GREGG HANSFORD
Gregg Hansford was a rising star in ’70s GP racing, taking 10 wins in two seasons. His sheer ability and Sheene-like charm inspired a whole generation of super-fast motorcycle racers from Down Under
At the age of 25, Gregg Hansford was on the cusp of taking his fourth Australian Unlimited Championship in five years. Speculation was rife in the second half of 1977 that he would move up to the world championships the following year. He had impressed so much on flying visits to the USA and Europe that Chris Carter, the editor of top-flight bike racing annual Motocourse, rated him number five in the world in the 1977-78 edition – before he’d even started a GP.
Looking at his results, that’s no surprise. In September 1977 he won both races at the Canadian World Formula 750 round, was on the podium twice in the USA round at Laguna Seca, and out-foxed Gary Nixon to win the US 250 championship round at the same venue. Aussie fans figured he was a world champ in waiting. But it wasn’t to be.
An Australian childhood in the dirt
As a kid, Hansford spent his time racing off-road – both dirt-track and motocross – and was prone to skiving off school and heading for the beach or dirt tracks. Eventually the Yamaha distributor in Queensland spotted the young Hansford’s talent and hired him – both as a racer and a mechanic to prepare his race bikes. Gregg went on to win his first national championship in 1974, aged 21.
The editor of Australia’s leading motorcycle newspaper, Jeff Collerton, reckoned the press needed to build up personalities to promote the sport – and Hansford was tailor-made for the role. Sponsors loved him. He was different: laid-back yet super-determined; broad shouldered yetwith a high-pitched voice; down to earth yet coming from a wealthy family (his father Harry owned stores in Brisbane, though sadly died when Gregg was 13).
In 1974, the new Yamaha TZ750 arrived and Hansford did battle with fellow 21-year-old Warren Willing in the Australian Unlimited Grand Prix at the country’s premier circuit, Bathurst. The race went down to the las
