Chivas – “He’s a non-crasher”
Leading up to the 1977 6 Hour Team Avon was late in naming a co-rider for Jim Budd, after one Barry Sheene turned down the ride. According to Avon chief Lindsay Walker, Budd finally said he was going to ride with fellow Central Coast man, Neil Chivas.
“What’s he like?” said Walker.
“He’s a non-crasher,” replied Budd.
Neil Chivas, 23 at the time, working as a machinist, very fit and playing several hard squash matches a week. It was a pressure ride. He didn’t want to put a foot wrong. He and Budd chased the winning BMW to a race-record lap score that stood until Chivas had a role in breaking it on Sunday.
Racing is a family sport for Chivas. Father Doug had a 20-year run in car racing, with success in sprints and long distance, sports cars, clubmans and tin-tops. Neil and elder brother Doug Jnr had their first 6 Hour in 1974. They finished sixth in class on an RD350 Yamaha. In 1975 they were seventh outright on a Kawasaki H2 750 and backed that with sixth outright on a Z900 the folllowing year. Neil was scoring good finishes in intersetate production races when he was chosen to co-ride with Budd. Not that – he finishes.
Las year Chivas and Hales were face favourites with many, and two and a half laps in the lead when Hales fell. As son consolation, last year neil was signed to partner Kiwi production hotshot Dave Hiscock and the pair broke Kawasaki’s seeming monopoly on the New Zealand Castrol 6 Hour on a Suzuki GS1000.
“We were fortunate this year – it was a pit we didn’t do it last year,” Chivas told REVS after the race.
“People say we’ve ‘lived’ here for the last two months. In fact two months ago we started comign out here to practice. We came out five times during the next month, then we didn’t come back until the Sunday before the race.
“The reason for the spell before las Sunday was I ‘destroyed’ a shoulder and a knee in a dirtclimb at Jilliby Park. Being best known rider there they made me number one. At the top of the hill I was posing and fell off!
“Apart from this win, it’s been a lean year. I was dicing for third at Bathurst and put down by a clash with another rider. In the Adelaide 3-Hour and Perth 4-Hour I was third, and placed fourth in the Surfers 3-Hour. At Surfers I was fastest in practice, but I pulled a nail out of the tyre just before the start of the race. I was conscious of that from the start and pulled in to have the tyre checked early on.”
If that was unsettling, Neil also had an anxiety no racer wants, during this year. He was right behind Jim Budd at Amaroo when Budd grounded an engine case and went down instantly. Neil had no time to blink before he struck Budd. Being a friend from childhood and the same area wouldn’t have made that easier on the mind. But Budd is back.
Chivas is already negotiating to defend his New Zealand 6-Hour win. At 25 he’s now a full time professional racer living in Warnervale on the NSW Central Coast.
Buddy in the 1977 Six Hour
