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.......

 

Possibly the last motorcycle race during WW2....

The 1939-1945 world war, WW2, was well underway for Australia when the Blue Mountains TT was held in the small town of Blackheath to the west of Sydney on Anniversary Day 27th January 1941.....
I've no idea why it was run then, guess the population needed entertainment or a diversion from the hard reality of life and world war.....
The circuit was built specially by the Blackheath Municipal council, no doubt at considerable cost to their ratepayers and was only ever used the once...never again after hostilities had ceased....
Jim Scaysbrook in his bi-monthly publication, Old Bike Australasia magazine, will do a more in depth look at the circuit in a forthcoming edition....
But lets have a look at the report in the motorcycle publication of the time, the February 1941 copy of "The Australian Motor Cyclist".....

As well I've some other original photographs taken during the meeting....

Ron Kessing on his 1938 Mk.7 KTT Velocette followed by  Eric McPherson on his 1939 Mk.8 KTT Velocette during the Senior race....

Eric McPherson easily wins the Junior race on his 1939 Mk.8 KTT.
Then last weekend following a Velocette/Vincent rally at a nearby town, we found the circuit and it is intact today with a fair amount still dirt/gravel...
So we duplicated the first corner pictured on the cover of AMC Feb.1941 and I've stitched the two photographs together for comparison.....

A look through the lens of Alan Schafer's camera during the 1939 Australian GP motorcycle races on the Mt.Panorama circuit at Bathurst, NSW, some 150 km west of Sydney......

I've introduced you to Alan Schafer before in several posts on my blog..... and I recently scanned in quite a few small sized photos that Alan had uncatalogued in  a plastic bag....
So I sorted through a 1938,1939 and 1940 Bathurst motorcycle race programs to endeavour to identify most of the pics, which in a way allow you to get a better idea of motorcycle racing in Australia in this pre-war period...
I've included some cuttings from the relevant motorcycle magazine of the time here in Sydney..."The Australian Motorcyclist".....

Now there has been motorcycle racing in the Bathurst area since the 1920's, during the earlier 1930's period it was on the Old Vale circuit, but a new purpose built road over the Mt.Panorama on the southern outskirts of Bathurst was unveiled to the visiting Irish motorcycle racing great..Stanley Woods, who was on a racing and promotional holiday for Velocette with starts in the South Australian Centenary TT at Victor Harbour in late December 1936 and then at Phillip Island in February 1937 and after visiting P&R Williams, the NSW Velocette distributors in Sydney he travelled with P&R sponsored riders Cec Weatherby ( pictured to the left) and Don Bain (second from the right) and is shown below, beside the then mayor of Bathurst ( in the black suit to the centre) on an area, later called Reid Park which would form part of the circuit...

The circuit was completed in time for the Easter races in 1938, although the track was unsealed, that is a dirt/gravel surface for this year and sealed for the 1939 races.

Bathurst town centre in 1939 at Easter for the races...
Well as mentioned, Alan had a camera, although I have no idea of the brand or it's capability for action shots, but Alan did take some and considering what might have been available I think he did a good job and for those interested in motorcycle racing in Australia it forms a valuable record...
So lets wander through the snapshots, which I've labelled where possible...

The start of the 1939 Australian Senior GP and the finish line.....

Through McPhillamy Park corner during the Australian Sidecar GP and Abercrombie handicap....#37 W. Hodgekiss 498cc Norton OHV and #87 N.Hilliard 596cc OHC Norton.

Same corner and race...#17 A.Jones 596cc OHC Norton...

 Decending the mountain in the infamous "esses", George Hannaford (Vic), on a 1938 Mk.7 KTT Velocette.

#19, Doug James, 250 Excelsior Manxman, 2nd in 1939 Lwt TT, in the esses at Bathurst.

#8 Leo Tobin 348cc OHC Norton and #7 Don Bain 348cc OHC Velocette.

#13 Cec Weatherby, 348cc OHC Velocette mk.8 KTT

Start of the 1939 Senior Australian GP...somebody got a "blinder" of a start...the mk.7 KTT is Dave Jenkins and #3 is Art Senior on his potent Ariel 500 special..

#8 Leo Tobin , Norton and #9 Wal Hawtry at the end of what later became called "con-rod straight"....due to the number of engines that broke conrods.
The straight was approx a mile and a quarter downhill....

A rider falls at the end of the main straight...I couldn't identify him....

Following the finish of each race, the first three places were impounded for scruitineering...this occured as pictured at what became known as "the green shed"...the Velo thethe left is Don Bain's 495cc OHC ex works Velo racer known as "The Monster", #25 is S.Sharpe,Norton and the Velocette Mk.7 KTT is likely Dave Jenkins.