Articles by Don Cox
Extract from Circus Life: Hinton fixes spark plug with his teeth
Below is an extract from Circus Life – Australian Motorcycle Racers in Europe in the 1950s by Don Cox.
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Legends: Takazumi Katayama
Takazumi Katayama was different. Born in Korea in April 1951, he spent more than a decade racing in Europe, rode works machines for two factories and in 1977 became Japan’s first world Grand Prix champion.
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Legends: John Surtees
John Surtees left motorcycle racing at age 26 with the number one on his machine. It’s a fact quoted many times since Casey Stoner announced that he’s retiring.
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Interview: Mal Campbell
Mal Campbell has been there and done it all, and still does it in Historic Period 5 racing. Riding for Team Honda in Australia and for HRC he rode all manner of machines, including factory …
Legends: Kevin Schwantz
Want a racer who delivered excitement? Think Kevin Schwantz.
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Interview: Jeff Leisk
Jeff Leisk deserves legend status in off-road racing, as the first Australian rider to win a world motocross Grand Prix and as runner-up in the 1989 world 500 motocross championship. He retired from motocross at …
Legends: Wayne Rainey
Driven might be the best one-word description of Wayne Rainey. Driven to beat arch-rival Kevin Schwantz and fellow Californian dirt tracker Eddie Lawson.
Driven to chase a fourth world crown and to push so hard on …
Legends: Carlo Ubbiali
At the Assen Centennial Classic 1998, events were decided on regularity of lap times. Italy’s nine-times world champion Carlo Ubbiali, then aged 68, was a clear winner in his class.
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Legends: Wayne Gardner
In 1988, Swan Breweries showcased leading Australian sports people in television advertisements, with the catchline: “they said you’d never make it”.
In a first for Australian motorcycling, reigning world 500 champion Wayne Gardner was featured. It …
Legends: Eddie Lawson
Eddie Lawson’s 1983 signing direct from American Superbikes to the Yamaha 500 Grand Prix team brought howls from the European press, but the decision was soon vindicated.
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Terry Dennehy’s Drixton-Honda
Talk about unlikely combinations. Two 22-years-old Australia bike mechanics, working in Milan with a Swiss frame maker, turn a Honda CB450 roadster into a competitive racer.
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Marco Simoncelli 1987-2011
Marco Simoncelli’s death at the Malaysian Grand Prix has rocked the sport. He was a MotoGP star on a rise and an incredible personality – in a paddock where rider actions and quotes are often …
Legendary bikes: MV Agusta 500
Giacomo Agostini has no hesitation naming his favourite bike: the MV-Agusta 500 tre cilindri.
It was created in 1966 when he became MV’s lead rider and won seven successive premier-class crowns.
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Legendary Bikes: Barry Sheene’s Suzuki RG500 1976-77
Barry Sheene’s Suzuki 500 holds the record for the fastest motorcycle GP race ever.
On July 3, 1977 Sheene averaged 217.37 km/h to win the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps, compared with fastest MotoGP race averages …
Legends: Gary Hocking
“Meteoric”. That was Gary Hocking’s international motorcycle career. Aged 20, he first ventured onto the Continent in mid-1958 and within a month finished third in the West German 500 GP.
Shocked by the death of Australia’s …
