It’s 95 years this week since one of Australia’s motorcycle road racing legends, Jack Ahearn, was born (6-10-1924). He raced in Europe as a privateer from 1954 through to 1974 a remarkable achievement in itself given the expense and difficulty of doing so.
His best season was in 1964, when he won the 500cc Finnish Grand Prix and finished second to Mike Hailwood in the 500cc World Championship. He had previously won the British 500cc Championship in 1962.
He started racing on Nortons, the “stock” bike for most privateers and did his last season on a 350 Yamaha two stroke, which must have been quite a change for him after all those years on four stroke single cylinder machinery.
Along with the rest of the Aussies who forged the path for the Gardners and Doohans of the later era, Jack is remembered as a gentle guy who was well respected by his peers. He retired at the end of the 1974 season and moved to Ballina on the NSW far north coast where he lived until his death in April 2017, just a couple of years ago.
Now I never saw Jack race in a “real” race though he’d probably be miffed at me saying that because he did continue to race in historic racing here in Australia for quite a few years after his retirement from the GP circus. What I recall most of Jack is of his exploits off the bike; let me explain.
On the practice day for the 1975 Castrol Six Hour race my brother took a photo of a Ducati that had crashed in the last corner leading onto the main straight. We didn’t really keep our race programmes back then though, God knows, we should have. So the rider wrestling to get the bike upright again was anonymous.
At the Hume Weir circuit in early 1976 Paul and I attended a “C” Grade day where we noticed two riders who seemed to be heads and shoulders above their peers. I’ve told the story in full before so I won’t repeat it. One of them was, of course, Robbie Phillis, having his first outing on his brand new TZ350C.
The other was a young bloke from Sydney called Ron Boulden on a very sharply presented TZ350 Yamaha running a Maxton frame. Apart from Ron’s style, which certainly looked impressive for a youngster, what caught our eye was the writing on the fairing, “Jack Ahearn Racing”
Incidentally, David King will instantly note that Ron ran HIS number at that meeting!! 🙂
Here’s a photo from a later Oran Park meeting that shows the livery a little better.
It was some time later when Paul was going through some photos that he realised that the rider he had seen wrestling with that downed Ducati the October before was wearing the same leathers as Ron Boulden. 2 and 2 were put together and we found out that it was, in fact him.
We became pretty close with the Boulden camp; we saw him as an exciting prospect and one whose career would be worth following, and we were right. He breezed through the lower grades and became, at the time, the youngest rider to achieve A Grade in NSW. (I’m not going to rehash the illegalities regarding his age and eligibility that were taking place then in this article)
Even though were became very friendly with Ron and his dad and his larger-than-life mother, Moyna, we never did quite find out just where the connection with Jack Ahearn was established. Ron was also sponsored by Welbanks, a motorcycle accessory store on Sydney’s north shore so perhaps Jack and Welbank’s owner, the late Cameron Macmillan, were buddies, I don’t really know.
Anyway, back to Jack Ahearn. Jack, we found out pretty quickly, was not just a name on the fairing.
He was taking an active part in Ron’s racing and his training as a racing rider. Here is a photo of Jack sitting on Ron’s bike in the pits at Bathurst, wearing a Welbank shirt! Ron had already registered Jack’s old racing number, #59, as his own and used it throughout his racing life. (oh, and sharp-eyed readers will have noticed that the OBA photo shows Jack’s bike wearing Ron Toombs’s number, #63!
So it wasn’t a surprise to either of us that, one day we happened to be at Oran Park on a private practice day, Jack Ahearn was there with Ron and his family. Ron’s parents had just bought him a TZ250 Yamaha so that he could enter more events and get more practice and the private practice session was Ron’s first hit-out on the 250. Here’s a photo from the very first meeting where he actually raced the new bike.
As you can see from this, and the other photos, Ron’s riding style was classic 1960’s. Sit back in the seat and let the bike do the work; no arms and legs all over the place, no knee on the ground, none of that. In fact, Moyna’s nickname for Ron was “old straight arms”
On this private practice day Ron was really struggling with the new bike. Like any young kid he expected to be able to master it straight away and he returned to the pits at the end of each session frustrated that the improvement just wasn’t coming. Jack was watching and, when Ron took off his helmet he said, “Do you mind if I have a ride, I want to show you something?” Of course the answer was yes and Jack suited up and took off. This was early 1977. At the end of a VERY short session, Jack returned to the pits and the stopwatch clearly showed that he was over 2 seconds a lap faster on the bike than Ron had been.
Red faces all round, this old bloke had really showed the youngster up; grand prix experience or not, it was a bit of a bloody nose for Ron. But Jack had a plan and he straight away told Ron what he had done and why he did it. “How much rear brake do you use on corner entry?” he asked. “None,” Ron replied, I just use it to steady the bike in the really slow corners.” And Jack then went on and gave him a tutorial on how to trail brake, yep, in 1977! Ron’s eyes were wide as Jack explained that trail braking (I doubt the term had even been INVENTED then) had the purpose of “squatting” the rear end of the bike and allowing the throttle to be applied earlier on corner exit. “Now, go out and try it,” Jack said.
Ron came back after just a few laps like a kid with a new toy. He had already dropped his lap times by over a second and was sure he would do even better once he got used to this new technique.
Now, of course, EVERYONE trail brakes, but it was a fascinating day to see the old master pass on a new trick to the youngster. Ron went on to great success, his crowning achievement being his win in the 1979 Unlimited Grand Prix at Bathurst against the Kiwi legends, Graeme Crosby and John Woodley, one of my all-time favourite races.
Jack Ahearn may not have won a world title but he sure is a legend as far as us Aussie race fans are concerned and this race fan in particular.
