As recorded in My Motobiography, Chapter 6, in 1965 my brother and I attended the Mattara Hillclimb in Newcastle’s King Edward Park. It was the first motorccle race meeting I had ever been to and we were lucky enough to see Australia’s future World Champion, Kel Carruthers, take FTD on a Honda. And here, almost 50 years later, is a photograph from that very meeting. It shows Kel just after exiting Perce’s Pinch, gassing it up towards the ocean and the big righthander that led into the final part of the course.
Here is a picture taken of that same stretch of the course looking eastwards. It was taken in 1967 and features Ron Thorp’s AC Cobra.
It seems that the bike Kel is riding is not the “works” Honda 4 but a Honda two cylinder bike that was owned by local businessman and entrepreneur, Jack Gates. To say that I am stunned at seeing a photo from that meeting almost 50 years later is an understatement. I have no photos of my own from that day.
Thanks to Warren Toombs (Ron’s son) for posting it up on Facebook. 🙂