Dazza's blast to the past

Motorcycle Grand Prix winner and Network Ten motorsport commentator Daryl Beattie has taken on the role of ambassador for the 2015 Australian Historic Road Racing Championships.

The meeting will be hosted by the Historic Motor Cycle Racing Register of SA from October 8-11 at Mallala Motorsport Park, just outside Adelaide.

More than 250 riders are expected to attend with over 300 machines to compete in classes covering periods from 1920 to 1990. Daryl will be attending in between his MotoGP commentating commitments.
“I love all forms of motorcycling and first got involved in vintage racing when I helped my old Suzuki teammate and buddy Kevin Schwantz race a Manx Norton in New Zealand in 2009,” Daryl says. “Kevin’s since raced Manxes in the US and UK. He set the fastest lap for a single-cylinder machine at last year’s Goodwood Revival. This sport can become very addictive!

“South Australians are very serious about vintage racing. The HMCRRSA was formed in 1977. It hosted some high-profile international guests in the 1980s, and first held the national titles in 1996, then in 2002 and 2006.

“Mal Pitman (former Red Bull Yamaha 500cc chief engineer) is the register’s patron and I know he has plans to get some great old Grand Prix machinery out of the woodwork for the weekend.”

Mallala, a country town just 55km north of Adelaide, is embracing the event, with locals providing camping sites and catering.

“Anyone who loves motorcycling knows that the journey is the adventure,” says Daryl, who also runs Daryl Beattie Adventures Outback tours. “So the nationals could be a pit stop for fans travelling to the Phillip Island MotoGP, held on the following weekend, from the west.”

The Mallala Motorsport Park dates back to 1961, when Lex Davison (grandfather of current V8 Supercars racers Will and Alex) won the Australian Car Grand Prix there in front of 15,000 spectators. It is a great place to watch historic racing, with picnic vantage points that cover most of the track.

“Vintage racing is growing around the world with new events, such as the recent World GP Bike Legends festival at Jerez,” says Daryl. “The national titles at Mallala will be Australia’s showcase this October.

“I’ll be releasing a series of updates in the lead-up to the national historic titles at Mallala and I hope to see a lot of motorsport fans there.”

Tell us a bit about your racing career. My real ambition was to race speedway in the UK. As a 15-year-old I had a two-valve Jawa and was invited to race at Surfers Paradise Speedway. I won the night but it ended in tears when it was discovered I was underage. Next weekend Dad and I went to the Swann Series, saw Wayne Gardner and Co and I realised road racing was for me.

How did you finance it? I left school at Year 10 and got a job as a lackey at a Yamaha dealership. I bought an RZ250LC and my first road race was on my 16th birthday, in 1986, at the last ever meeting at Surfers Raceway.

How different was it then? I was pretty much the only young kid road racing whereas nowadays it’s run of the mill. I was fortunate enough to be in the era where the international Australian stars came home to race in the domestic series. I think the closest thing to it now is the Spanish domestic championship. In 1989 Honda took me on with an RS250 and I won the Australian 250GP title and was 12th at the Phillip Island World 250cc Grand Prix race. I was third in my rookie full-time season of Grand Prix 500cc racing in 1993. Kevin Schwantz got me to Suzuki and 1995 was my best year. I was leading the championship by 20-something points but broke my collarbone at Assen. I ended up second behind Mick Doohan for the season.

A spate of injuries forced you into early retirement? I was gutted when I had to give it up at 27. I had a series of accidents in testing, some of them involving the Suzuki tearing the tops off pistons as you rolled out of the throttle. I knocked myself out big-time several times in 1996 and it was like a boxer who had too many blows. In the worst crash at Paul Ricard I broke a wrist, collapsed a lung and fractured my skull. It took a couple of years for a weird floating feeling to go away.

Then you got into commentating? In 1999 Leigh Diffey got me on to Channel 10 at Phillip Island to call an on-board lap and the producer came in later and said he’d never heard a lap of the circuit described like that and offered me a job. I’d cringe if I had to see some of my early pit-lane work but that was where I learned the most about interviewing.

And you’re back on the bikes? I love road riding with friends but it’s like a lot of things in my life, it has to involve adventure. A couple of years ago I started up Daryl Beattie Adventures Outback tours and it’s been a great success. There’s something special about riding in the Outback.