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[robw]

starting a hot topic?
channel 9 ? miss marilyns show had yamaha bmx bikes at roselands , out the front riding over logs etc..
must have been 1975 as i was too young to enter.....  bro's mick & dave rode it but dont know what else happened.
also before i raced at north ryde their was a bike shop in miller that organised a small race next to hoxton park primary
school.  mick would know more  about this as i was too young....
as kids we used to run a 100 lap race at our track in busby to coincide with the big speedway grandnational race at liverpool raceway !! used to take about 4 hours and many arguments about how many laps we did!!.
l8ter rw.

[Picker]

Great question- When was the first organised BMX race in Australia and who was there?

I was born in '71 and lived in North Queensland, so I'm no chance!!!

Picker

[COASTY]

The argument was a hot topic for a while on another site.
I think Alistair got it down to Busaco Rd at Ryde Eastwood as the first organised. I think that was in 74-75 not really sure.

[DUNNO]

This has and will be debated forever but this is what i have.

[Old Boy]

This will open a can of worms....LOL

Read the Australian section

Now where is AJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMX_racing

[COASTY]

I have heard of that track. Theres a document floating around from the president of that club.

[COASTY]

[Phil Kaye]

I just added VOSBMX and OZBMXCENTRAL links to that wiki page!!!

[DUNNO]

Hi all your not kidding this will open a can of worms.Is there any riders or photo's
from from that QLD meeting back in 1975.

                                       DUNNO

[Phil Kaye]

Yeah, that question has been asked many times but no photos have turned up. It would be great if we could find someone who has some to post up.

[DB18]

NO photo's, NO results just the letter and thats it.
Jan and Steve Medows from Comp Developments [ who went on to start Quicksilver ] brought BMX racing to Australia.
Where the first importers of Mongoose, Cook Bros., BMX action magazine, G-Boy, Haro and lots of other brands into Australia and started Ryde Eastwood BMX club which had its first race in May 1977.
Lots of photo's and people that where there at the start of it, need any more proof ?

[COASTY]

Well after some chatting with Scott Lynch, it seems the track at Talley Valley has been found and riders that were there have been spoken too. There are documents floating around somewhere and hopefully will be tracked down shortly.
Riders spoke of removing mudgaurds from there dragsters to race and monoshocks were raced also.
This apparently took place in 1976.

[AjayVBMX]

Ah, the old chestnut reappears....

OK, my understanding about early races, based on recent discussions on various forums is as follows:

There was some kind of "Yamaha BMX Gold Cup Series" held in shopping centres around 1975.  The evidence of this is robw's post above and also an interview of Mick W, where he mentioned this at Roselands in Sydney.  It appears that this "series" was in fact a one-off promotion and regular racing did not continue thereafter.

We have all seen the "Tally Valley" letter (too many bloody times) but as DB18 says, NO ONE has ever come forward with any tangible or credible evidence that the track existed or indeed whether any organised racing too place.  So as far as I am concerned, it was something someone tried to start, but probably never got anywhere with.

The earliest fully documented, photographed, videoed race facility in Australia was Busaco Road in North Ryde (now called Macquarie Park).  This appeared on "Simon Townsend's Wonder World" on Channel 10, as well as appearing in Australasian Dirt Bike Magazine and of course several of the regular forum members also raced there.  Racing commenced in the first quarter of 1977 as I understand it and several race meetings were held there in late 1977 and the first quarter of 1978.

I also understand that the Windsor Track in Brisbane started ALMOST as early Busaco Road, probably only a matter of weeks in the timing.

So to be fair to all involved, it's probably truest to say that regular organised BMX racing started at about the same time in NSW and QLD, at North Ryde and Windsor respectively.