Flying on the Mountain

Although he may not look it today, Les Cordingley was once a daredevil on the perilous slopes of Australia’s favourite racing mountain.

“We did Bathurst. In our first race at Bathurst we were six outright, and second in class,” said Les.

Back in 1952, this retired 84-year-old would fly, inches from the ground, in the side car of his best mate’s racing bike.

“…there’s no doubt about it, the greatest circuit is Bathurst… But in those days Conrod straight was exactly that, a straight. Not like it is today where it has a big kink in it…The speeds we would have done then would be 150 km/h an hour down Conrod. And they had two humps, and as the… bikes got quicker, and cars, they started to become airborne over these humps at 300 km/h or 280 km/h. So they decided to put the kink in it.”

Les likes to reflect on his adrenaline filled youth, where he would throw himself from one edge of the side-car to the other; serving as, essentially the only brakes between them, and the speed of the 500cc motorbike.

“In my days at the race it was just one long straight and it was just fast! Very, very fast! Down this long, long road and then you’d have to sit up straight for some wind resistance against you, so you could break.”

With broken bones and fractured skulls being a stable at Bathurst since its motorbike inauguration in 1938, Les and his mates were fortunate indeed to not have added anything to that tally in their time on the Mountain.

“We didn’t have any accidents; we just had a lot of fun in that period of time… You could sometimes run wide and end up in the paddock. But that was all part and parcel of it.”

However, their local track at Mount Druitt was a different story entirely.

“We had one unfortunate thing… when I damaged my elbow … I touched the ground, Mt Druitt was a very rough track, it was tar road, and all broken up… I was probably a bit slow getting outside the cart to hold it down. That’s the whole idea…and then when it lifted, and it came down I hit my elbow on the ground, and tore the top off my elbow.”

When you’re going at speeds of up to 150 kilometres per hour, Les was lucky that it was his elbow that hit the ground, and not his face.

The 84-year-old agrees that he would probably not attempt this daredevilry at his current age, “I don’t think I’d like to do it now. I’d be a bit slower getting back across from the back wheel.

Because when you turn left the cart goes up, and you’re the only person that keeps the cart down.”

Unfortunately you’ll struggle to find side-car racing in Australia today, for while there is some, they are few and far between, and none attempt the wrath of Mount Panorama.

"“They do [side- car racing] in England. But, no longer in Australia unfortunately.”