At the tender age of 16 this tale begins with my conning my mother into signing a license application with a line something like this:
“It’s okay if you don’t sign it I can still ride in practice without a license”.
My first ride in the sidecar was at Kilburn Speedway which was on Churchill road about opposite where the Albion Hotel is now situated. This was in 1948 and on a practice night and on the first corner of the first lap the front tyre of our outfit connected with the rear of the outfit in ahead, flipping the front of our machine into the air and me onto the track behind it. This would have been the end of my career as a sidecar passenger but for the fact that all my mates were watching and I would have been the laughing stock of the gang. So it was back into the sidecar for approximately 15 years.
During this period I rode in quite a lot of sidecars with different riders and THOROUGHLY enjoyed it most of the time. (Incidentally, don’t knock being a passenger until you have tried it!)
The competitions consisted of road racing at Woodside, Port Wakefield, beach racing at Sellicks, hill climbs at Morialta, scrambles (or motocross) at Royal Park (about where Football PArk now stands), Port Norlunga, speedway at Kilburn, Rowely Park, Marybinongs Melbourne, the half mile at Whyalla, and the fabulous one mile track at Port Pirie. There was nothing to compare with going into bends at around 100 MPH.
Then there were a couple of road trials with Laurie Michel in the Ariel Six Hour and also int he 24 Hour. It was great fun riding with Laurie.
While competing in sidecar racing there were a few little incidents that occurred such as, being left on the bike when the rider slid off the machine because he didn’t think we would make the turn at Rowely Park. He should have stayed on the bike because I got halfway around the bend before hitting the fence, breaking my jaw in two places and my left arm in two places. Incidentally, the rider was Australian Speedway Champion about 5 years in a row.
Rolling over the nose of the sidecar in the Australian Scramble Championship at Royal PArk while riding with Bill Butler who was one of the best outfit rider’s around, but who completely forgot about his passenger once he got on the machine and the throttle in his hand. He had complete trust in his passenger to do the right thing, as do most riders I imagine.
On the final night of the Speedway each season it was declared charity night when solo mechanics rode solo machines, speedcar mechanics drove speedcars and sidecar passengers rode outfits with riders as passengers. Funny things – speedway outfits, shut the throttle and they immediately veer to the right.
NOBODY TOLD ME!!!
On the first practice night I shot off, halfway around the first bend and did a small circle on the infield. This happened 4 times on the first lap and the announcer was heard to say:
“This blokes used to a small track!”
However, this tactic paid off on race night because whilst running third going into the final turn I shut off a bit prematurely, ran across the infield, came back onto the track halfway round the turn and got second place.
Another incident was at Morialta Hill Climb while riding on an Ariel Square Four with Ron Ward and after failing to get to the top of the climb we turned the machine around, took off the plug leads and proceeded to come down the hill with the motor turning over to assist with braking. Unfortunately we had fuel leaking onto the motor and the sparking leads caused a little bit of a fire and fair amount of panic.
About 12 months after I started as a passenger at Speedway, someone said to my father:
“That lad of yours goes pretty well on the sidecar”
He didn’t believe I was competing but didn’t ask me, just decided to go to the speedway to see for himself. Unfortunately he got knocked off his motorcycle on the way, breaking an ankle. He never did see me ride…
Tom Davies, Life Member of the Atujara Motorcycle Club
