History of the 6 Hour - 1972 October 15

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Race Report

This race promised to be the daddy of them all due to the string of superbikes released in the previous 12 months; it was, but not for that reason.

Yamaha had released its super-trick TX750 and had signed a string of stars to ride the machines; Toombs, Hinton, Hindle, Knight, Hatton, Spooner, Rob and Keo Madden, Ahearn and Richardson were amongst them.

Kawasaki had upgraded the 500cc Mach Ill to 750cc and called it the Mach IV. It was the fastest bike ever released at that time. On board the Mach lVs were Gregg Hansford, Rob Hinton, Mike Steel, Dave Burgess and Owen Ellis.

Two brand new charismatic Ducati 750s, a big- tanked Interstate Norton, a Triumph Trident and an MV Agusta 750 also lined up against the proven Honda 750s and Yamaha 650s.

But the claimed winner came from the 500 class; Joe Eastmure on a Suzuki 315.

Due to a lap-scoring error the course announcers and TV commentators convinced themselves, the 12,000 spectators and one million TV viewers that Eastmure was on the same lap as Kawasaki Mach IV mounted Dave Burgess and Mike Steel.

For the last half hour Eastmure and Steel fought out the lead and when Steel crashed with three minutes to go, Eastmure took the victory.

Half an hour later the lap sheets were checked and it was found that Steel had in fact won with 334 laps, Eastmure was third on 333 and the Ducati 750 of Gates/Lawrence was second.

When post-race scrutineering was started, more interesting facts were discovered. Eastmure’s barrels were non-standard and the horn was missing from his machine. Subsecpiently he was disqualified.

The scrutineers had an even greater shock when they lifted the head from the second-placed Ducati. Larger pistons had been fitted with the capacity increased to a massive 890cc. That team was also disqualified.

Earlier in the race, the Yamaha TX75Os had made an embarrassing debut. By twelve o’clock Toombs/Hinton, Hindle/Knight and Hattonl Spooner had all retired with mechanical woes. The TX never recovered from the publicity and faded from the showroom within 12 months.

The MV Agusta went out of the running with a blown clutch at 12.07.

Len Atlee’s Norton Interstate ran out of brakes and crashed after one-and-a-half hours. The eight laps lost in the pits was the exact distance Len lost by at the finish.

Gregg Hansford’s Kawasaki front disc brake decided to weld itself to the caliper costing him a certain high placing. Before he went out he set a new lap record of 60.4 seconds.

In the 500 class, Kawasaki 500s showed the way from the usual 315 Suzukis, four-cylinder Honda 500s and the first RD350 Yamaha. The RD lost nearly 20 laps when rider Peter Stronach crashed due to a flat tyre.

In the 250 class the very competitive team of Murray and Jeff Sayle and Warren Willing pushed a Yamaha DS7 to the fore of the Suzuki hordes. But Suzukis filled second through to eighteenth place.

The winning machine wore Dunlop K81s. The winning 500, 250 and Eastmure all used Metzelers.

Results


Outright

1

Mike Steel, Dave Burgess

Kawasaki H2 750

334 laps

2

Garry Thomas, Max Robinson

Honda CB750

332 laps

3

Les Kenny, Ross Hedley

Kawasaki H1 500

330 laps

Unlimited

1

Mike Steel, Dave Burgess

Kawasaki H2 750

334 laps

2

Garry Thomas, Max Robinson

Honda CB750

332 laps

3

Ken Blake, Jeff Curley

Ducati GT750

330 laps

4

Len AtIee, Bill Dillow

Norton Interstate 750

325 laps

5

Allan Osborne, Graeme Osborne

Yamaha TX750

325 laps

6

Geoff Lucas, Marcus Caux

Kawasaki H2 750

325 laps

7

Alan Hales, Chris Chapman

Suzuki GT550

321 laps

8

Peter Allen, John Collins

Triumph Trident 750

317 laps

9

Greg Allen, Mick O’Brien, Greg O'Grady

Honda CB750

315 laps

10

Owen Ellis, Russell Holt, Bruce Mitchell

Kawasaki H2 750

309 laps

11

Mike Richardson, Grahan Allan, Jeff Irvine

Yamaha TX750

308 laps

12

John Zammit, John, Gray, Arthur Manning

Yamaha XS1 650

307 laps

13

Robert Madden, Keo Madden, Jack Ahearn

Yamaha TX750

305 laps

14

Robert Cowley, Robert Forstman, Carl Askew

Yamaha XS2 650

211 laps

500cc

1

Les Kenny, Ross Hedley

Kawasaki H1 500

330 laps

2

John Crawford, Bill Crawford

Kawasaki H1 500

326 laps

3

Geoff Radcliffe, Bob Mayes

Honda CB500

322 laps

4

Ian Cameron, Phil O’Brien, Sunnee Sharrer

Honda CB500

321 laps

5

Peter Jones, Ross Barelli, Gary Ceaser

Suzuki T350

319 laps

6

Peter Stronach, Geoff Sim

Yamaha RD350

305 laps

7

Stan Ogden, Greg McDonald, Julian Hyde

Kawasaki H1 500

305 laps

8

Neil Swanson, Les Raynor, David Gauley

Yamaha R5 350

305 laps

9

Tim Anderson, David Bailey

Honda CB500

288 laps

10

Roger Browne, Dave Keenan

Suzuki T500

280 laps

11

Gordon Doble, Peggy Hyde

Honda CB500

213 laps

250cc

1

Murray Sayle, Warren Willing, Jeff Sayle

Yamaha DS7 250

324 laps

2

Graeme Laing, Eddie Catton, Ken Robinson

Suzuki GT250

324 laps

3

Denny McCormack, Ron Ferrier, Robert Chappell

Suzuki GT250

323 laps

4

Laurie Barnett, Errol Crompton

Suzuki T250

318 laps

5

John Steain, Richard Steain, James Sheather

Suzuki GT250

318 laps

6

Randall Krebs, lan McLeod

Suzuki GT250

317 laps

7

Jens Olsen, Walter Massey

Suzuki T250

312 laps

8

Steven Chiodo, Paul Dougherty

Suzuki T250

9

John Megalos, Michael Herrod, Paul Handbury

Suzuki T250

307 laps

10

Ron Burke, David Robbins

Suzuki T250

306 laps

11

Peter Jess, Peter Jones, Jeff Stewart

Suzuki T250

305 laps

12

Digger Marsh, Jack Saunders

Suzuki T250

305 laps

13

Peter O’Connor, Stephen Majernik, Max Wells

Suzuki T250

304 laps

14

David Robards, Andrew Piper, Graeme Nicholson

Suzuki T250

302 laps

15

Sigi Schilling, Alan Primmer, Bob Southern

Suzuki T250

302 laps

16

Robert Turner, John Kelsey

Suzuki T250

301 laps

17

Philip Hitchock, Stephen Blessington

Suzuki T250

278 laps

18

John Glew, Alan Dale, David McGuire

Suzuki T250

271 laps

19

Murray Ogilvie, Bernie Kolber

Yamaha DS7 250

266 laps

Retirements

10.55am

P. Cartright, I Dever

Suzuki T250

crash

23 laps

11.07am

R. Toombs, E. Hinton

Yamaha TX750

engine

62 laps

11.52am

B. Hindle, C. Knight

Yamaha TX750

electrical

82 laps

11.55am

R. Gault, C. Brown

Honda CB750

chain

103 laps

12.01pm

T. Hatton, P. Spooner

Yamaha TX750

engine

106 laps

12.07pm

B.Clarkson, G.Hitchings

MV Agusta

clutch

106 laps

12.10pm

L. Coleman, K. Spicer

Honda CB750

crash

112 laps

1.01pm

K. Brown, C. Dillon

Yamaha DS7 250

crash

152 laps

1.30pm

R. Pressley, I. Francis

Honda CB750

electrical

184 laps

1.44pm

R. Radonovitch, G. Radonovitch

Honda CB750

crash

191 laps

2.40pm

J. Scaysbrook, B.Martin

Honda CB500

crash

237 laps

2.50pm

P. Giles, G. Davis

Honda CB500

crash

248 laps

3.22pm

G. Hansford, R. Hinton

Kawasaki H2 750

brakes

292 laps

3.41pm

J. Warrian, T. Wood

Suzuki GT250

ignition

300 laps

3.45pm

C. Maher, G. Maher, G. Tierney

Honda CB750

crash

314 laps

3.47pm

W. Burnett, R. Payne

Honda CB750

crash

315 laps

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