Sunday, January 25, 2009
Today, Sunday 25th January 2009 was a sad day for me....
I was to take an old motorcyling friend, wheelchair and nursing home bound for the last 3 years, to a re-union at the last meeting of the Oran Park raceway, south of Sydney.
Progress has caught up with Oran Park..it is to become a housing estate.
Alan Burt, some months short of his 86th birthday died earlier today an hour before I was to pick him up and transport him to the event.... The nursing staff said he was quite excited at the prospect, ate a hearty breakfast then when they checked on him some 10 minutes later was gone with a heart attack...
I guess it was the thought of meeting up with old pals..... I'd like to think that....
I'd like to share some of Allan's life with you... with some words and with some of his photographs....
He was a motorcyclist all his life...never married, some said he was wed to Velocette and AJS.....
A racers racer was an apt description....
I've added another photo since I set up Allan's tribute, a portrait shot, unsure when or where,....but it looks so typical of the road racer of the classic era we know....
My thanks to Jim Scaysbrook for sending it.
The first photo shows Allan dicing with the late Les Diener in 1948 at Mildura, Victoria....
The next with great mate Bobby Brown unloading bikes around 1950 also at the Mildura races of that year.
The next is Allan aboard a MAC in a trial near Parramatta, Sydney.
Another is of the P & R Williams 1954 Castrol 5 day trial team, L to R...B.Lemon, Doug Williams and Allan Burt.
A shot of Bob Brown on a P & Rs ex works KTT Velocette, with Allan on a P & Rs 7R AJS, at Mt. Druitt race track, west of Sydney, 1953. In between is Les Slaughter and Eric McPherson, both dealer supported riders.
Following is Allan at the IOM TT races, June 1955 outside the favourite guest house for Commonwealth riders in Douglas..."Rose Villa"...L to R- Allan Burt, Richie Thomset, Bobby Brown, Maurie Quincey's wife, Maurie Quincey. Both Allan and Bob are mounted on loaned AMC machines from the factory to assist in learning the course...
Bob Brown, a great friend of Allan's was tragically killed in 1960 riding a works Honda.
Allan suffered a horrendous crash in practice for the 1955 TT that resulted in his spending 8 months recouperating in the IOM, cared for by the proprietors of "Rose Villa", Glad and Roy Gilbert, with whom Allan retained a lifelong correspondence.
Bob Brown came back to the IOM in Feb.1956, collected Allan who was on crutches and Allan accompanied him as a mechanic all through the 1956 European season, then returned to Australia and worked in three jobs during 1957 to save to go to Europe again.
1958 saw Allan and Bob return by boat to the UK and embark on a full continental racing season.
Returning to Australia late in 1958, Allan remained a force in Australian title road racing up until his late 60s....
Allan's smashed 7R sits forlornly outside the AMC raceshop in Plumstead outside London, awaiting repair....
Following is Allan aboard his AJS 7R for the 1958 IOM TT races, awaiting practice to start.
Then some motorcycling memorabilia...AB's Western Suburbs MCC Cromwell "pudding basin" crash helmet.
The other is one of the bronze replicas Allan won for his 44th place in the 1958 Junior IOM TT on his 350 AJS 7R, the other for 41st in the 1958 Senior IOM TT, riding Bob Brown's Junior TT AJS 7R (Allans' Senior mount, a G50 Matchless broke a crankpin in practice).
Allan loved working on bikes...here he is using "Big Bertha", my really large old lathe to machine up a sprocket blank in my shed.
Allan's last G50, a 1961 model seen at Amaroo Park circuit, July 1977.
Then for Allan tragedy struck.... in hospital in May 1998 for unsuccesful surgery to his leg, his shed was broken into and a 1960 7R AJS, a 1961 G50 Matchless and a 1954 G45 Matchless were stolen.
Allan was devastated...to him the theft must have been perpetrated by an associate or even a friend.... He found it difficult to look friends in the eye. Were they the thief?
He never actively went into his shed again to work on motorcycles and as time passed his old "war wound" the badly smashed leg from the 1955 IOM crash affected his mobility and eventually he had to go into a nursing home.
His three racing motorcycles are still missing.
I assisted in clearing his shed, some bikes and all parts were sold, but four racers were put on display in the National Motor Racing Museum at Bathurst, NSW...pictured are three of them. A Mk.8 KTT replica, another 7R AJS and his 125cc Yahama racer.
The final two photos are of Allan at his nursing home...one with good friend Jim Day, the other, taken shortly before his death is with old friend Jan Grainger... a batchelor he may have been, but he always had an eye for "good lookin' sheilas..." ( a "sheila" is Australian parlance for a gal..).
Late last year, 2008, two brother were charged with receiving stolen goods involved in the theft of Allan's bikes...some 10 years later.
There is hope the bikes may be recovered and justice be done to the perpetrators of this crime...
To steal from a friend is a low act....
Sadly Allan will not see the result of the impending judicial trial or if his bikes will ever be recovered.
Rest assured there are many of us who have worked to bring the thieves to justice and will continue until justice is done.
Allan you were a good friend to me and so many others whose life you touched.
Rest in peace......
Left click on images to enlarge.....
