I Was a Bit of a Challenge for some in Motorcycling’s Governing body
A great deal of my motorcycle race promotion activities in the 1970s involved interaction with the controlling body of the sport at the time, the Auto Cycle Council of Victoria, (ACUV), later to be MA.
It would be fair to say that there was a time when my relations with the ACUV were not great. Having ‘one of their own’ eventuate as a private promotor horrified some folk. I had been Chair of the MCRCV and delegate for the club and was very involved, so when I started Motorcycle Publicity Services and challenged established concepts, things went very sour very quickly.
My new venture required a much broader view of the world of motorcycling and, it’s fair to say, some within the ACUV were challenged by my activities. It was difficult, as some of the people I was clashing with were friends.
And I must admit, when I read over some of the correspondence I had with the ACUV, I was an arrogant bastard when dealing with them, clearly thinking that making fun of what I thought were unhelpful decisions was more effective than a more diplomatic approach. Mind you, some of my response was due to what I perceived as stupid demands/decisions that did not benefit motorcycling. The most frustrating aspect was that we were quickly making significant steps forward with our approach at Calder and outdated ideas and obstacles were not beneficial. At the time, the Harley Club had been dominating meetings at Calder. But the time for club committee decisions on how to run an open road race meeting had expired. They were proving to be little more than bloody big club days with an endless procession of events. Interstate road-racers were staying away in droves and prize money was less than impressive.
We restructured racing formats and programme presentation, with big increases in prize money. The riders came back. And we told the media about it. A more professional approach to running meetings provided benefits for racing and the public. ‘Professional’ included during a pre- meeting media day, driving as quickly and as almost safely possible around the track with photographers and/or TV cameramen in the back of my Valiant Town and Country ute, struggling to stay in while filming the following riders, or as sometimes was the case, race cars. On one occasion one tv cameraman lost his grip and almost tipped out at speed. He was really pissed off with me and, much to the amusement of those around, gave me a right-royal blast for nearly killing him. I asked if he got some good footage.
Our simple formula with the races was to avoid having graded heats on the main race day. Limiting main race day to around 12 ‘finals’ proved a huge success. People noticed (see attached letters).
Relations with the ACUV were ordinary at the start but later, after we’d proven what could be done, improved to the degree that they asked me to promote the Bitumen for Broadford campaign. The centrepiece was the limited-edition medallion that allowed free access to Broadford and to Hartwell Club run meetings. I’ve no idea how the Hartwell Club bit happened to get there but I guess it seemed a good idea at the time and Wes Brown was heavily involved. Hartwell did run some big meetings. There were 2,000 medallions at the cost of $250.00 which meant, um…divide by…hmm, gives us a good amount to get things underway.
In addition to telling media about the project, my work included a leaflet promoting both the ACUV and the Broadford medallion fund raiser. Part of my payment was a medallion, so make that $499,750 to be raised, considering that no other medallions were used as payment methods.
Unfortunately, I no longer have the medallion. It was always going to have the number 99 (which was Ken Rumble’s number – and mine in later days) but I never got around to it. With my life and activities being principally overseas, and my trips to Australia never seeming to coincide with Broadford events, I gave it to a friend, which, I am told, is naughty. Someone had decreed that you’re not supposed to do that, for some reason. I believe Gyro passed it on to a former friend who, as far as I know, was still a friend at that time but I can’t be certain. You’d have to ask Rob about that. When you do, ask him what happened to the medallion.
P.S. Don’t get annoyed but I’m allowed to have little personal bits and pieces that many of you might not know anything about. Rest assured that someone knows. I promise I won’t do it often. Thankyou, in anticipation of your understanding.
