Laverda Club Victoria - The Early Years

Laverda Club Victoria - The Early Years.

When Laverda rode into the early 1980‘s the Laverda Club Victoria had already been staging rides, track days and race meetings for its members and other clubs for several years. These were the heydays of club racing in Victoria when genuine Laverda SFC750s along with several 1000/1200s were regularly seen on the tracks around Victoria and South Australia. John Nickles, Hillary Heenan and Phil Peacock regularly organised members ride days at Winton Raceway. For several years from 1980 Phil Peacock raced his Laverda Jota 1000 with success in Superbike races at some of the world renowned racetracks like Calder Park Raceway, Sandown Park and Winton. Laverda was a current model bike and competitive. Phil Peacock remembers, "These were the days when we got paid prize money for racing. When I look back, if I finished in the top 5 places the prize money actually covered the cost of entry and tyres" Phil recalls. "Sometimes I found myself lining up with names like Robbie Phillis, Kevin Magee and Andrew 'AJAY' Johnson on the Syndicate Kawasaki Superbike.". When the Syndicate was retired club member Greg Parish A.C.S. obtained one of the sets of special grind cams for his Kawasaki Z1R based 1100cc superbike before moving to race Laverda. The Australian Superbike Series beginning in the 1970's became a crucible for some of the best riders in world championship motorcycle history. The story of how it created the world’s longest-running and most successful race category is told in the book Race Across The Great Divide.

Vena Lavery, an accomplished mechanical engineer and rider, campaigned a highly modified Laverda 500 Montjuic that often won races against larger capacity Japanese bikes for two years 1984-85. His very loud Monty was easily recognised by its bright orange paint and external oil hoses from the crankcases to supply the overhead cams. The bike subsequently changed owners several times and while in need of some loving care was on display for many years in the National Motor Museum in South Australia.

After switching from Kawasaki to race Laverda Greg Parish wrote to the racing committee to suggest running a BEARS series, asking that they specifically exclude the fuel injected 4 valve Ducati 851. The BEARS (Formula European Championship) Series went ahead, but the committee had declined his suggestion and the Ducati 851 was not excluded from the competition. The ensuing battle between the Laverda and Ducati for the title was colourful, filled with great battles for 2nd and 3rd places as the evolutionary Ducati 851 easily left the field far behind but failed to finish on several occasions. This lifted every contender one place with each DNF and the Laverda engine's reliability won another championship.

Sponsored by Vic Zuric’s Norvin Bike Hire with support from Brighton Kawasaki (a former Laverda dealer) Greg Parish won the BEARS (Formula European Championship) Series in 1990 and finished 5th in the International World Superbike Classics at Phillip Island on a modified Laverda 1200(*2350) that same year, both race events having substantial prize money. The final round of BEARS was staged at the iconic MacNamara Park Raceway in South Australia. This raceway has a rich history of fostering top class riders, many going on to the world stage to represent Australia in World Superbikes and MotoGP. The outside dining area of the clubrooms is paved with tiles commemorating past winners, sponsors and club members. Not withstanding the common spelling error in the Parish surname, it is great to see Laverda represented in the flagstones of that courtyard.

The Public Officer and Committee member of Laverda Club Victoria at the time, Phil Murrell, took to the tracks in the early '90s on his Laverda Harris Magnum II 1200. One of only 22 built, this machine was powered by the 3 cylinder Laverda 1200 TS Mirage high compression engine wrapped in a fully triangulated space frame fabricated from Reynolds 531 tubing. All joints were fully profiled and manganeze bronze welded to support a heavily braced mono-shock rear suspension incorporating aluminium eccentric rear wheel adjusters and combined axial and radial pivot bearings. Rear shock was by adjustable gas pressurized WP Suspension. The engine was fired by the same inovative modified Suzuki Ignition Module as used by previous Laverda triple racers to provide a smooth ignition curve and was later replaced with the Moto Witt DMC32 manufactured by the renowned European Laverda Concessionair Uwe Witt. Rolling on magnesium Dymag 18" competition cast wheels, 2.5" on the front and 3.5" on the rear, it was balanced performance, but without compromise. This was the Harris Magnum secret. The Laverda secret was reliability and consistency of the engine build, it never failed.
 

 After several years of successful competition in Superbikes, Thunderbikes and BEARS, and with legendary Laverda tuner Ennio Bardalla having worked his magic on the engine, Murell took on the best race teams in his class over of the 3 round/year series to win the prestigious Master Of Mac Park (Period 5) in 1995. Laverda Club Victoria members were well represented on the racetracks and Laverda proved its reliability record time after time.

In the first years of the 1980's Club member Hillary Heenan purchased two sets of Laverda Factory Tools for the 750cc Twins and 1000c Triples. In a gesture of community spirit he made these available to Laverda Club Victoria. Housed in a specially made metal carry case constructed by Club Technical Adviser Greg Parish, the tools were provided free of charge for members to use to repair their bikes. For the next 40 years Parish kept a detailed logbook to keep track of these tools. Many years after the de-registration of Laverda Club Victoria Sergio Canale's Laverda Owners Victoria group laid claim to the tools in 2020.

These were the days before computers and mobile phones started to play such a big part in our lives and the hardworking Laverda Club committee headed by Judy Woodruff and Antony Carberry produced regular hardcopy multi-page A5 sized Club Newsletters that were typed, printed, photocopied, placed in envelopes, stamps added and sent out to members in the mail. Email wasn't on the scene for most members until the mid/late '90s and immediate communications were done by landline telephones or word-of-mouth. Ride days and social events were organised with this method and held at various members homes and much enjoyment and friendship was enjoyed by the group, some with very young families at the time.

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