Velocette and a re-eneactment, come revival of the 17 years of the Castrol 6 Hour production race at the Motorcycling Victoria's Broadford complex, some 70 km north of Melbourne

The Castrol 6 Hour race was an event in Australia that ran for 17 years from 1970 to 1987. It was a production machine race with very strict compliance rules which, to avoid hassles for the pre-race scrutineering, some entrants had a new out of the crate motorcycle sealed by the then ACU of NSW and raced it.....
The first event in 1970 saw a Triumph Bonneville 650 take the line honours with Len Atlee and Bryen Hindle the victors.
For the next event in 1971 I entered my 1967 Velocette Venom Thruxton  with co-rider ex international Dennis Fry and good friends, John Herrick as reserve rider and Jim Day, our pit crew.
I detailed the event in a previous 6 Hour race post....
So lets forward to this years Easter weekend....
Motorcycling Victoria has a 420 acre tract of land some 70km north of Melbourne, Victoria and Motorcycling Australia with sponsor Penrite Oils made "a celebration of The Castrol Six Hour, 1970-1987" the theme for the weekend open practices on all the circuits on the complex....

The complex has multiple circuits as mentioned, but the theme was centered around the road race circuit...

I took a partial panoramic view of part of the circuit....

There was a good representation of the many hundreds of bikes that entered the event over the 17 years as well as some of the riders of that time.... Joe Eastmure, won, well took the chequered flag first in a solo effort in 1972 on a 315cc Suzuki, only to be disqualified for having removed the horn from the bike....tough regulations! 
Len Atlee won the first event in 1970, Dave Hiscock from NZ, Graeme Crosby...Croz to many, from NZ. Bill Horseman from Adelaide South Australia and so on......
Yes DQ was there and while we couldn't get my original VMT458 Velocette which is still in Perth, Western Australia,John Jennings stepped up onto the plate and having engine number VMT457 Velocette Thruxton ( both his and my bike came out in the same crate to Burling and Simmonds the Sydney motorcycle dealer in Feb.1967) with the bike in a similar patina paint wise to mine of the time, a set of racing numbers to the colour and spec. for the 1971 supplementary regulations for the race, and his bike became my old race bike.....!

John Jennings VMT457

DQ aboard VMT458 during the 1971 event...

While there were no races on all the circuits, per se, open practice was on in various classes of motorcycles and in the road race area, from the 6 hour class; pre 1963; pre 1975;pre 1990; road bikes, novice;road bikes,intermediate.
Lots to see and so come with me on a photographic stroll through the areas around the pits and up to the fence on a section of the circuit for a look.....

Fancy a cup of coffee first? An enterprising local with a Yamaha and replica Dusting sidecar equipped as a coffee bar did a roaring trade all weekend...mind you he worked his butt off....

A racing 1954 Adler MB250, with owner, Otto Muller, head cut off by DQ, looking on....

 

Jeffery Richardson's mk.8 KTT slides off the starting rollers.... 

John Jennings slips out for some practice......

An old friend, Phil Vergison was also there with his camera and sent some pix along for me to utilise....

 

Joe Eastmure, to the right with his ( unsure about this...) 315cc Suzuki, 

 1972 6 hour bike....

 Joe out on the Suzuki with #9 Jim Scaysbrook on the former Hailwood/Scaysbrook Ducati entry from the 1977 event.

The Carbury.... a home made V twin royal Enfield....

JJ brought along his little racing MAC Velocette...

Nic-named "Li'l speedy".....

So how did DQ and crew get to Broadford....?

Well my C4 Citroen trailered down my 1960 Venom and Jim Day's 1965 Venom Clubman....with Peter Underwood riding his 1960 Venom the 750 km from Sydney and back...a sort of "running in"...we had Ben Wolven trailering his Norton Interstate with us...

Pictured is Jim Day, front with Peter Underwood having a well deserved 

"cuppa".

So we'll finish off with some pics of Mitch over from Western Australia for the event having a run on #34 while Tony Keene and John Jennings prepare to load VMT457 for the trip home...

Thanks John....VMT457 was a worthy replica for my old warhorse VMT458....long gone.

 But I've still got the crashed silencer from the 1971 race...

Ouch....!

The late Ron Kessing's Velocette parts auction......DQ auctions Kesso's Shed....

I'd known Ron Kessing for a long time...in fact he only lived 1.3 km from me...sadly he passed on around 2000 aged in his early 80's.
In later years I always rode one of my Velocettes past his house on the way home from a ride...just to tantalise him with the unique sound a Velocette always makes from its exhaust...
He was a Velocette man through and through...rode them as a young man, raced them...he bought a Mk.7 KTT Velocette new in 1938, won the Senior Victory TT at the Easter Bathurst races in 1946 on the ex works Velocette 1935 500cc dog-kennel SOHC, nicknamed here in Australia, "The Monster".

He ran several motorcycle shops...Bain and Kessing being one of them, 
The photograph below is in 1948, a neighbour strides by and Ron, in overalls walks to his 1936 Nash which was for sale ( see the notice on the windscreen).

Bain and Kessing letterheaded paper of the time...

He had petrol stations, then a taxi cab that two 1950's Australian Continental Circus riders, Bob Brown and Alan Burt, drove for him when they returned from Europe to earn additional money for the trip back the following year and to buy new AJS/Matchless racers......

 Ron, in overalls, LtoR, Don Wilson, Alan Burt, Bob Brown with the MSS they rode in the 1954 24 hour production race at Mt.Druitt race circuit.
He had several sheds on his property and despite visiting him many times he never showed me into them... 
I always wondered if there  were any "Velocette gems" still there so to speak.....
Following the death of Ron's widow, Jean about a year ago the family rented the house out and the sheds remained locked up...The house was sold at Easter, but I was at the big Velocette themed weekend at Broadford in Victoria so didn't "sticky beak" at the house auction.
Then a phone call from the family, the house settlement was imminent, they needed to clear his sheds...was I prepared to auction the contents as this was a quick way to clear them out..?
I agreed, wondering if it would be like "opening Pandora's box or just a pile of shit"...
Well initially it looked like the latter....

 There appeared to be Velocette LE's and Honda "Postie" bikes everywhere blocking the floor ( The Australian Postal service uses modified Honda 90's etc to deliver mail).

It took us some 4 days to clear the "rubbish", filling 3 builders dumpsters/skips.
Following the auction there was still a 4th larger skip used and a scrap metal dealer filled is 3 ton truck...!

 

But as we closed towards the action date it became obvious that it was "Pandora's box"....Velocette parts everywhere, including KTT bevel gears, main bearings, cams even a new set seals for the rear oleos on the Mk.8 KTT... "gold dust"...

 Wooden casting patterns for pistons, used LE parts everywhere, four LE's,  five Postie Hondas and Yamahas, magnetos and parts, generators, MAC/MOV heads, barrels, crankcases, Amal carbs/parts.....further on is the list of the sale with prices realised in AUD$.

The prices realised were so incredibly low, but at an unreserved at short notice auction you take what comes. The family on the whole were pleased with the result..the sheds cleared, skips paid for and a little in the till...

 Valve seat cutters and stones..

Tooling...

 The lathe and tooling sold for $5... the pedestal drill for $25.

Ten rows of ten tins full of Velo and some other parts...100 tins in all...

Cast JAP head with a Charlie Ogden castup Amal mk.1 GP carb....note small lugs on the body.

Due to the short notice we had to advertise it expected numbers were down with some 40 people registered to bid....and there were "bargains galore".... much sold for $5 up to $80....

 DQ runs the auction.....

 As I mentioned above, I'd feature the auction running sheets with prices....

Read and weep some would say.....

In a future post I feature Ron Kessing and his racing life....I've some interesting photographs to share with you.......