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Phillip Island's last charge for the
quarter-litre cavalry |
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Phillip Island's last charge for the
quarter-litre cavalry |
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Phillip Island's last charge for the
quarter-litre cavalry Forty years ago a young man from Sydney earned a unique place in the history of the road racing World Championship – and thanks to the changes planned for next season, his place in the history books can never be usurped. Kel Carruthers is and will remain the only Australian to have won the 250cc World Championship, an achievement he sealed with victory in the final race of that 1969 season on September 14 in Yugoslavia. Carruthers, born in 1938, had dominated the Australian racing scene in the early Sixties with multiple national titles and two successive clean sweeps at Mount Panorama in four racing categories in 1964-65 before heading off to Europe. The fearsome Isle of Man TT race at the start of that 1969 season yielded Kel’s first success – but it owed a lot to circumstance. An Aermacchi rider at the time, Carruthers was released to replace Benelli’s injured Renzo Pasolini at the TT. When the Aussie won the race, he was then allowed to stay with Benelli for the remainder of the Championship season, winning again in Ulster and Yugoslavia to take the title. Carruthers would go on to be runner-up in 1970 with Yamaha, the company for whom he eventually master-minded much of the success of Kenny Roberts, the great American rider who won the 500cc world title from 1978-80 on Yamaha machines. And why can no-one ever take that unique title-winning place away from Kel? Because this is the last season in the long and distinguished history of the 250cc World Championship, which will be replaced next year by the new Moto2 category of bikes. So a 250cc story that began on June 17, 1949 at that year’s Isle of Man TT will end on November 8, 2009 when Valencia, the final stop on this year’s calendar, stages the last charge of the light brigade known as the 250cc World Championship. The 250cc bikes kick-started their World Championship history on that summer’s day in 1949, when 29 starters lined up on the gruelling Manx circuit. Only 13 of them finished, and Manliff Barrington of Ireland on a Moto Guzzi was the winner. In that inaugural year the series comprised just four races: the TT itself, Berne in Switzerland, Belfast and Monza – and each round was won by a different rider, though it was Italy’s Bruno Ruffo who emerged as the first 250cc World Champion. Little did he know it at the time, but Bruno had begun an Italian love affair with the quarter-litre class which has seen that great motorcycling nation claim far and away the greatest number of 250cc Grand Prix victories. In fact if an Italian wins at Phillip Island – and who would bet against the likes of Marco Simoncelli? – then it will be the 200th World Championship race won by an Italian rider. In individual terms, however, it’s a German who sits proudly on top of the list. Between 1978 and 1988 Anton Mang, riding Kawasaki, Yamaha and Honda machines, accumulated no fewer than 33 victories in the 250cc class, although another Italian, Max Biaggi, is just four behind him in the all-time standings. Biaggi, World Champion in the 250 class from 1994-97, holds the record number of titles with those four in a row, three for Aprilia and one for Honda, which is the all-time record-holder in constructors’ terms with 19 titles between 1961 and 2005. Seven-time race-winner Carruthers apart, five other Australians have distinguished themselves on 250cc machinery over the years. Tom Phillis has his own place in history: 48 years ago almost to the day, on October 15 1961, he was the first Australian winner of a 250cc World Championship Grand Prix, in Argentina. It was the final round of that year and Tom’s Honda was one of just six entries – the smallest starting line-up in 250cc history. Only four of them made it to the finish. Compare that with the Isle of Man TT in 1968, when no fewer than 80 bikes took the start, although that supreme test of man and machine winnowed them down to just 31 by the end. Casey Stoner earned five Grand Prix victories in the 2005 250cc World Championship on an Aprilia, the late Gregg Hansford was a four-time winner for Kawasaki in 1978 on his way to being World Championship runner-up, Phillis and John Dodds both won twice and of course Ant West recorded a singleton victory in that wet race at Assen in 2003 on an Aprilia. Australia, in the shape of the magnificent Phillip Island circuit, has also played host to some of the greatest 250cc races of all time. In 2000 Yamaha twins Olivier Jacque and Shinya Nakano were separated by just 14/thousandths of a second as they finished 1-2 here, allowing the Frenchman to claim that year’s title. Two years later, in 2002, Marco Melandri headed Fonsi Nieto home by an even smaller margin, 0.007, both riding Aprilias, and three years ago Jorge Lorenzo’s Aprilia was 0.009 ahead of Alex de Angelis on a similar bike – three of the all-time top 10 closest finishes in the history of the category. Nor should we forget the late and sorely missed Daijiro Katoh, whose miraculous 2001 season yielded a record 11 wins in the 250cc World Championship year, one of them here at Phillip Island. Fans of the quick machines in the quarter-litre category will need to stock up with memories at Phillip Island this year, for this is the last time we will see the likes of Aprilia, Gilera, Honda and the other major marques of 250cc racing in action in this guise. Next year we will witness the birth of the Moto2 category, a 600cc class entirely powered by Honda’s CBR600RR power units; the plan to phase out the 250 runners gradually has not borne fruit as no entries have been received for 250cc runners. But the quarter-litre class is finishing its gallop in rude health: in 2009 the first five races went to five different winners, the first time that had happened since 1988. Series leader Hiroshi Aoyama has also joined an elite group of riders – just five of them – to have scored over 1000 points in the 250cc category. It’s been a wonderful ride – for 714 races so far and all of 61 years. 2009 Iveco Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix - Phillip Island - 16 - 18 October -- Related Link -- 125 Season Review |