Ready, Willing and able
Phil Hall remembers Warren Willing
Saturday, 5th September 2015, was a very sad day for Australian motorcycling. It was announced in the early hours of the morning that Australian motorcycling ace, Warren Willing, had finally succumbed to the bone cancer that had been plaguing him for a long time.
Warren’s death has hit the close-knit road racing community here and overseas very hard and its implications will spread outwards for some time to come.
Warren was born in 1952 and started racing in 1970. After serving the usual apprenticeship of the day, learning how to race, tune, maintain and fettle his bikes in and around the Sydney tracks, at age 22, he burst into the wider consciousness in his now-famous Unlimited Grand Prix battle with his Queensland arch-rival, Gregg Hansford at the Mount Panorama circuit. I was not yet involved in racing at that stage so I cannot comment on the race personally, but the race has gone down in motorcycling folklore as one of the most intense and ferocious battles that the mountain has ever seen. Both mounted on Yamaha’s famous 4 cylinder two strokes, they exchanged places for the whole race, cresting the last rise on Conrod Straight at nearly 180mph (288km/h). Warren went on to win that day and Hansford was soon to shift to the Kawasaki team where the rivalry was continued.
Warren had everything that was required to be a pin-up boy for road racing. Blessed with boyish good looks, long hair, an approachable nature and an unquenchable will to win, he was everything a race promoter could want. Couple his appearance on any race card with Hansford, tall, blonde and equally endowed with the competitive spirit and State of Origin on motorcycles happened every time the Adams and Sons and the TKA vans pulled into the pits.
The next years were a golden era. Warren travelled the length and breadth of the country chasing the ARRC (Australian Road Racing Chanmpionship) as well as State Titles and important one-off meetings. The big races normally ended up being a dog-fight between he and Gregg and people flocked to the tracks to watch. Crows numbering in the TENS of thousands stacked the fences at Oran Park, Amaroo and the interstate tracks.
Warren also competed in the prestigious Castrol Six Hour production bike race but was denied victory in the race he was most likely to win when the bike was prevented from returning to the track after a pit stop. The scrutineers deemed that the rear tyre was so badly worn that it would be unsafe to continue racing on it and the team, knowing that changing the wheel would costs them too much time, withdrew the bike from the race.
He also travelled overseas to the famous Daytona Raceway to compete in the important 200 mile race on the speedway. He and Gregg made a huge impression on the American promoters, racers and spectators and their ambassadorship paved the way for many other Australasian riders to follow in their footsteps.
Having tested the waters at Daytona, it was logical that he should try his hand at the European scene. From memory, Warren left here in 1978 and set out carving out a reputation there. He was not just a big bike specialist, being adept at the smaller classes as well (as you had to be to get starts in the fiercely competitive European “circus”) and his fettling expertise came to the fore in that environment. Living out of (and sometimes IN) the back of a Transit van and driving thousands of kilometres in between races certainly refines character.
Sadly, the dream did not materialise. In 1979, racing on a pure road racing circuit in Northern Ireland, Warren was involved in an horrific accident that claimed the lives of two other riders. He was critically injured and almost had his badly damaged leg amputated. Thankfully the decision was made to try and save the leg and an extended period of rehabilitation meant that Warren had to face the reality that his racing career was over.
He returned to Australia and continued with his recovery and I recall seeing him at an Amaroo meeting, hobbling around on a walking stick, still tough and determined, still steely-eyed but obviously hurting inside that he was now a spectator, not a competitor.
There isn’t a lot of call for an ex-racer. Their skill set is so specialised that it can’t really be applied in any other area. But Warren’s years of fettling bikes, building, re-building, tuning, reading spark plugs, judging set-up for a given circuit and so on now qualified him like few others for an engineering role within a team. So it wasn’t surprising that barely two years after the accident that nearly cost him his life, Warren was back in Europe, working in a technical role rather than a rider. He worked as crew chief and as a team manager and it was at Marlboro Team Roberts that he cemented his credentials. An integral part of the perfectionist American’s team, Warren presided over the glory years of Team Roberts, guiding Wayne Rainey to the triple crown of 500cc world championships in 1990, ’91 and ’92.
A little later, in a wonderful piece of serendipity, Warren was the main man within the Suzuki “works” team, watching Kenny’s son, Kenny Jr, win the 500c world championship to clinch the father/son quinella.
By now his technical “cred” was without peer and he moved on to take a leading technical role in the KTM “works” effort in 125cc and 250cc MotoGp racing. He also provided his invaluable technical services to the Ducati MotoGp team.
After this the trail sort of went cold (to use a literary analogy) and Warren retired to the peace and quiet of life back in Sydney. So it was with great excitement that it was announced, earlier this year, that he would be making a personal appearance at the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway. His brother, Glenn, had undertaken a complete restoration of the Kawasaki triple that Warren had raced in the Chesterfield Superbike Series in the mid-70’s and it would be on display on the weekend as well.
Warren’s family and close friends knew what we did not, however, that Warren was battling bone cancer. It was a terrible shock to see how this disease had ravaged his body but, despite the obvious pain that he was enduring, he stayed for the whole day, signing autographs, posing for pictures and soaking up the well-deserved love and affection that was being shown, all the way from the spectators who crowded around, former racing associates, ex-racers and three times world champion, Freddie Spencer.
Glenn took the 750 out for some demo laps at lunch time and screamed around. Warren was chauffeured in a convertible and the outpouring of respect and admiration was such as I have never seen.
This article is NOT about me, it is about a great man who has gone on, but I must say that, it is the measure of the man that, when I approached him in the pits, sitting in the door of Alan Adam’s van and having not seen me since 1980, I said, “Warren, you won’t remember me but..” he cut me off with the reply, “Of course I remember you, you’re Phil Hall.” I’m getting goosebumps just remembering that.
This article has nearly reached my self-imposed limit of 1500 words, but, how DO you sum up the life of a man who had already become a legend even before his passing? Well, I think I’d like to do it this way and I hope that Warren’s friends and family will find appropriate. I have a short list of the 5 greatest road races that I have ever seen and Warren was one of the three riders involved in the race that rates #1 on my list.
I documented the race not long after I started writing my blog and I did it from memory of an event that happened nearly 40 years ago. It is my memory and it may not be exactly as it was, but it is how I remembered it. I take refuge in the fact that, amongst my many peers who were there that day, there is agreement that it was probably the greatest road race that we have ever seen.
Warren now joins the immortals and, along with his former Qld foe who has also gone before, he leaves us the poorer for his passing. A service to celebrate his life will be held in Parramatta on Friday the 18th of September at 1100 am. All Saints Anglican Church 29 Elizabeth Street, Parramatta (on the corner of Victoria Road)
Warren is survived by his wife, Wendy and his daughter, Nicole. To them we extend our condolences. RIP Warren Willing and thank you for the memories.
Jean-Michel Bayle pays testament to Willing
Today I am sad. Warren Willing passed away. Warren was my chief engineer during my first season in 500. He was an incredible engineer, he was also at the eve of the famous motorcycle of Kenny Robert, the KR3, that I rode in 1997.
But the technical side is not all. Warren was also a man, a true man, full of passion and knowledge. He helped me a lot during this 1996 season. It has given me the confidence to get my first pole position in 500.
Warren loved sharing his knowledge and I was obviously completely full of attention to his advices. When I got this pole position, in Brno, I stopped 10 min of the end of the qualifying session to get a new tyre. Mick Doohan had just improved his time, taking the provisional pole.
I wanted to leave the garage immediately, but Warren asked me to wait, he wanted to check the data of my fastest lap. Four minutes later, he came back to me to explain me which turns I was right, and in wich turns I could go faster to earn a few tenths. I did what he told me, I managed to reproduce my fastest lap applying his advice with method to earn those few tenths in the two curves that he had indicated. When I get past the line, I saw that I had improved my time by more than 4-tenths. At that time, I did not know if I had managed to beat the master Mick Doohan. It is by returning to the box, when all the team has me applauded that I understood that I had succeeded.
Warren, always in the shadow, gave a simple glance. That day, and especially this time, is still in my memory. The glance of the sharing of knowledge. Thank you Warren for having done me take advantage of all these knowledge. Of knowledge which does not have a price and which nobody can’t buy. A big thought and my sincere condolences to his family and to all his relatives.
JMB. Jean Michel Bayle
A small tribute to Warren Willing from Peter Molloy
“It was a real pleasure to have know Warren, the long talks we had about bikes and engines were always entertaining. He on GP bikes and engines, me on F1 and engines. We both agreed that engines alone do not win races.“The reason we were good friends was we both had insatiable appetites for knowledge. As far as he was concerned second place was first loser as well. I will miss those talks as there are not too many guys around with the knowledge he had about the sport he loved so much.“Rest in peace mate. To Wendy and Nicole please find comfort in the fact that he was admired by all who had the privilege of knowing him. Peter and Margaret Molloy and Family.”
