Jon from Newcastle’s Team Catavolt is proud to announce that they are the outright winners of the very first Electric motorcycle championship to be conducted in Australia. Well done Jon!
Want it? You know you do, visit: evmotorcycle.org to get your copy today!
2009 NZ Classic Motorcycle Festival featuring Kevin Schwantz riding a Manx Norton, The Britten, Kim Newcombe’s Konig and Norton Cosworth motorcycles.
The documentary – Love, Speed & Loss (click here to view Part 1 of 3)
A documentary about motor-racer Kim Newcombe, who turned heads in the 70s on a König motorbike he developed and designed himself. He was killed racing in 1973 and posthumously came second in that year’s World 500cc Grand Prix. The film mixes interviews and underdog triumph on the track scenes, with Super 8 footage of family life on the circuit, and poignant wife-of-maverick reflections from his widow Janeen. Love, Speed and Loss won best documentary at the 2007 Qantas TV Awards and Air NZ Screen Awards for best documentary, directing, and editing.
source: NZonscreen
For a while now I’ve been advising Greg Neal, land speed racer to help him reach his goals with marketing planning, communication tactics, sponsorship, PR and media. Last year he broke the record at 190.118 mph.
Continuing on his winning ways, through his race team, TLN Motorsports, Greg proudly announced his Wounded Warrior Project fundraiser fills my heart with joy. As a retired naval veteran, this project is close to his heart. The mission of the WWP is to provides programs and services to severely injured service members during the time between active duty and transition to civilian life.
In his press release: TLN Motorsports is Chasing the God of Speed for WWP
On July 31-Aug 01 during the LTA sanctioned Land Speed event at the former Loring AFB in Limestone, Me. TLN Motorsports will be hosting a fund-raising event for Wounded Warrior Project.
WWP is a tax-deductible charity.
There work is invaluable. As a retired Navy veteran who was fortunate enough to come home relatively whole I can never do enough to help the cause of all of these brave men and women.
We at TLN Motorsports will be taking pledges of an amount per MPH for our fastest time of the weekend during the event. We plan on breaking the 200 mph mark on our Kawasaki ZX-10 motorcycle. The ways you can pledge your support is simple:
You can email us at tlnmotorsports@yahoo.com with your pledge and we will post it on the TLN website and our Facebook page
We will post the results from the race weekend and I will also email everyone who pledges the results and a webpage where you can make payment to WWP. You can also just make a donation now. Just copy and paste the link below.
(http://WWPProudSupporter.kintera.org/landspeeder?faf=1&e=3496561375)
To make things as easy as possible you can text WWP to 90999 to give only $5! This method is fast, easy, and great for everyone (US only)
Please take a moment and make a pledge or donation. No amount is too small. We are depending on you to make this a successful event. Thank everyone for their support in the past and for what I know will be a successful event in Maine. If you know of a corporate sponsor, direct them our way. This is a great cause to be associated with. Thanks again from everyone at TLN Motorsports.
Follow any of the links to help me in my efforts to support Wounded Warrior Project.
Chasing the God of Speed
GREG NEAL
TLN Motorsports
—
To… serve with honour, and for no personal gain. Now that’s a true warrior. Well done Greg. It is my privilege to know and work with you. Makes it all worthwhile.
Photo from Jim’s personal album
Motorcycling Australia (MA) is pleased to announce that 1976 Australian Unlimited Road Racing Champion, Warren Willing, will return to the track this Easter at the 2010 Honda Broadford Bike Bonanza (HBBB).
Willing, whose battles with friend and arch-rival, Gregg Hansford in the 1970s are still talked about, will cut demonstration laps on the special 3-cylinder Suzuki 350, built for him to contest the 1973 New Zealand International Season.
Photo Credit - Deejay51.com
The machine features a Steve Roberts chassis and is now owned by Darwin enthusiast Peter Shires. Apart from a handful of demonstration laps at the inaugural Phillip Island Grand Prix in 1989, Willing has not been aboard a racing motorcycle since a serious accident at the North West 200 in Ireland in May 1979. Willing sustained multiple leg injuries which required many operations and years of rehabilitation and recovery.
Although his stellar career as a rider was over, Willing never lost his appetite for competition, carving a new career as a Team Manager and Technician. In his role as head of the Australian Marlboro Yamaha Team, Willing gave young Queenslander Mick Doohan his big break on the highly successful Yamaha Superbikes. Doohan’s remarkable year in 1988 led to him signing for Honda and 1989 and going on to win five World 500cc Titles.
Willing then moved on to the international scene, acting as technician with the Kenny Roberts Yamaha squad and looking after Kevin Magee for the 1989 season. He subsequently worked with Wayne Rainey, Luca Cadalora and Jean-Michel Bayle and became renowned as one of the best chassis and suspension workers in the business.
In a career which saw him work with the Suzuki and KTM Works Teams, and the private Roberts Squad, a highlight was winning the World 500cc Championship with Kenny Roberts Junior in 2000.
The HBBB will also feature demonstrations by US Motocross Champion Gary Jones, Enduro and Motocross star Pelle Granquist, and Honda’s first Australian Motocross Champion Brian Martin amongst others.
photo credit: vintagebike.co.uk
More information about the event is available on the MA website: www.ma.org.au/hbbb.
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Don Cox wrote it best:
Greg Pretty, the superstar of the 1979 national season, has died in a road accident in the Adelaide Hills.
Pretty, 54, an airline pilot from Enfield (Adelaide), was riding his Honda with a group of friends on Saturday, January 16. Another rider, travelling in the opposite direction, strayed onto Pretty’s side of the road and collided with him head on. Both riders died at the scene.
Thirty years ago, Greg Pretty was the hottest thing in Australian road-racing. The sight of him sliding both wheels of his Yamaha-Pitmans TZ750F in the speedbowl section of Adelaide International Raceway was one of the classic images of the era.
This from a guy who honed his riding skills in the Hills on a Honda 750, riding most Sundays in the Phoenix Motorcycle Club’s run from Eagle On The Hill to Lobethal.
He won the 250 Production race at Bathurst in 1976 and from 1977 began racking up wins in long-distance Production races, In 1978 Pretty won the South Australian round of the national championship on his personal Yamaha TZ750.
During the 1979 season, this chirpy 24-years-old construction worker with the Zapata moustache won the Australian Unlimited Road-Racing Championship, the Swann Insurance International Series (beating among others world 500 championship number four Dutchman Wil Hartog), the non-championship Indonesian GP and the Sugo Big Road Race in Japan. He also won the Adelaide Three-Hour and Perth Four-Hour Production races, and finished second in the Castrol Six-Hour, on a Yamaha XS1100.
Ten or 20 years later, such results would have attracted great interest overseas Instead, Pretty went to England as a private rider in 1980 and struggled. Greg competed in the 1980 Isle of Man TT. He only had the Yamaha 750, so he was only eligible for one race, the Classic 1300cc TT.
He said later: “You had to ride there with the right attitude, otherwise you’d get hurt. I had very little official practice to jet and gear the bike. Eighty riders started in the race and 32 finished. Two were killed and I finished 25th after riding the last half lap at 15 mph because the steering damper had broken. I was happy with that.”
Greg came home in 1981 and restarted his great partnership with Yamaha Pitmans’ team manager Mal Pitman. In two months Pretty won the Coca-Cola 800 and the Arai 500 on chain driven Yamaha XS11 Pitman built, and the and the Bathurst Unlimited Race on his favourite TZ750F. He reckoned Pitman has a special way of motivating him, with quotes such as: “I’ve never seen such an old chook on a motorbike”.
Honda Australia hired Pretty to race Superbikes in 1982, but the combination never really gelled. Greg put his efforts into chasing his commercial pilot’s licence from that point – save for a brief comeback in 1985. He later took up club racing in a Porsche 911 and maintained a life-long passion for building and flying model aircraft.
Greg maintained contact with many of his racing mates over the years and even toyed with the idea of a comeback ride in last November’s Six-Hour race at Oran Park.
He’ll be sadly missed, not just as a true local legend but a terrific guy.
* Rhymes with “Betty”
In Greg’s own words … how he met Jim at Bathurst:
My first meeting with Jim was at the top end of Mountain straight at Bathurst in 1975. I had travelled to Bathurst with a great mate towing a new trailer (which contained my 900 Kawasaki) he had built which unfortunately gave us grief all the way from Adelaide causing me to miss all the practice sessions for the Easter event. My first lap on the bike(a 1974 Z1-A) was actually in the production race which saw me start at the very back of the field because I had no qualifying time. This was a bummer because I was trying to make up ground which resulted in me colliding into the rear of Jims Z1-B at the top of Mountain straight with Jim being catapulted into the grass off to the left side of the track. When we both got to our feet and looked around, Jim looked at me with a strange gaze of mixed emotion and said “You’re Greg Pretty aren’t you”? To which I simply and in a very embarrassed way replied ‘Yep.” I still don’t know how he knew me but from that moment on we were good mates. I felt so bad for him having cleaned him up the way I did but he showed no animosity toward me whatsoever, so I really liked him! Jim and I always had a good laugh together which was easy with his dry easy going sense of humour. When it came to selecting a co-rider for myself in the 1979 6 hour, the choice was easy. I knew Jim was available, so I said to Malcolm Pitman, “what about Jim Budd”? Mal was totally agreeable, so Jim was approached and he happily agreed. He rode with me in an extremely accomplished manner to finish 2nd after he had recovered from a bad accident at Amaroo Park earlier in the year.
Welcome to the tribute site for Harry Budd and his son, Jim. Both fanatic motorsport ‘heads’. Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Laynie Kelly – the widow of Jim. I’ve always talked about developing a tribute site for both, but didn’t how to do it, or had enough information.
I’ve followed Jim’s racing career long before we married. If you were into motorcycle racing in those days, you knew who Jim was. But sadly, I didn’t know Harry as he passed away when Jim was only 15 years old. Harry had such an impact on his young impressionable son though. Harry was a car racing driver, and involved himself in as much as he could,from official duties to driving.
With Jim’s untimely passing in 2001, I commenced a family tree research campaign where I have discovered and unearthed some wonderful stories and photos.
Their legacy lives on … and this is their story. Mind you, if you have any information, photographs, or even a memory that you would like to contribute to their stories, please contact me. I’d love to know.
Enjoy!
Laynie
