Phil Stoker, How did the bike bug bite you?
I was a kid in the Ringwood area of Melbourne in the late 60’s and got hold of a BSA Bantam 125 to ride around on and by the age of 15 or 16 started competing. The Bantam was modified with the cylinder sleeve from a Bultaco and that improved performance quite a bit, then I upgraded to an actual Bultaco proper, a 125 Sherpa S and got involved in motocross and enduro competition. Next was a Bultaco Matador, a 250 then a 250 Suzuki Savage.
I fitted the Suzuki with a bigger tank and some other modifications and a mate and I trailered our bikes to Adelaide and then headed off north. We rode to Alice Springs along the old Ghan railway line through Maree, Oodnadatta, Dalhousie Springs, Mt Dare and then up what was the become the Finke Desert Race course a few years later. On the way home we stopped at Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse and as I was a mechanic I fixed up their car for them and we ended up staying about six weeks. When I got home to Ringwood I was offered a job at Mt Ebenezer so packed up and went back, and stayed for about 15 years before moving on to the Kimberleys where I am now.
You rode the first Finke in 1976, and won the second, tell me about that.
I was running third on the way south behind Geoff Curtis and Peter Stayt who were riding together when Stayt crashed and broke his throttle, Curtis stopped to help repair it and I passed them both with Curtis taking off after me. The next day I was in second behind Curtis when I ran out of fuel, but managed to get some from a spectator then ran dry again a bit short of the finish and had to push the bike home.
I had enough fuel the next year, 1977, and not only won but improved the time taken by 59 and a half minutes because of much more suitable machinery, but I had a brief moment when I could have DNF’ed. I came over a rise at about 160kph and due to a cramp in my right arm I didn’t throttle off quick enough and the bike over-revved and nipped up in the air and died. Luckily I pulled the clutch in and as I landed I let the clutch go and the bike started and kept going to the finish, and afterwards when I went to start the bike again it had no compression at all. When we pulled it down the top ring was completely seized in the piston and the bottom ring wasn’t much better.
Another year I had a KTM 495, my first new bike, burn to the ground beneath me, it had been going quite well and I was in with a chance when it started to lose power. I thought it might have been getting ready to nip up so I kept the engine running at a refuel point, some fuel spilt and ran down the tank and up it went, me too as some of the fuel had run down my leg. I later discovered that the loss of power was from one of the two plug leads coming loose and flapping around and that’s what started the fire. No extinguishers in the pits in those days so we tossed sand over everything.
You also rode the Mt Ebenezer 12 Hour didn’t you?
That started in 1978 and won it in1979 as well as a couple of seconds, it was a big race as well, it ran from midday to midnight with a bit of a social drink afterwards. I got second that year and as I was first up the next morning the owners wife asked me to unblock the toilets as the amount of people there for the race had exceeded the capacity of the dunnies. It was a bit of an urgent job as the roadhouse was a regular stop for all the tourist buses going to Ayers Rock and they were expected to start arriving fairly soon. My hands were covered with blisters from the race and I ended up catching hepatitis and missing the 1978 Finke. I also rode the Kamfari for a seventh place, and that was the first time I’d ever ridden in wet conditions like that.
Have you competed in any other forms of the sport?
No but I’ve done a lot of mustering on bikes, chasing down cattle, brumbies and camels and the like which is different to racing as you never know what’s in front of you, I’ve had a few panic slides under fences doing that.
Would you regard the Finke as the hardest event you’ve been in?
That and the 12 Hour were both hard, but the 12 Hour was harder being held in March when the weather was still hot and riding half the event in the dark, battling fatigue was never easy but it was a great satisfaction to be able to say you’d finished it.
Do you still ride?
Not really, racing was a hobby for me, never a career and I sold my last bike five years ago, I just had a Polaris quad and a KLX250 to get around the property and check things out when we had it but I don’t need them now.
Warren Jack
