VOLUME 59 ISSUE 28 JULY 12, 2022 P125
machine. When 23-year-old Perry
lost his life in an airplane crash in
July 1973, the TR750 was initially
mothballed until it was decided to
bring it, and Hennen, to Bathurst
for Easter 1974.
There were actually three races
on the program for the fancy new
750s, beginning with the Formula
Unlimited, held over two rounds
of eight laps. Typically, most
practice sessions had been wet,
leaving precious little time for the
dry setup to suit the weekend's
fine conditions. In race one on
Saturday morning, Hennen de-
fied the odds to blast through
from a terrible start to snatch sec-
ond place behind Hansford, and
ahead of Willing—and nine other
TZ750s. Race two on Sunday
morning saw Hansford win again,
this time from Willing, with Hen-
nen on the rostrum in third place
after again blowing the start.
There wasn't a spare spot on
the fence around the circuit as
the field for the premier Unlimited
GP lined up on Sunday after-
noon. This time Hennen finally
managed to get the Suzuki off the
line cleanly, and he was right with
the leaders as the first lap was
completed.
The field soon broke into
two groups, with Hansford and
Willing all over each other, and
Hennen exchanging blows with
Toombs—the rest of the packed
field increasingly further behind.
For the entire 20 laps, Hansford
and Willing swapped places, as
did Hennen and Toombs, but
the long race (and the 190 mph
speeds on Conrod Straight) were
punishing the Suzuki's rear tire.
With a handful of laps to go,
Pat glanced the safety fence exit-
ing the final corner onto the start/
finish straight. There was nothing
for it but to let Toombs go as he
nursed the disintegrating rubber
to the finish. Judging that corner
to perfection on the final run to
the line, Willing beat Hansford by
half a length, setting a new out-
right lap record of 2:23.35—nine
seconds faster than the previous
mark and just shy of the magic
100-mph lap average.
That race went into the books
as one of the most thrilling in the
history of the circuit and is still
talked about today. And although
Willing and Hansford grabbed
the bulk of the cash (the richest
purse in Australian racing), Pat
Hennen covered himself in glory
and set himself on a path to star-
dom that would see him become
the first American Grand Prix win-
ner, in Finland, in 1976.
Despite his growing concen-
tration on the European scene,
Hennen remained a familiar figure
in Australia, contesting the Pan
Pacific Series in late 1974 on a
Kawasaki borrowed from fellow
American Hurley Wilvert and win-
ning the series on the very last
corner of the final race in Ad-
elaide after yet another race-long
battle with 41-year-old Toombs.
CN
Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives
Hennen harries Warren
Willing at Ruapuna in
the 1976/77 Marlboro
Series in NZ.
Hennen winning the final
race and the Pan Pacific
Series from Toombs in
Adelaide 1975.
