Events > Jack Hogg Classic 2006

Jack Hogg Classic, Moruya
11 February 2006

Down on the NSW South Coast each year the Surfair club hold a memorial meeting called The Jack Hogg Coastal Classic. The event features classic classes with modern support. At the end of the night there are two feature races - The Jack Hogg Memorial Classic Invitation Race & The Bill Scott memorial Modern Invitation Race.

OzVMX ran a brief report and some photos of last year's event which you can view here.

This year, we went along to sample the event for ourselves, and we can report back that this is indeed a great race. We had a ball, and highly recommend it to anyone. We'll be back, that's for sure.

Read on below for a couple of ride reports and to look at some fantastic photos of the day sent in to us by the good people at Oz Event Photo. You can contact Oz Event as below:

Oz Event Photo
PO Box 32
Batemans Bay NSW 2536

Phone: (02) 4478 1113
Mobile: 0428 781158
Email: ozeventphoto@bigpond.com

OZVMX Rides the Jack Hogg

ACTMCC stalwart and enthusiastic vintage KTM racer, Dennis Meyers, and I decided to ride the Jack Hogg after realising that the Coffs Harbour event was going to be too hard to get to. We had heard a lot about this South Coast NSW event and decided that this was a good time to check it out.

My Husky was fitted up with fresh rubber to suit the granite surface and away we went. Dennis took his faithful big-bore KTM and we reckoned that with plenty of 2-stroke power on tap we were a dead cert to have plenty of fun.

On a beautiful Saturday morning we rolled up at the track and after a few yarns with some of the regular vintage crew we walked the track. It looked sensational. It's hard to describe, but the setting is great with fantastic spectator viewing from the hill with a canteen overlooking it all.

The pits were humming - the rollup was huge with both modern and vintage machinery all mixed in together. Wherever we looked there were carefully restored 30 year old dirtbikes - YZ125s, CR125s, Bultacos, Montesas, TT500 Yamahas and XL500 Hondas, big bore Maicos and Huskies.

Practice was run quickly and with a minimum of fuss. For me this was my first run on a dirt track with my Husky CR500, so I took it pretty easy. But all felt OK, even if my speed was a bit lacking. I figured I could only get better and retired to the deckchair to watch the rest of practice.

Our Classic Over 250cc class was first race to hit the track and it was here I got a big shock. Deciding to take it easy in this first race, I let the rest of the pack take off before pulling the trigger. What I didn't expect was the big Husky's sheer speed as I pulled the entire field to the first turn, settling into second place which I held to the finish. The same experience greeted me for the next heat which was the Over 35 years Classics. This time I jumped with the field and easily took the first corner in the lead, amazingly enough then holding on for the win. I was a bit stoked by this time - I was riding a genuine cheater bike! Visions of trophies and pit groupies filled my head.

Unfortunately, reality always rains on your parade. Next heat for the Classics and I got some weird cramp in my right leg which was so bad I had to pull off the track. Then in the 3rd Classics heat the field was called to the line while I was up at the canteen, so I missed that race as well. So much for making the final...

Dennis meanwhile was having trouble getting drive and after a few experiments with ride height and tyre pressure he was much happier. In fact in one heat he managed to pretty much holeshot the field, which he was pretty rapt with.

Everywhere I looked there were happy faces - everyone was stoked with the track and the conditions and the sheer buzz of having so much track time with a bunch of other old bike nuts. The Legends were there to do a few laps of the track, these guys are the true stars of Speedway and LongTrack and to be honest they didn't exactly just cruise around on their parade laps either!

At the end of the day the finals and the Memorial races were held under lights, and what a great experience. I have ridden an MX bike at a speedway track under lights back in the early 80s but I'd forgotten just what a great feeling it is. I was so pumped that I really went for it in the Over 35s Classic Final and managed to get up to the pointy end of the field. What a great way to end a brilliant day's racing. Gotta do it again next year!

Thanks to everyone involved in organising this event, it really was a pearler.

Roger Gordon's Take on The Jack Hogg Classic

With inland race tracks hitting 38-40 deg C during Feburary it was a cool change to be racing only across the road from the beach at Surfair Speedway. Although the sun was out early there was a cooling coastal breeze blowing through the shady pit area during the day that was just enough to keep the summer heat at bay.

We came through Mogo on the way and picked up our race bikes at Roy Dale's motor cycle wreckers and headed out to the track, straight down the highway to Moruya to get fuel and then down the north head road to Surfair. I had forgotten how beautiful the place really is, Martins boat shed was closed on race day as he was at the track, the river was at high tide and looked twice as wide and clear, memories flooded back about the times spent here fishing and sking when we were kids.

Yes Moruya was my home town and I`m pretty proud of it. It was just a huge playground when we were kids, the river, beach and endless mountain trails to explore on the bikes, and the best part is, it hasn`t changed that much, its all there still. Leanne put in heaps of work doing the race secretary job, so I was glad that race day had finally come around, no more phone calls at tea time, lunch time, breakfast time, all the bloody time, finally Jack Hogg was on and with all the dificulties that were too numerous to mention it was all sorted and I knew it was going to be a great event.

There was a lot of riders that hadn`t been to Surfair yet so hopefully they were impressed. We have traveled to a lot of race tracks all over the country, some are great places, others well you could say disappointing - we once drove well over 1000 kms to Qld. to turn up at a track right next door to the garbage tip, and that was a national title meeting. So with all its minor dificulties Surfair is definitely unique in this respect.

Once the racing started everything ran really well with every race to be hard fought. There were smiles all round the pits and during the big parade lap, it was just a great day. So many different bikes were there, nearly all were full grids, some had 3 heats. There was 4 rounds of racing then finals or 5 rounds on points for single grids, then the two main feature races the Bill Scott Memorial modern and the Jack Hogg Memorial Classic, both crackers and a fitting ending to the meet.

This meeting really had something for everyone, the juniors and modern support really put a show for the crowd but I think probably they knew it was great to show their best to the more senior riders. I'm looking forward to the next Jack Hogg Classic already, just got to make sure my bike is running better next year so I can use more than the 1/4 throttle I had on race day. There are some aspects of crank case induction that I'm not really sure about, I thought cleaning the fuel tank out would fix the problem. But I still had a fat time.

Thanks to all involved.