2015 Broadford Bike Bonanza

Thousands of motorcycling enthusiasts converged on the Broadford Motorcycle State Complex over the Easter weekend (April 4-5) for the seventh annual Penrite Oils Broadford Bike Bonanza. Almost 1200 motorcycles were entered, with the 2015 event paying homage to 50 years of racing at Bathurst (1938-88).

Organiser Peter Drakeford has labelled the 2015 event as the biggest and most successful yet.

“It’s probably the biggest crowd that we’ve had over the seven years that this event has been running,” Drakeford said. “I only printed 1200 stickers for the bikes and I was getting worried for a while because I thought we were going to run out, so that’s pretty impressive.”  
The BBB not only caters for road racing enthusiasts, but the vast Broadford complex also has tracks for enduro, motocross, grass track and speedway. All of the tracks were running continually throughout the weekend, making sure there was no downtime for spectators.

This year the road race circuit was awash with classic Bathurst motorcycles, while the feature of the theme was the re-creation of the iconic 1979 Bathurst Unlimited Grand Prix between Ron Bouldon (Yamaha TZ750), Graeme Crosby (Kawasaki KR750) and John Woodley (Suzuki RG500).

On the Saturday evening at the gala dinner all three competitors came together with MC Alan Cathcart to discuss the famous race 38 years on. The three-way interview can be found on Motorcycling Australia’s website. Also at dinner, two lifetime achievement awards were presented to Jan Blizzard and Wes Brown for their involvement in Australian motorcycling.  

Across the two days the most talked about sessions were the Bathurst Classics. Other road-based categories included Pre ’63 Racing, Pre ’75 and Pre’90 Racing, while road riders could enter their own Pre ’90 machines to cut some laps.

Not only were the motorcycles a major attraction, but also the attendance of some prominent riders. Some of the big names to head onto the track over the weekend on various bikes included 500cc GP winner rider Kevin Magee, Isle of Man TT winner Cam Donald, and Cathcart, one of the world's pre-eminent freelance motorcycle journalists.

It's purely a demonstration event, but don’t let that put you off coming. Try telling riders that venture onto a racetrack that it isn’t a race – if you get my drift there were great battles every session and many riders pushed their limits to put on a great spectacle.

If road racing is not your cup of tea you could head over to the speedway track where solo, sidecars and US-style flat trackers were sliding their way around the track. The major drawcard was the Speedway Spectacular on the Saturday afternoon where hundreds of people lined the fence for the display.

On the Motocross Track Pre ’90, Pre ’85, Pre ’80 and Sidecars took to the course, while other historic motorcycles occupied the grass track, trails and enduro loop all weekend. There was also a swap meet where people could sell and buy rare motorcycle parts and memorabilia.

While the famous motorcycles are enough to get me back to the event, I also loved the relaxed atmosphere, the passion and unbridled enjoyment that people were getting out of seeing, hearing and talking about motorcycle history.

If you haven’t been to the Broadford Bike Bonanza pencil it in to your ‘must attend’ motorcycle events.

CAMP LIFE
While the historic motorcycles are a major drawcard for the Bonanza, one of the great aspects of the event is the ability to camp at the track – and with this year being a celebration of Bathurst, camping at the track was all the more important.

Walking through the camp ground, all you could hear were stories of Bathurst being told around the campfires with most conversations starting with the words "remember the time at Bathurst when…"

There was plenty of room to spread out, campfires were allowed and the canteen at the road race circuit offered good track food and was priced quite cheaply.

The weather over the two days could not have been better; not a cloud in the sky the entire weekend. On the Saturday night campers were treated to an unobscured full lunar eclipse (blood moon), while Credence Clearwater Revival’s 'Bad Moon Rising' blared out from our campsite.

If you do decide to venture to the Bonanza I suggest you think about camping. The atmosphere during the night is unbeatable, stories are told, historic motorcycles are dreamt about and when you wakeup you are already on location. Hard to beat!