A Record Breaking Gold Star

Hugh Anderson was the guest speaker at the 2017 NZ BSA Motorcycle Owners Club Rally. Photograph by David Guthrie.

This exceptional and rare 1956 DB350 ‘Road Race’ model was imported to New Zealand by an immigrant from the UK. During New Zealand’s 1957/58 and 1958/59 seasons it won all but one of every 350cc Clubmans race entered, including the New Zealand TT, as well as many 500cc events. As I, its fortunate owner, gained experience it also won Open Class events beating Manx Nortons and 7R AJS models ridden by very successful national and international riders. Clubmans classes catered for road bike based machines using petrol.
The first open class win came in January 1958 at the Taranaki Grand Prix when, after a race long dual, I got the better of the 1954 350cc Isle of Man TT winner Rod Coleman, on a very quick 7R. The next major scalp was taken again at the same circuit at New Plymouth in 1959 when it got the better of New Zealand’s then top international rider John Hempleman (Hempo) who went on to gain 6th in the World Championship, riding the same Norton, that year.

These outstanding performances gained the notice of the New Zealand Motorcycle Federation and I was banned from further participation in the Clubmans class. Spurred on by what I saw as an unfair decision, at the following meeting I led the racing 350cc class until metres from the finish, when Hempo passed me. I in turn beat a well thought of rider, Forrest Cardon, riding the importer’s ex works Norton. Just two 500cc Manx Nortons beat me in the Senior Class. Two days later, at the Te Puna circuit at Tauranga, I gained 2nd in both 350cc and 500cc racing classes, beaten only by Hempo. Having been unceremoniously upgraded to the highest level, more speed was required. The compression was raised to suit the benzole race fuel now allowed. A 7R AJS front brake was fitted and a fully enclosed frontal fairing colloquially known as a “full bin” was mounted and sidecar springs were fitted to the forks to support the extra weight.

At the New Zealand TT on 21 February 1959, using an 18 tooth engine sprocket giving a 5.28:1 top gear, that Goldstar flew. It reached 8,200rpm, giving a speed of approximately 119 to 121 mph or close to 200 kph.
Many readers may find this hard to believe but on that day my fellow competitors did not. The circuit was a fast public road track, 9.7km in length, 75% sealed and 25% loose shingle, where even the 350cc class top
runners averaged over 130kph. Having been successful at speedway and won national off road championships and being excited by the challenge, I made up time through the shingle section and was fairing-scrapingly quick on the sealed section.
Following a poor start in the 350cc TT, I passed Australian Eric Hinton and set off after our top internationals Hempo and Noel McCutcheon. I passed Noel on his 7R AJS on the third lap. As we passed the start on the
sixth lap, with the rev counter on 8,200rpm, giving a top speed equal to that of a good Norton, I was just two seconds behind Hempo. I braked as late as I dared for a slow corner at the end of a long straight. The front
wheel locked, I nearly fell but released the lever in time. I squeezed it again and the wheel locked. I saved it and shot up over a foot path and bounced across a church lawn and buried the ‘Beeza’ in an overgrown hedge. Marshalls helped me extract it and I set off now in 3rd place, but on the eighth lap of ten, the primary chain broke. Never mind, it had been an unbelievably exhilarating ride while it lasted and I had set a new lap record of 3m 19s.
At the start of the 500cc class, surrounded by late model 500 Manx Nortons, the Goldy once more showed its paces. Even though it was hampered at times by a severe misfire I was doing well until a fairing mounting bracket broke. However, I have a copy of the official lap times for each event and my lap times indicate how good that engine was. I lapped at 4m 20s in the 500cc class. Fourth finisher Peter Pawson, who had gained a top ten placing in the 1958 Isle of Man 500 TT race, managed 4m 25s and Len Perry, winner of a multitude of national titles, lapped at 4m 31s. The only three riders to lap under 3m 19s that day were top international riders on the latest 500cc Nortons.
Where else in the world did a BSA Gold Star hold the lap record, against world class opposition, on the circuit that was used for the national premier event of the year?
In October, at an open class meeting on a wet track, I won by almost a lap beating Brian Scobie, winner of several national titles, on a 500cc Triumph. On my final ride on that extraordinary Gold Star I finished a very
close second to Rod Coleman at Wanganui’s world famous Cemetery Circuit. I then took out the 500cc class on a 500cc Manx Norton purchased a few days before.
That exceptional ‘Beeza’ gave me the experience on which to build an exceptional career, winning four World Championships, 25 grand prix, 47 podium positions and at the time of retirement, just seven years after arriving in Europe, was rated the 6th most successful rider in the history of the World Championship series.
I wonder where that Goldy is today?