PERTH (WA)
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next years www.speedwayandroadracehistory.com/1964--1970-bibra-lake-speedway.html
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1960's George Higgs and passenger Les Sharp turn in some laps around the Bibra Lake circuit
Les Sharpe recalls: George Higgs built and only raced this outfit for a short time and handed over the riding duties to my uncle Charlie Johnston who painted it in all white colours, I Also swung for Charlie on many occasions.
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1969 AUSTRALASIAN SPEEDWAY WORLD REPORTED
Solo's ToRun AtBibra LakeBy Glen PerrottOnce again the smell of methanol, (Wot No Nitro) the crackle of Japs and Eso's the helmeted leather clad figures with steel boot soles sending sparks flying from the contact with iron pyrites embedded in the dirt is the picture for the next meeting at Bibra Lake Speedway, This will be on June 29, almost two years to the day when they were last in action on the seaside track.
To scotch all rumours as to why it has been
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so long since this was so a little past history must be explained, Two years ago the old Bibra Lake track was flooded beyond raceworthiness and the programme for that year continued, by kind permission of the RDA on the Wattle Grove circuit on Saturday afternoons. The present headquarters of the Perth TQ Car Club was opened in June of this year and great were the plans for this site, Hovever resumption by the C of A for the extensions of Jandakot Airport swept plans aside.
To put money into fencing would be lost money under this set-up but a new international has made it possible for the Speedway Control Board to view the the circuit in a differant light and so a trial day has been arranged in order to bring the solo's back to winter speedway as so many of the competitors in this branch would want.
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Australasian Speedway World |
The last Claremont season ended with five A and seven B grade riders with one C grader off 50 yards and the remainder off 10 yards to scratch,
If last years solo brigade increases for this season it may be neccesary to run 2 novice events at the beginning of the programme.
Promotors and solo officials agree that the paying customer must be looked after and given what he wants - good racing, Of the crop of young rider, less experienced riders only 4 can qualify for starts later in the programme.
This points back to just how popular solo racing could be at Bibra Lake if an agreement can be reached between the SCB and the Perth tq Car Club because it will be here that many potential greats will gain a lot of there inittiation.
At the moment of going to press it is known that Nipper Neil, Peter Ward, Des Noble, Gerry Bridson, Abe (4x2) Schnider and Hec Haslinger will be appearing with the possibility of two of the big guns being seen on the ground.
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This meeting will be only a demonstration run which limits the number of starters to four, The purpose of such meeting is to enable Speedway Control Board officials to assess the safety margin of a particulat track, For example the Speedway Royal in Sydney and Rowley Park in South Australia are only permitted to run four starters in a scratch event and six in a ahandicap event, Claremont Speedway is allowed to start six in a scratch and eight in handicaps.
Another requirement for the promoting body is to ensure, in writing, that riders insurance is equal to that of the SCB standards.
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1985 HISTORY OF THE PERTH T.Q CAR CLUB INC.
As told by George Higgs
Our Club was formed after a newspaper article from Victoria told a story of a working man's racing car, Someone from Perth advertised in the local paper for interested persons and the news got around and eight or nine tq's (three quarter midget speedcars) got underway.
It was then arranged to have a meeting and start a club, The meeting place was Bunny Burrowes wine shop in Subiaco in 1956, Col Phillipson was the inaugural President, Some of those attending were Bunny, Charlie Hawkins (first life member, now deceased), Wally Higgs, Peter Huitenga, Bill Richards, Alf Richards. The first secretary was John Anderson's farther in law Ed Pilkington and Peter Huitunga was treasurer with Wally Higgs as social secretary.
Race number 1: Our first race meeting was at mandurah, a road race in conjunction with the Coastal Motor Cycle Club, This was somewhat of a disaster as these machines of anything one could get his hands on, I recall getting lost after a slow start and pulled up to what I thought was a bunch of spectators and asked which way they went, they shrugged their shoulders, I drove back to the waterfront (starting line) and when they came around the corner I joined them for a few laps anyway, 7 started and 2 finished.
Soon after, Club's popped up everywhere, Albany being far the strongest, In those days it was all road racing, and believe me a lot of fun and lauughs, We applied then to Aub Lawson for a run at Claremont and we were known as the flying fleas, In disgust the club wrote to Lawson complaining and he refrained from calling then such, We went off to many country towns to race, Narrogin, Wagin, Kojonup, Katanning, Beverley, Northam, Kellerberrin, Narrembeen, Merriden, Burracoppin and so on, but some dirt racing tracks were now starting.
I originally built a track (using Council machinary) at Clontarf Orphanage for the WA Speedcar Club, After a couple of winter seasons they abandoned it and the Perth tq Car Club applied through Bunny, and got the use of it, paying 50% of the gate takings to Clontarf, We put in three or four successful seasons there, We were now meeting monthly at Cambridge Street Wembley and although paying out a lot of our gate, the club, through Socials mainly, amassed the amount of one thousand, one hundred pounds, there was lots of discussion on the best paying bank, Society or such to invest in, My idea was land but they had Clontarf and were very happy, However, I was allways looking for land and even in those days Speedway was taboo, It was Eugene Edwardes, Shire Clerk of Cockburn, who told me to look around the Jandakot Airport area as this was, in his opinion, the only place to go as the noise would not be a problem and he would push for a permit, And so he did, A land sale had just gone through there and luck had it that a a block was forfeited and we could negotiate with the agent for time payment.
Annual elections coming up and I had been nominated among others for President, I quickly moved round and sighted a grader and Austin Truck, I was elected President and my first meeting went beyond midnight, After getting the members to agree to a deposit on the land Ithen put up to purchase the Grader and truck and this was accepted and hence the eleven hundred pounds spent and the end of our investment problems.
In the meantime I was Speedway rep, and the tq boys had a disagreement with Lawson and we were not racing at Claremont, This went on for a long time and our club membership was falling, I endavoured to console members on the fact that those left were the good ones and we would get our track finished and all would be well, As so it was , The little Austin truck worked nights and weekends, as did small contractors and truckies, and a handful of members and their wives and families, and our first track opened on the 6th of October 1963, Three meetings were held.
The next season saw things really move, The membership quickly went to 200 and lots of tq's came to light, I might add the entry fee to the speedway was two and sixpence, The first Bibra Lake Chamionship was won and I was the winner from Stan McEntee, I was also the winner of the coverted Coventry's KLG Spark Plug Trophy, Our club built the first grandstand in the shire of Cockburn.
It was then decided to have solos and sidecars, We had one or two meetings using Claremont riders and drew good crowds, but had the usual problems with theirAssociation which Lawson had a big say in, However we decided to build our own solos.
I bought an old worn out JAP from Nipper Neil and from this built up a jig for making solo frames, 2 were built and a picnic day arranged at our track, These two bikes got the treatment and raised that much enthusiasm, and new members, the first line
up sported twelve starters, one a girl This opened the eyes of the speedway riders and I was elected to the Speedway Control Board and that section was off. We then decided to build sidecars, Amoung others five were built at my workshop, and away went the sidecar teams.
Some of these riders were Ossie Wolfe (deceased), Warren Harrison, Harry Taylor and myself.
Stock Cars: soon got started with the club buying three or four old cars, And then to Speedcars, Brother Wally built a rear engine madel (which later was sold to Geoff Pilgrim) and Wally Bradley and I built up a more standard looking machine, although rather unorthodox, We took to the track and
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Les Sharpe inside and Colin Cook two of the Claremont stars that kicked solos of at Bibra Lake SpeedwayTypical solo action at Bibra Lake |
had a series of cooked up match races, Higgs v Higgs, Soon this attracted some of the Speedcar boys and that section went reasonably well, By 1965 the show was really on, with some of us competing in almost every event on the programme, Oh to be young.
However problems started and with major developments at the airport, large drainage systems etc, We became subject to flooding and although we built the track and road up two feet of water finally took over.
This is where a new story starts, We needed to go somewere, but where, The only piece of land left is a big hill, in fact larger than that now on either side, This land was a deceased estate and no will had been left and the beneficiaries were all over the world.
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Warren Harrison went on to ride at Claremont |
The situation was in the hands of the Public Trustees and the only document was a family tree, The situation had been in their hands for four years and nothing had been done, I insisted that we have the opportunity to buy this land and so they decided that if I solved the riddle and negotiated a price with the beneficiaries then we could have it, otherwise it constituted, when organised an Auction, After three or four months corresponding all over the world and Australia we won the right to buy.
A contact was made with pioneer Concrete to supply concrete sand using our own machinery, Peter Gordon and myself raised the finances to put the necessary machinery into action.
There were conciderable complaints that Peter and I were to make a quid, all we got was grey hair.
In the meantime the Club raced at Wattle Grove, Eventually enough sand was excavated to form a small circuit, a canteen and toilets were built and racing commenced once again on our own land.
Excavation carried on, sand was sold, givern away, anything to remove that mountain, Things were starting to look good after four years, The Land Committee took assessment of the situation and it was estimated that only about 5000 tons were left to excavate and that there was room left at the bottom of the property to dispose of this amount, The Pioneer contract came up for renewal and we let it lapse.
At this point in time a letter was forwarded to me from the Dept of the interior requesting the purchase of our land holding and asking for an appointment date, A meeting between myself and the chief of their department was held, After studying maps of their intensions it was positive that the old property, if not negotiated would be resumed, We had no use for this now swamp land and the sale was a blessing, the money was needed to complete the hill site, I informed the department that the hill could not be sold as that was the only place available for speedway and the reasons were accepted, However the club decided to sell this land (where we are now situated) and possibly get something better suited.
In the meantime competition carried on around the small circuit, the property being leased now from the Government, After about six years there was no programme in any direction although there were many approaches made to buy our own land, Speedway is categorised as a noxious trade and so I approached the powers to be on various occasions with the view of spending the interest on the clubs investment, which bring back into memory the old members and workers and the eleven hundred pounds.
It was decided by the President, then Wally Cowie, that provided I orginised the work, modifications would be carried out on the existing land and some $15,000 was spent bringing the site up toward what the older members had set out to do.
Last year after many enquiries from drivers of different sections, it was decided to once again do a modification to the circuit, This has been carried out and the drivers in general have signified their satisfaction in this regard, And now it seems a new chapter is about to begin.