can now boast of possibly being the only people around who have photographs of these riders at their very first road race meetings. I have 3 photos of the first time ever that Wayne Gardner rode on the tar, from a Wollongong Club club day in November 1976. As far as I know, only Paul and I photographed that meeting (at the club’s request).
While I was recuperating from my big “off” in October 2010, I assiduously collected and scanned in all my negatives and slides (around 3000 of them) and published them in albums on my Facebook page. If you are a Facebook member, you can see them under the heading “Old Racing Photos”
But what I am finding amazing is that there are still photos from that era turning up and being published 40 or so years after the event. My good friend, Tony Coburn has some gems from Amaroo in 1975 that I have never seen before and this is becoming quite a regular thing.
Here is the late Gregg Hansford doing some maintenance in the pits at Amaroo. This must either be 1974 (from the Yamaha leathers) or early 1975 as he switched to TKA sometime in 1975.
So, if you have old racing/motorcycling photos, don’t leave them in a box. A cheap digital scanner that attaches via USB to your computer can be purchased for under $100. It may not do publishing quality but it will be good enough and it will enable you and your friends to see photos that have been hidden for goodness knows how long and, who knows, they may bring back a lot of great memories, not just for you but for them as well.