He’s usually found getting his hands dirty in the workshop at Wilder’s Motorcylces but on November 9-12 Young’s Rolland Oar was flying around the track at Wakefield Park on the back of two classic bikes.
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Oar competed at the Australian Historic Motorcycle Road Racing Championships in Goulburn bringing home two new titles, trophies and awarded the championship medallion after winning on both his 1969 350CC Yamaha and a 1972 250CC Yamaha.
“Within the motorcycling ranks there are different periods of motorcycles for their own races, I race in what they call period four which is from 1963 to 1972 production,” he said.
Being an old, fat, out of nick fellow I thought they’d have the wood on me, I surprised myself.
- Rolland Oar
“I usually go alright on the bigger tracks like Phillip Island and Eastern Creek, but this is a very small and physical circuit and being an old, fat, out of nick fellow I thought they’d have the wood on me, I surprised myself.”
Though Oar has been involved with bikes since he was a 12-year-old he has only been racing them for the past three years, making his win even more impressive.
“I do my own preparation of course being in the industry and a lot of it is to do with reliability.
“You’ve got to make sure nothing is going to fall off being a rattly old two stroke, they vibrate fairly well and they tend to shed parts and loosen parts and things will come adrift, frames will crack.
“You’ve just got to make sure you’re on top of everything and keep the engines freshened up and try and ride to the best of your ability,” he said.
Oar believed going into the race that he wasn’t going to take home the win, but he did that as well as bringing home the championship.
“They have to have minimum numbers in the ranks to be declared a championship and we well exceeded the numbers required for our races.”
Oar won trophies for the two races and was awarded two medallions from Motorcycling Australia, one for each class of victory that he said they only present to championship racers.
The racing doesn’t stop at Wakefield Park for the local with preparation already beginning for his next race early next year.
“The next race for us is the Phillip Island Classic on the Australia Day weekend.”
Oar said he and a contingent from Young will be making the trek to Melbourne for the annual event once again.
Rebecca Hewson
A local with a love of local news reporting for the people across the Hilltops and Weddin areas.
A local with a love of local news reporting for the people across the Hilltops and Weddin areas.
