One of the pastimes that has brought me the most joy over the years of following road racing has been playing the game of “spot the talent”, and I’ve played it pretty successfully.
I saw Robbie Phillis at his first ever road race meeting at Hume Weir and marked him down as a rider who was going to go places, and he certainly did. That was August 1976.
At the same meeting I saw the second meet for a young man called Ron Boulden, who also appeared to have the mark of greatness on him. And he didn’t disappoint either, rising to the ranks of a fully salaried rider with Yamaha Australia.
In November that year we attended the Mick Dobbie Memorial Trophy race meeting at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway. It was the first time that a youngster called Wayne Gardner had raced on the tar, putting road tyres on his YZ125 motocross bike and attracting some very favourable attention.
Early in the following year another Wollongong youngster called John McDonald arrived on the scene on a TZ250 Yamaha race bike. The lanky teenager was an instant hit and I marked him down as one to watch. At the time he achieved the fastest upgrading from “C” Grade to “A” Grade that anybody had up till then, going right through the grades in less than a year, an unheard-of occurence back then. John retired at the peak of his form and then came back to racing a few years ago, racing for Brooke Henry’s VeeTwo Australia team, and again he rocketed to the top of the rankings before retiring again to concentrate on his business interests in SE Asia.
In 1985 I attended the practice day for the Swann International Series at Surfers Paradise International Raceway (sadly, long since closed). As well as spending a very pleasant half an hour in the Honda tent, line-shooting with Wayne, I also noticed a very promising young (VERY) young rider, doing some very special times on a Honda NSR250 Grand Prix bike. When I asked who this spectacular youngster was, I was told that he was only 15 years old and that his name was Darryl Beattie!
There’s not enough space to list all the talent I’ve spotted very early in their career and put them on my “watch” list. But I must mention 3 more.
In 1997, Tony Hatton debuted his Moriwaki 80cc race bikes for Juniors. Kids aged 13-16 were able to compete on normal race tracks on a real road racing bike, a forerunner of the present-day MRRDA Series and the Metrakit series that even now are unearthing new talent, like Dylan Mavin and Ryan Dymond (tuck THOSE two names away for future reference as well)
The first meeting on a real circuit (as distinct from go-kart tracks on which Tony also ran his series) was at Wakefield Park as part of the then very popular RB Imports Clubman Series. And, as Tony stood beside me in the box, he said, “Watch out for this young kid from Queensland. His name is Chris Vermeulen, and I reckon he’s the real deal!” How prophetic! Incidentally, at the same meeting two other youngsters whose names might be familiar raced (many others who raced that day you will know also, but I’m saving this for a separate, feature article.) They were Broc Parkes and Anthony West.
And, late last year I noticed a young man from the Central Coast of NSW racing in the St George Honda Michelin Series. He started out as a “D” grader and I was mightily impressed with him from the get-go and remarked to David Curtis that he was an impressive talent who certainly should be watched.
The young man’s name is Patrick Medcalf and, on Sunday the 3rd of August, the now “C” Graded Patrick, teamed with Bryan Staring and Amy O’Mara to win the St George/RJays 4 Hour Clubman Relay race at Wakefield Park.
He is profiled in the current issue of AMCN and I recommend that you remember the name. I think this young fellow might also be the “real deal”.