Jim Budd Motorcycle Racer

Oran Park, August 1978 (source REVS magazine, race report)

A standout performance in the sidecar races, six or seven close tussles and a touch of innovation with the improved touring event combined to lift a low-key (read low prizemoney) meeting at Oran Park, last Sunday, out of the ordinary.

The regulars turned up, expecting a meeting as exciting as a bike workshop or motor traders picnic day, but the innovative use of the Grand Prix circuit layout at Oran Park (that extension even the intended users, big banger car drivers consider a joke) for the big banger four-strokes was a winner.  Put Jim Budd on the Phase 4 Kawasaki 1070 from Brisbane, and Roy Dennison (Yoshimura-Kawasaki 1000) out of the GP circuit and things begin to happen.

Denison was the best away in the 20-lap race (about 70km) with Budd blasting past before the first corner of the extension, the fast left-hand kink beyond the usual foot-of-the-straight CC Corner.  Being the acknowledged king of the “north circuit” , as the extension is known when used for club days, Denison passed Budd at the first of the pedestrian paced corners and still led at the completion of the first lap, from Graham Keyes (GMD Kawasaki), Lindsay McKay (Eade-Laverda 1000) and Rogers Heyes (Avon Yamaha XS1100), Budd went by in the straight, but Denison came back at the super-tight right hander, onto the flyover bridge.  But then Budd blasted past on the straight and started holding on through the tight stuff, just!

Denison and Budd kept at each other until lap nine, when Dennison pulled out another ace in the tight stuff and had a 60m lead past the tower.  But that was the last we saw of him! The kill switch wire shorted out on the brake lever in the section of track where had the advantage.  That left Budd more than 30 seconds in front of Keyes, with another 15 seconds back to the dice of Cork, Heyes and Chivas, with Payne trying to join in!

On lap 12, Chivas grabbed third in the tight stuff, had a few seconds of fresh breeze on his chest, then slid-off on the corner onto the bridge.  He remounted, gassed up on the grass and tipped over again! In the middle of his antics (which Neil was pleased occurred furtherest from a reasonable crowd) Heyes ran over one of his legs as it protruded onto the track.  (Talk about tyre wars, but both laughed afterwards.)

Budd continued on his way, until another problem began to surface.  On lap 15, the Phase 4 Kawasaki had a drinking problem.  It had been topped up with alcohol on the grid and since Denison’s departure, Budd was using higher gears in corners, but it still was running out of fuel.  Keyes was not aware of this and was cruising in a safe second place while Heyes and Cork were still at it with Heyes taking the advantage more often.

With three laps to go Budd’s mount was sounding decidedly ill, but he still had 55 seconds lead on Keyes – enough in the wonderful light of hindsight, for a few quick litres at the pits.  Keyes had 11 seconds (down a little) on Heyes with Payne right on Cork.  Budd took the last lap flag, and got halfway around the circuit.  He was then spotted being towed by another competitor along the short straight up to the Shell Dogleg.  Out of the last corner, Budd started pushing, but Keyes came home in a canter and took the flag, unaware that he was the winner.  Heyes finished second, only four seconds down, with Cork third and Payne fourth.  Budd pushed in ahead of Emanuel Blanco (Massaki-Kawasaki 1000), David Burley (Suzuki 1000), Alan Blanco (Suzuki 1000), Ian Dick and Greg Pearson (both on Kawasaki 900s), but he was excluded for having outside assistance.

A consolation for Denison was a nice lap record and winning a point by being allowed both a lap in Bob Levy’s super 454 GMC truck and a chance to speak on the circuit PA (Roy needs a sponsor).  Budd decided to go skiing.

Oran Park, August 1978 (article source – REVS magazine, February 3 – 16, 1993)

I had a terrific scrap with Jim Budd at Oran Park in August 1978.  We were both on Kawasaki superbikes, though they were very different in pedigree.  Mike was sourced from Japanese Yoshimura parts courtesy of Ross Hannan, while Jim was riding Barry Taylor’s American-sourced Phase Four machine.

By then superbike racing had become quite popular, due in no small part to the flamboyant riding side of Croz.  Spectators were thrilled to see him win feature races or get high placings against pukka racing bikes on a raunchy ZIR superbike that differed little in external appearance from the road version.  But he was absent that day – racing overseas if I recall right.

Barry Taylor’s Phase 4 Kawasaki ridden by Jim Budd was a beautiful bike, using technology from US drag racing.  Barry Taylor and Croz’s sponsor Hannan were big blokes with big personalities who generated a lot of interest in this then new branch of the sport.

Prior to the meeting I’d obtained a Gerex Multi-Fire ignition system, developed in the US with technology from NASA.  It fired the plug 50 times in a millisecond – in testing it sparked like a flash bulb.  This gave us the extra horsepower we felt would give us the edge on Jim, but unknown to us, Barry had converted to alcohol fuel (allowable then), which made our practice times about even.  Contrast and radical developments like these characterised the early days of superbikes – if you sat on your hands for one meeting you were left behind.

The race was on the then recently extended Grand Prix track – there’d only been a couple of races on the full track with the new figure of eight section.  It was a little different to today – narrower in the S bend section leading to the hairpin and also narrower and more difficult in the left-hand kink at the end of the straight.

At the drop of the flag, Jim used the alcohol-fuelled motor to blast into an early lead, followed by a whole gaggle of us sorting out positions early on.  Then I latched onto Jim’s tail and we pulled away from the field.  Jim was getting a slight edge out of corners, and pulling three or four lengths on me down the straight.  But I was able to get past him in the tighter parts of the circuit.

Roger Heyes held the lap record for the full circuit at the time, and we were all keen to break it – any record of Roger’s was not a soft one.  Unbeknown to us we were breaking it repeatedly and at the end of the day we’d taken four seconds off Roger’s time, with my best time just a whisker in front of Jim’s.

I was proud of that – it’s not too often you do that – generally lap records go by a tenth or two.  Being a long track, and both having the extra horsepower contributed.  But we were going very quick – I remember following Jim into the bend formerly called Robin Orlando and seeing him standing on the pegs controlling a slide and I thought “Struth, he’s going for it”, but then I found myself doing the same thing, we were going that hard.

Effective stick tyres for the 200kg+ superbikes of the time were not around then.  The semi-grooved slicks we ran on the rear overheated after three laps and would start spinning badly.  I had the latest three-and-a-half-inch rim at the rear, considered wide at the time.  Today’s GP riders drive out of turns spinning in a relatively controlled fashion – ours were like a light switch – halfway round the turn our back-ends would light up and leave black marks on the track.

I don’t think that kind of superbike riding had been seen much until then, apart from Croz.

Funnily, Graham Keyes won the race with Roger Heyes second.  Neither Jim nor I finished.  Going hammer and tongs all that way, working the engine so hard down the straight to stay with Jim, blew my crankshaft at three-quarter distance, and Jim’s twistgrip-stretching upped his fuel consumption – he ran dry on the last lap.  A lapped competitor towed Jim in and he still crossed the line first.  Such was the break we’d made on the field, but he was disqualified for receiving outside help.

Although I didn’t finish, it was still one of my most exciting races.  I couldn’t have tried harder.  Before the race I was really pumped, to the point of feeling sick in the gut.  With the absence of Croz, second place was no longer the best I could hope for.  I felt I had some chance of winning, of beating Jim, and that’s why the race has really stuck in my memory.

Just having a think about days gone by.  We went to Oran Park to race for the first time.  I had converted the bike run Alky with 34mm Mikuni’s.  It ran a lot cooler and had plenty of grunt.

It was a 20 lap race where Jim got a good start, and in no time was the length of the straight in front.  18 laps later it started to miss.  I saw Stan Bayliss waving a gallon can over the pit wall.  On the last corner it ran out of fuel.  Someone towed him home and we were disqualified.

Those were the days.  The next meeting was Calder Park, and it was raining.  Running still on alky.  How the hell Jim kept it upright I will never know, but he won just the same.  The Vic boys were pissed off.  They knew who Jim Budd was but had no idea who the Banana Bender was the bright yellow Kawasaki.  Jim was grinning so much I told him he needed to suck on some lemons to get the smile off his face.  Better still that race meeting was televised,  don’t I wish I had those tapes?

That was the first time I met Gavin Cosway from the Elizabeth Street Kawasaki dealership.  He gave us a lot of good tips on the track.  Pommie Pete was there and really did a great job changing tyres for us – slicks to street back to slicks.  A different time when people jumped in and gave you a hand.  It was 10* and I looked a real pratt in shorts topping up the tank on the start line.

Ah memories.