TT Star Cameron Donald wins Double Titles at the 20th Island Classic at Phillip Island riding McIntosh-Manx
Australia’s Isle of Man TT star Cameron Donald, rode Ken McIntosh’s 1962 500cc Manx Norton to a double title on 27th January 2013 at the “20th International Island Classic”.
Winning both the “Senior” (up to 500cc) and “Unlimited” (up to 1300cc) Classic classes on his New Zealand built Manx Norton, 35 year old Cameron showed the style that has made him a true Isle of Man TT Star.
Both classes were hotly contested with top NZ riders Dave Cole and Hayden Fitzgerald both joining the group of 25 other NZ riders who rode in the later Post-Classic Classes.
Friday qualifying was held in the dry with a nice air temperature of around 20 degrees and a strong breeze, which was a welcome change from temperatures heading towards 40 degrees on Thursday. The weather remained good all weekend except for a light shower on Saturday which quickly passed.
With devastating floods in Queensland and fires in many other parts of Australia we were very lucky to be blessed with perfect conditions for racing motorcycles. Add to that the brand new track surface and very friendly and helpful officials the stage was set for a great weekend.
Track boss Fergus Cameron has always been a very generous host to the Kiwi teams that have visited since the first “Island Classic” 20 years ago and sets a very high standard in the way the meeting is run.
Don O’Connor, long time sponsor of the late Robert Holden again offered his help and expertise to get the “Kevin Schwantz” Manx to the meeting and keep it running at the sharp end of the field and try to repeat the successes of Andrew Stroud who won the 2010 Australian Historic 500cc and Unlimited Championships at the same track riding the same bike.
That this was again achieved somewhat against the odds is a reflection of the speed and reliability of the machine and hard graft on the day.
The nemesis of Australian Classic racing for many years has been the pair of 350cc and 500cc Honda twins built and immaculately prepared by Jerry Kooistra from Adelaide and in recent times ridden by rising Aussie star Levi Day. To say they are fast is an understatement! The 500 Honda was consistently 20 kph faster (228kph) than Cameron’s Manx through the speed trap on the front straight although Cameron was the next fastest, even including the pre-1982 500cc class bikes in the unlimited races and the Post-Classic 350cc bikes in the 500 class which ran as combined races.
Whereas a crash in the wet ruined Levi’s chances in 2010 this time a broken chain in race 3 of 4 gave Cameron Donald the upper hand. The amount of checking and double checking done by Ken McIntosh and Don O’Connor before the final race was worthy of a rocket launch, but it paid off with a tally of three second places and a win (91 points) beating Levi’s three wins and a DNF (75 points).
New Zealand’s Dave Cole on Ross Graham’s McIntyre Matchless gained second overall in the 500cc Classic’s with three thirds and a second (82 points). After a motor problem on Friday a spare motor was fitted to Dave’s bike. This meant that Hayden Fitzgerald ‘s Matchless G50 was out for the weekend when he dropped a valve in the first 500cc race, after gaining a good second place in the first unlimited race, 5.7 seconds behind Cameron.
The Unlimited Class (up to 1300cc) was not contested by the 500cc Honda (team owner Ron Angel keeping the bike fresh for the 500cc races) which gave Cameron a clean sweep and 100 points, with young South Australian rider Jack Wright a good second with 84 points. Jack rode both Ron Angel’s 650cc G50 and his father’s ex-Bob Jolly McIntosh framed Manx very well and improved all weekend as he got the bikes set-up better for Phillip Island’s fast corners.
Jerry Kooistra and Ron Angel were very gracious in defeat caused by bad luck, but Jerry pointed out we had successfully completed eight of eight races where they had only completed three races out of four and we deserved to take home the silverware.
The Mobil 1 sponsored McIntosh Manx Norton uses a 92mm bore motor built in the UK by Summerfield Racing, a TT Industries 6 speed gearbox built in Nelson, NZ, and runs on Avon tyres. The complete bike is built in Auckland by McIntosh Racing
Cameron Donald also rode a 1982 1100cc Suzuki XR69 replica in the International Challenge against teams from UK, USA and NZ and gained third place overall which gave him enough total points to win the highly converted “Phil Irving Perpetual Trophy” for the most successful rider of the meeting.
The “Schwantz” McIntosh Manx Norton is now 4 years old and has completed 40 starts in NZ, Australia and the USA.
The tally is 3 x 3rd places, 10 x 2nd places, and 27 x wins, with no DNF’s.
The riders have been Kevin Schwantz, Doug Polen, Andrew Stroud and Cameron Donald.
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