Peter Doyle Part 1 | BBQ’s with legends & conquering WSBK

A Listener Production

I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.

For this episode I'm at the Listener Studios in Melbourne and the CEO of

Motorcycling Australia has kindly come in for a chat. We don't often do

administrators. There's a few in our library and this latest addition is in

on merit. Peter Doyle has been with the two wheel governing body in Australia

for over a decade. Initially as the gamekeeper of the technical aspects of

the sport and then in the big chair helping it through some significant

challenges not just COVID. He opens up on that later but you'll enjoy his story

for lots of reasons beyond this latest chapter of his career.

That's because he came from a family with a proper love of bikes and racing.

Some legends would call the Doyle family kind of their home away from home

and Peter went on to work with some gun riders enjoying success in world

super bikes and later in the United States. For a time he rode and he openly

admits that if he didn't knuckle down in life it might have steered him along

the wrong path. A conscious decision to work with riders, understand how to get

the best out of them and the motorcycle and how to lead teams by example

saw him gain worldwide respect and share in countless wins and

some memorable championships. He's a straight shooter who I get to work with

a little on the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame board. We spoke nearing

the end of a busy month that had taken him from Darwin to the United States

and back to base in Melbourne for MotoGP at Phillip Island. I learned a lot

more about him in this conversation than I ever knew before. I hope you enjoy

getting to know Peter Doyle.

Hello Peter Doyle, how are you?

Good, rusty yourself.

Listen, you have a bright smile and that is for a reason. You've just returned

from the United States as we record this. What a performance by the Australians

at Motocross The Nations.

It was a great trip. We were riding a bit high on last year with the first ever

The Nations win and then we all ended up over there at Indiana, Crawfordsville

Indiana and you go in there and it's a country remote area and you just

couldn't believe the amount of people and fans and such that turned up and there

and the boys. They did it the hard way but they come out on top again which is

great.

Amazing. When you say that then, I mean the motorcycle industry has been through

you know beaks and troughs obviously but to see it I guess in that part of the

world so healthy is that what you're reflecting on?

Yeah they did a parade on the Friday afternoon in this little town Crawford

ville and incredible. The amount of people that literally thousands and

thousands and they're all dressed up in their country colours and alcohol and

screaming and chanting and this parade went through and fans were jumping on

the back of the trucks with the riders and it was great.

I mean we have lots of reasons to be proud of and you cover so many different

categories in your role now at Motorcycling Australia but if we focus on

that just for a moment what Jed and his brother doing stateside there is off the

scale mode isn't it? It's so impressive.

There, what do you call them? Once in an era, once in a lifetime riders you know

they come along. We've seen the Casey Stoners and we've had Jeff Lease before

and Chad Reed and these guys come along but you know to have two brothers go into

Europe then heading off to the US and now at the top of their game and both of

them are just when you watch it live just so good.

What is it, sometimes that isn't a neat thing. You've worked with lots of riders

over time maybe it's in their DNA or whatever. Yes it's also heavily about

their commitment, their determination and drive and so on. What is it about those

two that makes them special? It's hard to nut that out but watching them ride

incredible how smooth they are. You know you watch motocross riders over the years

and you know we would watch back in our day Rusty. We would watch a guy like

Trevor Williams who never looked like he was going fast but so smooth and extremely

quick. We would watch an Anthony Gunter you know rough and ready and always look

like well if it goes wrong it's going to be a big crash. These guys are just so

smooth. Yeah they have their moments but the things that they can do on the bike

how smooth they look doing it it's just unbelievable. We're talking about Jet and

Hunter Lawrence incidentally too so most fans of this podcast will be acutely aware

of who they are. Let's come to more of your story. I feel like we'll come full circle

in this conversation right. Born in 1962 band style and into a racing family weren't

you? Yeah my father raced you know back in the day when you took your motocross

bike and then put some street tyres on it and went to the road race track. He

finished second in the Australian 500 championship one year in motocross

competent road racer but he was working with a few old legends of the sport which

are now in our Hall of Fame Ken Rumble and Ray Fisher and Kenny Blake and I grew

up thinking that those guys were my uncle you know Uncle Ken and Uncle Ken and

Uncle Ray and Barbecue's and you know we were in a country town born in

band style but lived in Lindonow and Lindonow's about 15k from band style on

the Mitchell River there 90 people so really small town and Neville my

father's had his workshop there and he was also the guy who did Southern Cross

pumps and windmills and water tanks and looked after the water reservoir and

the town and motorbikes was the passion so had sidecars we had motocross bikes

we had road race bikes and had a paddocks on either side and riding bikes at

sort of three and four years old and you know in the country you can ride them

down the street you can do whatever you like. So you know you grow into that racing

family so it becomes part of it. That clearly had a profound effect on you mate

didn't it not just the people you've rattled off but just the experiential

nature of riding bikes. Yeah it it moved on from there and you know you're coming

out of the 60s into the early 70s and that's when the Japanese started to get

heavily involved in Australia and I remember the I think it was 1972 I was

10 years old but this H2R turned up from Japan and it was their new works

750 triple Grand Prix bike and Ron Toomes was hired to ride it a bit of a

Bathurst legend back in the day and he you know he went out and dominated on that

and that just went from Toomes to Murray Sale to Greg Hansford and at that time

I'd sort of become old enough to you know I was racing dirt bikes myself but

become old enough to decide that you know you wanted to be part of racing

you're on a racetrack every weekend different disciplines and those people

and that just yeah my inspiration was to stay in but it was probably around the

Greg Hansford era that you really started to work out Jesus this is

something I want to be part of. So a couple of things come to mind there

firstly the the arrival of those Japanese bikes it's a little bit like

kids today with something on social media that has a bit of a cult following

and everyone sort of went wow mate what are these things didn't they you know

and special bikes special bikes yeah factory bikes a lot of handmade parts

a lot of magnesium and you know back in those days the Japanese just the trial

and error that they went through with getting the lightest fastest bikes was incredible.

Hansford I love that you have brought him up and you know very sadly because he's

gone to God now we can't have him on the podcast I crossed paths with him a little

bit in later life around super touring on the four wheel side I mean he was brilliant

with what he did with Larry Perkins and so on but probably at times I think in our

motor racing community we do recognise it may be more broadly in Australia we

probably don't but I mean he was an incredible rider mate wasn't he?

Yeah you know still arguably the the best rider never to win a world championship

the geographical challenges we have in Australia they're still with us today

but they were profound back in the day I mean to to jump up and say well we're

going to go to Europe and do the Grand Prix and really even though you had

works bikes they were private teams you know even Kenny Roberts's crew was

you know Kelka Rothers and Nobby Clark and Trevor Tilbury these guys

they were just a small group of people with a small truck and you drive around

doing races and they got start money and that was the world championship and

he won 10-11 world championship Grand Prix he led the series and

but you do it the hard way from Australia yeah you really do.

There's a story of legend with Baz and I have no idea whether this is true

or not right so I need to sort of question mark that but in that era where

it was becoming the incredible spectacle that

MotoGP is today and so on in the 70s when all those battles were going on

I think he talked about just doing it on a shoestring and the story of

legend again I don't know if this is true was had a beautiful

might have been a Ford Transit I think that he had van back in those days to get around

Europe the bodywork looked amazing typical Baz the presentation was ice

but the running gear was rubbish and I think the story of legend guys

that a couple of vans won a rental car and one of his went into a

garage and the bodies went

I know there were so many stories back in the

day you know and nobody had one of these phones

or a camera recorder and you know I think Barry

Shane had so many stories there but one of the ones I stuck

in my head was Steve Parrish and Steve's a great guy

they were like brothers those two cheeky brothers yeah comedian he's

I don't know how they let him have a pilot's license but he

the practical jokes that we got up to and he was running the Yamaha team in

World Superbike but he told me this story of

Barry was the first of the utmost

professional riders you know Faberge and behind him and the man of

Brute33 and World Champion and all this money and

Stavros was his teammate Barry had a Rolls Royce that he drove around in

so Stavros had to get one and when Stavros sold his Rolls Royce

he got in there to wind the speedo back and there was a note in there

that said oh no not again I love that

he still drives around I think on the Isle of Man one of his

Dailies is a hearse and he's got a prosthetic limb that hangs out the back of it like

typical Stavros let's come back to your story

your first bike what became that was a 50 step through a Honda wasn't it what became of that

I don't know but I went from a 50 step through Honda to

this what's called a GA90 Kawasaki motocross bike

and had a four speed rotary gearbox so

you could go from fourth to first it was a big problem when

you forgot what gear you were in and you went for fifth and you know went back to first

yeah I really don't know what become of it but it was the one with the

fuel tank under the seat so you put your mate on the back and you go

over a jump which they weren't designed for and you stand on the pegs and the seat is lift up

and dump your mate off the back on any Sunday

you moved I think at about age 11 to Broad Meadows

what was that like back then was a bit of a tough environment what was the kind of

oh yeah yeah Broad Meadows I think it still is a bit today but

it was a rough and ready part of Melbourne

you know a lot of gangs you know I grew up in the skinhead era in Melbourne

as well so you had Sharpies and skinheads and all these street gangs

and you had to be able to look

after yourself and survive on the streets and

my parents were overseas so I grew up

they were overseas in and out from 1975

so I moved out of home at 13 and in with some people who were working

at Kawasaki who later became my people that I worked with

John Maynard and Victor Kolkot they were Victor worked for a hundred years

and I lived with those guys probably when I was 13 because

if parents were away in Europe were you good at school or you were just better with your hands

I didn't really like school that much I got out

of there as soon as I could I went okay at school but

I wanted to get out and I love working on bikes yeah just wanted to

work on bike and ride bikes so you've ended up in a really significant management

role for the sport in this in this country and even in our region if you

will did kind of just life prepare you for that rather than

university or schooling and how did it shape you for that direct and what

is it that's helped you from your upbringing and your career for this point

I think the experience in sport has been the biggest

benefit to me in this being around competitive people and in that environment

understanding you know the competitive side the team side of

the sport the engineering side the technical side we are a technical sport

a lot of people forget that you know you go and buy a bike but

it's all about the technical side of the bike that really makes it work

no different to any form of motorsport now it's really technically based

and so I think having that background

and that was the foundation to be able to step up in this

role is really just a long term experience in the sport

so at age 13 when you were with these people and so on did you make a conscious decision to kind of

fundamentally park the riding and focus on something else or was there a crossover point here

or what happened? Funnily enough, Orphini and Len Willing

it was about mid 80s I was still doing a lot of the test riding

I'd still go and race I mean I remember grabbing a bike from Kawasaki and going up and doing the drags

at colder one weekend without asking

and I took a 750 turbo up and I actually beat Jimmy Richards in the

final and he was on his CB 1100R and

I knocked him off in the final I just and so

I was into that but it was Paul Ferney and Len Willing

I was riding at a 3 hour race in Adelaide

on a GPZ 900 and a couple of weeks before that

I crashed my bike and broke both my wrists

and hands there and I was the wheelchains guy and

with a rattle gun and some stuff and I went there

and I still did it I did suffer through the pain and we got through it

and my old man just said to me he said listen he said you're going to have to make

a decision you either got to ride him or work on him because you're all getting hired

to work on them you need to work on them and you know so

that was that conscious decision was I probably should stop racing and focus on what

I'm better at which was engine chassis

to work on the bikes. I'm a believer that you're your own man but invariably

you know your parents and your upbringing does shape you

I sense based on what you just said a moment ago that you have a little bit of

your dad's style about you in that straight talking approach is that a fair

assessment? Yeah I think so I think that's definitely come from him and

I'm definitely not a politician when it comes to some

things that might seem a bit straightforward to me you've got to play with a

straight bat sport is so political now

too much politics I believe but it's so

political that you know and I'm not good at the political side

but I think I managed to get through based on my experience and

you play with a straight bat and I think

people actually still appreciate that. I think you to be congratulated because we

exhaust so much bloody energy with politics if we could channel that into something the good we could do

would be would be remarkable you're not you're not always going to keep

every constituent happy you try you I reckon you try

your level best to go down a path that you feel is right financially

for the sport for growth for whatever it is don't you? Yeah and we

you know we inherited myself and the MA

board I mean where we are now we inherited a basket case

it was upside down broke insolvent had been neglected

political infighting federated sporting

model which is probably in Karen Perkins words

when he became chair of the Australian Sports Commission the worst thing ever

invented for sport was the federated sporting structure

I think last year with the seven states and MA

71 different directors went through the organisation and

no sport can survive that long term

all sports need to streamline you need to become efficient

you need to be a bit agile you really can't just educate 71 people

that come into the sport and all want to pull in different directions.

I mean I feel like this is going to become a part of our

conversation a little bit later but I mean you're looking after

different categories different types of two wheel motorsport we're in a risk averse society

now I mean all of these things are huge factors you have to deal with

on a daily basis aren't they? Yeah and the risk side of our sport is

that insurance becomes the main player

in that game you know insurance companies are there to make money

and insurance companies don't want to pay

out so they look at the sport and if they think they're

well there's high risk here then you get charged a lot higher premium

but we still want these kids to have what you talked about as a

youngster on that step through mate that visceral experience that chance to go and be a

Chad Reed and so on. Absolutely so you know we're constantly trying to tick boxes

and trying to you don't bring rules in for the

sake of having rules a lot of it is to appease the insurance side of

it and if you can tick a lot of boxes for them and say look no we've done this

and this and you still got hurt well so be it.

But you know the Australian society I think

after living in the US for 15 years I think we are the most

litigious society in the world now. That's crazy to think you would say that you know

when most people think America is so you know. No I think

it's us here and I think it's the we have higher public liability

requirements for sport here. They run a MotoGP on

about seven or eight million US dollar public liability policy and

we've got to have 20 here to run a domestic race. Crazy.

No win no fee lawyers they jump on and promise families a fortune

and rarely do they get it but you know the cost of defending

issues in the sport is huge and it's a cost motor sport.

Yeah it's generally across motorsport but

motorcycles, freestyle, supercross

they're quite high end risk. Yeah got you.

So they scrutinise us around those disciplines. Well come back to your time now

a little bit later in the conversation I want to focus on the positives of our game rather than just some

of the tricky stuff that you deal with so you have that moment of realisation. Dad

talks to you about broken wrists and making a choice. Do you go away

and make a conscious choice? Was it pretty much made up your mind straight away? What happens?

It did and the biggest thing for me, I'm very grateful

I think for me having to work with all those people

I'm the luckiest person in sport. Working with

whether it goes from Hansford to the Wheeling to the Feeney and the people you meet

the McFarlane's, the Gunters, the Williams, the Gauls, all these people

you work and meet with throughout their careers and a lot of them you still know

today and still involved in the sport. I mean

I'm the luckiest person in sport I believe. One of them in my library which

Roland Dane quite enjoyed is Graeme Crosby. So tell me a little bit

about Crosby. Every time I've ever dealt with him in New Zealand it is a little

Barry Sheen or Stavros-esque. There was always a lot of fun with him

wasn't there? Anything you did with Crosby there was some fun attached to it.

I guess the Crosby story

was we're at Sand Down for one year. Race at Sand Down it was

end of the year series so Pan Pacific, Swan, that sort of era

and I was quite young but I think we

had a few beers and Crosby was driving me back home to my

father's place out at Glaston Park in Tullamarine and

we were there and I was in the back and I think Frizz and

Brenda and his wife were all there and Crosby drove and he drove straight

up the front yard and pulled the handbrake on and straight across the yard

and it was after midnight of course

that's beautiful grass or whatever. His bedroom was at the front

and clearly you hear what was going on and he came out in his jocks

and he's yelling at Crosby and Crosby's like I'm sorry Neville

just dropping your son off. Obviously.

And it took off. Everywhere you went with Crosby

and Japan and the way he

spoke and with the Japanese was just incredible. Amazing. So

at some point here international stuff must beckon. Before we moved to that

you alluded there a moment ago Swan series, you know bikes used to be at Bathurst

and so on. There was a golden period for some of that stuff you were around, wasn't there?

Six hour and so on. Six hour,

it was really you had Bathurst and you had the Castro six hour

so they had these two unique events that people just

travelled to. They were bucket list events and... International's came and all sorts didn't they?

International's come and you know in the end like a lot of race tracks

Bathurst sort of motorcycles outgrew Bathurst.

The speeds you know that was back in the 80s. I think we did

one year with the Chase and I think that was it. It was becoming

basically the sport was becoming uninsurable because

of a couple of events and then Amaru unfortunately closed down

and they tried it all in park and it really didn't

have the same vibe. Didn't have the same vibe. A lot of those events

when they either go away or they relocate they sort of lose that

that lust of that aura thing don't they? That aura they had and so you know they unfortunately

died out and the other thing that we had back then, well

we didn't have back then that we have now is you know we now have MotoGP and we have

World Superbike and so these World Championship events are now in Australia

and that has sort of knocked the domestic side around.

Not saying that's negative against those events but you know

when you've got such quality high-end motorsport events

now we spoke about it today. I mean I think you go to a few so

Bathurst 1000 you've got the Adelaide 500 you've got the Gold Coast event

they're all cars. Throw in Formula One. MotoGP this weekend.

MotoGP this weekend. We've got World Superbike. We've got MXGP

has come to Darwin so there's seven or eight

big events to choose from and you know

geographically we've got a disadvantage to the rest of the world

with the physical size of our country and low population so people got to pick and choose

like if you lived in Spain you could go to all of them. Yes.

But you know that's how it is now. Now are you kind of mid-teens

and you think about hitting overseas what transpires there?

I got a bit wild now to control there for a while in the

70s and they ended up basically

Choose your words here. That's okay. I was doing a lot of work

I was testing police bikes for police. Kawasaki were heavily involved

in trying to get contracts for police bikes and we used to test up and down

the Tullamoon Freeway and it was quite funny because

I actually did a lot of tire testing with the cops. So I'd ride

they'd ride, we'd ride different bikes and try tires and we're testing for

speed wobbles at 240 kilometers an hour and

simulating a chase basically. Simulating a chase and

one of the cop has said to me one day when we finish he said he goes you ride pretty good

for a young fella or he said how long you've been riding he said how long you had

your license for and I go I actually don't have one.

They just sort of had to turn a blind eye

Nothing to see here. Nothing to see here.

I did ultimately get my license but I lost it for doing wheelies

and I had to go on back and get it again but did a lot of work

with the police back in those days and living in Broad Beddos and

in the end Kawasaki who I was working with at the time

and a few local coppers basically said listen you need

to either get overseas or you'll be in jail soon if you don't

slow down. So I ended up in Europe with

my father and a mechanic for Greg Hansen

in the late 70's.

Peter worked with a number of talented riders during his career including

Robbie Phyllis who helped Kawasaki into the winners circle in world super bikes

and caused chaos when he crashed his remote control plane into a top secret

division at the factory in Japan. And Rob son please

you cannot fly your airplane here anymore

security about ten minutes behind us so

everywhere we went they followed you but they couldn't catch us

we didn't know they were chasing us. Robbie joined the garage library in

2025 the yarns on the bike are as gripping as his stories

off it check it out if you haven't already now back to Rusty

and Peter Doyle. I want to put a bit of framework around what you just said Rob because

we have moved on in eras and that's an era where

some of that stuff we might look upon now and frown but the reality is

the police were very supportive of you then and sort of saying look hey you need to go and do

this to grow and to sort that stuff out and I love how your learnings

kind of now help in a safety sense and promoting the right sort of message about what we do

doesn't it? Absolutely there's no doubt and

we grew up in different times you know people are much more

their ability to have a look at you know the issues

whether they're in society whether they're in our sport and try and help people

out you know nowadays you know I said everybody's a journalist with their telephone

and a lot of stuff gets taken out of context

100% and you know we don't

I think we were luckier back then and a lot more supportive

the community was a lot more supportive of people back then. Absolutely. You go

from that apprenticeship with Kawasaki as a mechanic and I think it's around 79 that you're talking

about that you get this opportunity in Europe with your dad Greg Hansford's mechanic

there's stuff around here about eight hour with Eddie Lawson and Greg as well isn't there?

Kawasaki wanted to get some of the better

riders into the eight hour they were getting into that four stroke era developing these

Formula One bikes and while they were having the French run

the endurance world championship when it came to going to the

eight hour race when you've got the you know right through the year

but you've got all the Grand Prix riders going there I mean look at Gardner and Dillon and

McGee and all those guys that went there they had to start taking their top flight riders so

Hansford and Eddie Lawson we teamed up

and did the eight hour race it was also the year before

Kawasaki built their new 500 so that was part of

that was to go there and test the bike and build the bike so we went to the eight hour

race and funnily enough we led the eight hour for

seven and a half hours with Greg and Eddie and we were

taken out by one of the Yoshimura bikes with Mick Cole

who was an Australian rider took out Eddie and we had to make some repairs

and we ended up finishing second but Crosby won

and funnily enough and then I ended up working for Yoshimura years later

later exactly so in the midst of all this you've talked about mainly road racing there

there is still a motocross connection in this period is that right absolutely we

growing up in Bansale out to the Bansale motocross track

and a lot of stuff in Maffrasale you know Nuri in that era

and Trevor Williams was obviously a local rider

so had a lot to do growing up around Trevor

he was the local gun from Bansale, Gippsland centre and went on to win

multiple Australian championships and as a factory rider

for Kawasaki Grunter was around then too wasn't he Anthony Gunter

Gunter on Williams were Kawasaki's

big return let's say or involvement or getting into motocross in Australia

and it continued from there and just grew

you know to the said the McFarlane's or the Eddie Warren's

and all those guys were a long period. One name that we haven't spoken about

and he came on the podcast in August it was very funny I went up and sat down

with him was Robbie Phyllis so he tells me a story and you might like

to offer your side of it he tells me a story because he was always a crazy

innovator he loved tinkering with things and making things didn't he tells me a story about it

like a home made spa with your one night somewhere overseas

you can do the condensed version if you want

you're right and Robbie he just liked to tinker with stuff

working on bikes inventing doing things

and when we were based in Germany we were at the workshop so

Kawasaki Germany at the back we were preparing the bikes and he'd get

bored gotta have something to do I mean he's the only guy I know

who went to the supermarket one day to buy us some beers and some sausages

and such and came back with a BMW and a caravan

that is so him and that's him so

Kawasaki Germany had some prototype jet skis

that they were trialling over there because not a big market for jet skis in

Germany in the day but they got some in huge big crates probably a meter

and a half wide and three meters long so he

decided to make the spa bath and he just

did such a good job of it though you know big wooden crate he lined it

he put foam in it he put air hose around it

that's freezing cold I think too is it not? Well we're in winter and it's

snowing in some cases anyway we he got this done

and he got it all set up and we had a fireplace

around the caravan that we used to drink beers with at night and had the fire there and

he got copper coil and wound it up so it went into the fire pit pump off the caravan

and was circulating the water warm it up hook it up to the compressor

blow the air out through the holes with the air hose and

he got this thing ready so we sure enough we decided to try it I think there was

Radar was there and Dave Cullen Dave Cullen

and Mark Barnett who's still in Grand Prix I think with KTM nowadays

and Regio Rourke who spent a lot of time within the states all the mechanics

managers Robbie and we had some beers

to trial this spa and we're actually next door to a recording studio

so the beers turned into

I think some decent things happened in that recording studio too didn't they?

Millie Vanilly that's what it was yeah and you had to

get the beers but it was freezing cold I mean we're talking zero

and we had to keep the fire going to keep the spa hot so it became a shout

so alright you gotta get out you gotta get half a dozen beers bring them back

put the wood on the fire and get back in as the night progressed

we started doing bombs off the caravan and

this went on and on anyway next day the manager of Kawasaki

Germany called me into the office and said look we've had a bit of a

complaint here and he was a very straight typical German and I

thought oh I want a bit of trouble here and he was trying

to keep a straight face in the end he couldn't help himself he smiled

and he said we have complaint from recording

studio they record in the evening and apparently there were people

running around naked drinking beer jumping off the caravan

and so yeah so we got caught but

yeah that was fellas any mischief you could get into

but a lot of it was good mischief it was funny mischief it's funny to be around

you are though in that time around Kawasaki heavy industries

and people might not appreciate I mean we just think of the green machines

bikes and so on but I mean they were involved in all sorts of things weren't they

I think maybe even space research and all kinds weren't they?

Shipping, space research, obviously aeroplanes, jet engines

believe it or not Kawasaki back in those times

the bikes were part of what they called CP Group consumer products

and we were less than 10% of Kawasaki heavy industries

Amazing but you helped them get back into basically international racing didn't you

I mean we can talk about Superbike team here Robbie was a rider for them and so on wasn't he?

So in we got really going in the FIM Superbike in Australia

in the like 87, 88 era and we built

a GPX 750 which was a touring bike and fellas

went out and won the Australian Superbike Championship on a bike that

really didn't have great success anywhere in the world and the Japanese

couldn't believe that these are silly Australians

running this touring bike around but beating guys like

McDewan, Michael Dowson, you know quality riders with

bikes that would probably should a bit better than ours

and the factory said if you guys want to do it we'll help you out

so they just let us a few parts here and there and we got this swing arm

put this swing arm in your bike and nice factory swing arm and a set of forks

and they were giving us bits and pieces to help us

So they were energised by the thought of racing weren't they there?

Yeah and then we were still going back and forth

still doing the eight hour race with them and helping develop their bike over there

and at the end of 89

well we'd hired Aaron Slyte by then but at the end of 89

the Japanese guy Mr. Noda flew out from Japan

and Kawasaki Australia was wholly owned

subsidiary of KHI and said look we

want to get back into world championship racing we've been out since

Ballington and Hansford back in the early 80's and

we want to get back in with the factory team and small budget

we want a small team and we'd like you guys to do it so

myself and Phyllis, Robbie and obviously

that year it was Johnny Asher and Mark Wolfry

we were all working for Kawasaki Australia we packed up

built a couple of bikes and set up in Germany and it grew from

Robbie in 1990 to we grew out to Robbie and Aaron Slyte

up to 92 and then Scott Russell came in in 93

and we won the world championship that year and Aaron was

third and that's the team that's still running over there

today. Unbelievable what a great tip of the hat to you all

can I come to a couple of things here Aaron's been on the pod he lives

not far from a couple of hours south of where I am now

what was he like in that period of his career as a racer?

His focus on riding was incredible

Robbie was a bit of a natural and he'd sit there and Aaron's

out training and he's doing what he needed to do and he was

one of the guys that you looked at was that new era of guys who

were really putting in 100% off the track.

Robbie was just so experienced on a bike

and he had a few injuries here and there and training wasn't

his forte he wasn't a drinker or a snooker or anything he just

was good. Natural was good wasn't a big trainer Aaron just

put in 100% I picked him up from Sugo

went over there with Robbie to do the world championship race

on the GPX and he was riding a Super Angel Yamaha I think

there and I didn't know Aaron he's just black

leathers on this Japanese bike with Japanese mechanics and

I watched and he's just this kid's pretty good and I invited him to come

and do the swan series and on Robbie's spare GPX and

he did a great job there and we hired him and the way it went

he basically lived with the Phyllis's didn't he for a time there great yarn

what did it mean for you grew up in band style

kind of tough stuff in broad meadows that helped shape you in some ways

and here you are helping to build what becomes

a world championship winning team what was that like

it didn't sort of think about that side of the time because we just

all the people involved just wanted to go racing and

all of us were more focused on the fact that well

it's great racing in Australia and it's great racing against all these names that you look back

now and go to what a great bunch of riders come out of Australia back in that

era but we want to beat better guys we want to beat better teams

you know and we go over there and Malcolm Campbell Phyllis

we were all going over and picking these eyes out of races in Europe

and then to get over there and work with them full time and compete

against them and we were like these people in the paddock they go

wow these Australians on a Kawasaki they don't go too bad do they

and we friended up you know Marco Lucanelli and the Ducati team

really took us under their wing and they'd invite us in for lunch

because they'd sit down typical Ducati and factory team

Italian big Italian spread big Italian spread and they're drinking the wine so they

we're sitting now very small team and we're

making bread rolls and we're buying lunch from the canine so they come

and eat and drink with us so we had a really good relationship with the Ducati

team the Yamaha team which was run by Stavros, Rob McElnae

Terry Rymer and we all developed this really close

relationship even amongst the teams and it was really like

being back in Australia where after the race is over

let's all go and have a beer and party up together and it was

the same in Europe. But it's a world championship and we know it now for the

cache of what it is but you are there in a let's call it a really important

or formative phase what was it like seeing it grow like that

probably more we're excited to see it grow

but as you grow and as sport become more professional and more money and more

professional you know things start to change

the Americans came in because they supplied a lot of money for Scott Russell

to be on the team which unfortunately sort of led to Robby

being out and back in Australia Robby was also pushing towards

end of his career and Scott was the new person coming in town and so was Aaron

so you know Slight and Russell was a very very strong team

but a lot of people don't know the setbacks of that year

we probably shouldn't have won the world championship tell me why

so a lot of people don't know this but we'd had works bikes out of Japan

up until 92 for 93 with the

American influence the budget was a lot of it was

coming from the US and the US said no we build our bikes out of

street bikes so we flew to the US myself and Reg

we had Adrian Ghorst who's still involved with BMW

and we spent three months in

Bend, Oregon in the Cascade Mountains and I think it is and

in 3000 feet you know minus 25 degrees

every day building these bikes and shooting into Europe from production bikes

making the fuel tanks making everything crazy are you talking

about the challenge in that because what you already had in Europe was you almost

stepping back so to speak are you or so it was you know one bike had carbon

brakes one bike had steel brakes because the Americans wouldn't spend the money

on all the components they believed a lot of that wasn't necessary because they

had been doing in the US this way for so long in the end we won

the battle we got to halfway through the season and

we were very still very competitive I think we were running

second and third at that time and Fogarty might have been leading the championship

we got to Japan and we'd asked for some certain

equipment in Japan and we got there and it wasn't there and found out the

Americans had cancelled it and it blew up in Pitlane and

Scott Russell and myself and Aaron Slyte and the Americans and

the Japanese we were all there and in the end the Japanese

turned around and said to me what do you need to get this

championship over the line to give us the best opportunity to win it gave them

the long list of stuff got the bikes matched up got carbon brakes all around

got all these extra works parts that the budget had already been provided

the money just wasn't being spent and they said and we'll send the bill to

Kawasaki US and we got it all and

we ended up winning the championship so it was worthwhile but and I stepped back after

that yeah well let's come to that I think you actually came back to Australia did you not

tell me about that and the decision to do that why I mean you were a national technical services

manager in 94 and so on weren't you yep so I came back to that

Kawasaki wanted to grow the motocross side

again in Australia and that's where we moved into the Peter Melton

you know Andrew McFarland era but technical manager

job was there and it was getting very difficult

with a lot of the US influence at that time

the ironic part is they got four works bikes for 94 and they didn't win the championship

crazy and so you know I think back in those days

you know the typical American people were pretty

much out of their depth when they went to Europe okay because it was a that's the

way we've always done it it's why we do it in the US they weren't really adaptable

you know we've got to fly home every weekend and we've got to make it in America and we've

got to do this and we've got to do that and they weren't really accepting that the Japanese

were a bit of a powerhouse in the in the development and the technical

side of the sport so they felt they were in front and so I said I'm

out of here so I came back to Australia and managed the road race

and motocross here tell me a little bit more about that because in this in this era

I mean you talked about Andrew McFarland who is sadly no longer with us I often

tic-tac with his wife a little man there's a great Aussie story mate isn't

there ah he Andrew was with Kawasaki from the junior programs

ironically we you know we go through that period and

there's a small story there when Andrew and Chad went to

Europe and we'd been racing here and we built

that 500 for Andrew to do the Grand Prix at Broadford what year are we talking here

the late 90s really 2000 2000 yeah and

Grand Prix was going to Broadford for the open Grand Prix so we

went for RPM yes we want to be involved so

Kawasaki don't have a big bike and the 500 was no good so we took

the 500 and we put it in the 250 chassis and built a swing arm and

did a lot of modifications special bike I'd love to know where it ended up

but built the bike for McFarland and of course

whole shop that race and got a podium and but that was the year of

Burn McFarland and Reid and

we tried to sign Chad but Yamaha

had a better deal for him and we'd already

had such a long association with Andrew and Andrew stayed on the team

and Andrew ultimately won the motocross championship and he won the Supercross Masters

and won Thumpernats 250 class we had a big year

that year and I think Melton won

the 500 class on the bike we built for Andrew for the Grand Prix and

Askenazi won the 125 so we had a really really solid year

it comes to the end of the year and Yanda Groot rang me

who was the manager of Kawasaki's world motocross team and he said

we've seen the donations and we've been watching Australia

and who do we sign up and

the riders were all getting set to go to the donations for that year

and I said well our riders Andrew McFarland

and obviously we'd like to see him go from us

into the Kawasaki team. In the end Yamaha put a better offer on the table

for Andrew so he switched from Kawasaki Australia

to Yamaha World Championship and

said well Chad Reid and Chad went from Yamaha Australia to Kawasaki

World Championship and of course the rest was history

they went to Europe and funnily enough we all

met up together and caught up in the States a couple of years later because we all ended

up in the US. Amazing, amazing. You've touched on a couple of names here that I wouldn't mind bouncing

around. Firstly Peter Melton, Reggie, I mean there's another

one that we haven't really sort of covered off here in this discussion. Yeah, Reggie was

just such a laid back Queenslander

wasn't he and he liked to tinker, liked to do a lot of his own stuff

liked to look after his practice bike and so we really just supported

Peter as much as we could and we bought him a big van to start with

and him and Brad who still works with, well he's with Cladi this year

I think with the Empire team but worked with Craig Duck for so long

and him and Brad would tour off around the country and I'd catch up

with him here and there and provide him all the support I could and

Reg's turning up and he's a long wheelbase

high roof transit van and here's all the trucks and Reg's out there winning all the races

You mentioned Kim Ashkenazi there before and there was some amazing talent that we had there

I won't get you to comment on what happened in Anthony Goebbett's life because

I think that's well documented and it's very sad to think

what the latter years kind of became. I want to focus on the fact that he

was just an immense talent mate wasn't he and in some

ways we didn't get to fully realise that did we?

No and look here, I knew all the family and I

still talk to one of the brothers and I

didn't work directly with Anthony I supported

a lot of support to him over the years when he was through his motocross bikes and such as well

and when he was young and I still remember

a comment he made and it was along the lines he was moving from

Juniors to Seniors in Supercross and he'd basically tell everybody well as soon as I hit

Supercross I'm just going to kick these guys butts and

he went in his first year and won some Supercross and that's almost

unheard of and then that

period we had the Chris Hill, the Anthony Goebbett's, the Matt Muladins

they were all coming through there was a lot of talent there

a huge amount of talent that wanted to get into road racing. That's

that follow on I think from the Gardner

era to McGee

to do and that era I think a lot of

people were inspired to get out of motocross and go road racing because

so many of these young fellas jumped into road racing but Goebbett

the talent was there and he was fast track through

and into Superbike and what he did at Phillip Island jumped off a Honda

at the Australian round and went on a well Superbike race on the Kawasaki the next

weekend. That's just unheard of now

obviously

Anthony liked to party up a bit and I don't

think there's anybody who's still around the paddock even up to me

who hasn't been partying with Anthony Goebbett at some stage

because he was a social sort of person that's what he wanted to do but

we never realised the talent and unfortunately

but he sure made an impression

around the world. A couple of others here to bounce around

firstly Michael Dawson I must get him on the podcast mate

and I think we've had a little bit of like Neil Bates the rally driver and he ended up doing a bit of

four wheel stuff over the years and things I would love to get him on for a chat at some point

yeah the Colonel as we used to call him in Australia

such a lovely guy

obviously disappeared from there but I catch up with him every now and again

he turned up at Barbagello a few years back turned up at the Grand Prix at Phillip

Island I think he's going to MotoGP

in Saupang or Indonesia in a couple weeks Saupang

so yeah still around and yeah he was a great guy

and a really good rider. Troy Bailas I mean

I can recall him if memory serves on a Kawasaki in the

Australian Championship at places like Baskerville and stuff like that to think what

he would go on and ultimately achieve. Troy

there's a few stories with Troy and Troy had

there's a lot of traits with Troy in similarity to Milladdon even though

they're totally different people. One of the biggest

traits they had which was so beneficial I think to their

career both those guys was honesty. I remember Bailas

at Phillip Island and we used to do a test at the end of the year

and we'd have we had Robbie's bike we'd have Slidy's bike all the

different riders bikes and we've got all the young guys come and ride them so

you know Gobert rode them Bailas, Dean Thomas all these

kids would come through we'd pick 10 or 12 and we'd give them a half hour session on

each of those guys bikes on the Monday after the race so they were exactly as these guys

rode them and Troy came in and

Troy was a really aggressive rider back there on those 600s. Riding

a 600 again the old 600 he rode the first one was a

touring bike it wasn't a race bike he rode the wheels off that thing. He rode

the super bike and he came in after the second session

he said I'm not doing anymore and it's fine he goes because I'm going to hurt myself and go home.

Wow. Right and took off home and

just didn't feel right, thought he was going to get hurt

went home didn't see the day out but you know he

soldiered on soldiered on and like Phyllis ended up going to Europe

really late graduated late but some of the things he did on the

super bike here in 96 had

a few guest rides in 95 and a few crashes but in 96

we turned up at Lakeside with our new bike mid season and we had one for him

and one for Marty Kragle and we didn't have a third bike

and it was the old bikes and Troy

stuck his into the fence in the first race while leading and it went in

wheels first and it bent but it pulled the linkage out of the frame and did

all sorts of damage and we just didn't have enough parts so

we're going through and we ended up finding a linkage because we had

multiple relinks in those days out of the other bike and we knew it wasn't

going to be the same we took a few educated guesses and moved

a few things around and changed a few springs and we just got the bike

ready for the second race and down there in line said look

we're confident the bike's okay it's not going to feel the same we've had to change

some parts in the suspension area and stuff but it'll be okay to

get out there get some points and get through and he went out and won the bloody race

like he did things like that and you know

rode that 250 Suzuki at Phillip Island so there were those standout

moments that everybody knew that Troy Bose can ride motorbike there's

no doubt he's something special and it was just a late bloomer

still likes twisting the rest as you and I see now even so

yes I've got those photos

that's the end of part one of my podcast with Motorcycling Australia CEO

Peter Doyle if you're enjoying it part two is all loaded

up in our library and ready for you to hit the start button on during

your next road trip or commute to work and back the gym whatever

from dominating in the United States with Suzuki to returning

home and heading to the dark side so to speak leaving

team land and working for the governing body and steering the ship

through some troubled waters with a roll your

sleeves up lead by example approach to ensure that the sport we love

stays healthy and with a bright future in the risk-averse

red-taped world that we now live in it's all ahead here

on Rusty's Garage

Peter Doyle Part 1 | BBQ’s with legends & conquering WSBK

About this episode

Chrysler Country Town

H2R

Grand Prix

Greg Hansford era

handmade parts

Ford Transit

Kawasaki 750 Turbo

Honda CB 1100R

Bathurst 1000

Formula One

MotoGP

World Superbike

MXGP

Kawasaki

tire testing

eight hour race

Yoshimura

prototype

swing arm

Yamaha Super Angel

Ducati

carbon brakes

Fiat 600S

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