Rip Gregg Hansford 30 years on

Three decades have passed since Australian motorcycling and touring car racing great Gregg Hansford passed away at Phillip Island.

Hansford, 42, suffered a tragic accident driving a Ford Mondeo during the opening Supertouring race at Phillip Island on March 5 1995.

It was a terrible loss of one of the most versatile competitors in Australian motorsport being a star on two and four wheels.

Hansford had finished second and third twice in the respective 250cc and 350cc World Championships in 1978 and 1979.

With 10 wins across the classes, he has the fourth most GP wins by an Australian only behind Mick Doohan (54) Casey Stoner (38) and Wayne Gardner (18).

By the eighties he had turned his attention to cars and was a regular in the ATCC and Bathurst 1000 before famously teaming up with Larry Perkins to win the 1993 Great Race.

Here is how Auto Action paid tribute to Hansford 30 years ago in a special story by Don Cox…

The cover paying tribute to Gregg Hansford. Image: Auto Action Archive

First it is the disbelief. Sheer disbelief that a man who raced motorcycles for a decade on many dodgy circuits could be killed while racing in a touring car on one of the safest tracks.

Damn it, Gregg Hansford taught safe driving for a living. He campaigned in his bike days for better safety and was hired for his ability to go the distance and keep race cars in one piece.

Then it’s the sense of loss for us all. A racer with class. A vibrant, laid back bloke in the pits, with a big determined streak once behind the handle bars or the wheel. A man who enjoyed himself more than most, told a beaut story when the company was right and was usually ‘there’ results wise.

Gregg Hanford was respected as a genuinely decent man – someone with a bag full of talent who let it speak on the track rather than out of a briefcase.

Consider this for a moment of Hansford.

How many racers would sincerely say of something you wrote about them, ‘thanks for the kind words”? How many would make a point of thanking a journalist for motivating them, as Gregg did after Bathurst in 1993.

To assess Gregg Hansford’s career is to talk of three careers – domestic motorcycle racing, international motorcycle racing and domestic car racing. He arguably made a bigger impact in all three than his bare race statistics would suggest.

Gregg’s domestic motorcycle competition saw him win six national championships between 1973 and ’77 – first on Yamahas he prepared himself while working for the Queensland distributor, and then on Neville Doyle-prepared factory Kawasakis.

But Hansford did more than that. He was the dashing blond Queensland hero who arrived in the early 1970s to give the sport a new, more promotable image and to ride the first generation of hairy chested Formula 750 racers.

Hanford and Sydneysider Warren Willing were Australia’s first road racers to earn enough to list racing as their profession. 

They were the motorcycle attraction in Australia from 1974 to ’76.

Finland’s Jarno Saarinen lifted the sport’s international profile by his presence in the early 1970s. Gregg Hansford had a similar effect on motorcycle sport in Australia and having done that, Gregg then provided inspiration to others to think of bigger goals with his forays overseas from 1974 onwards.

Hansford’s international career was full of stunning rides. In 1977 the sport’s bible, Motocourse, rated him number five in the world – before he’d even started in a Grand Prix.

In all, Hansford won 10 world championship GPs, four in the 250 class and six in the now defunct 350 class. That places him third highest on the Australian GP win tally, behind Michael Doohan and Wayne Gardner.

Greg Hansford had a regular smile. Image: Auto Action Archives

What sets Gregg apart is that he did all his GP winning in his first two seasons, and he scored three GP double victories in 1978.

No Australian will ever match that feat, for the simple reason GP riders are now confined to one class.

Hansford also won four races in short-lived but highly competitive FIM/world Formula 750 Championships. And he won Australian Grand Prix races at Bathurst.

Gregg’s motorcycle career was ended in July 1981, due to a complicated leg injury.

At that point he was 29 and had finally gained a works 500 ride. You could mount a strong argument that Gregg was the motorcycling equivalent of Stirling Moss – the best GP rider never to win a world motorcycle championship.

Gregg’s form on the 1970’s 750 racers and his build suggested he’d have been at home in the 500 GP class. But it never really happened. Why? A combination of the politics of sport in 1979-80, loyalty to his racing mates and Team Kawasaki Australia boss Neville Doyle, reluctance to hustle for rides and simply not being in the right place at right time.

But it’s well to record three-times 500 champion Kenny Roberts’ assessment in his book on the technique of motorcycle racing.

Roberts, writing at the end of the 1980s, rated Gregg Hansford as second only to America’s Freddie Spencer in ability to win races, ahead of multiple champions Kork Ballington (the South African who twice stood between Gregg and a world 250 title) and America’s Eddie Lawson.

Spencer and Lawson were multiple world 500 champions and Ballington won four titles in the smaller classes. As Roberts summed it up, Hansford came close to Spencer in pure talent and had twice as much fun in the pits doing it.

However, the fun aspect and the occasional pre-race high-jinx shouldn’t overshadow

Hansford’s technical ability as a racer.

Team Kawasaki put him on a local Superbike one day while filming for a television show it turned out to be This Is Your Life, Gregg Hansford°) and he was soon giving most useful feedback.

Hansford’s natural versatility as a motorcyclist saw him win in Production racing (the

1975 Castrol Six-Hour), at international level on racing bikes from 250 to Formula 750 and saw him finish second in his one attempt at a major motorcycle endurance race, the 1980 Suzuka Eight-Hour.

Gregg Hansford would have been a hero for his motorcycle career. He then confirmed his versatility as an endurance racer on four wheels, with top-four results at Bathurst in Mazdas, a class victory in 1985 in an Alfa Romeo, and then the big one – partner in the hugely popular Larry Perkins 1993 victory. Gregg also won the Bathurst 12-Hour.

It’s ironic that Gregg spent seven years as a part-time race driver, to finally gain a full-time drive and then be killed in a freak accident in his first appearance.

Gregg’s bike career ended in another freak accident. He arrived at a corner with no brakes, took the escape road and ran into an official’s car which was parked there.

We can be sad that Gregg Hansford didn’t finish some of the ideas he had for books. He told great stories of his own racing exploits and about the bikes he raced against.

Think also of Gregg’s three sons. Gregg lost his own father, Harry, when he was young. He is survived by his mother Edna, sister Jayne, first wife Julie, new partner Carolyn Donovan, and three sons – Ryan, Rhys and Harrison.

Gregg Hansford was a joy to many of us, and enjoyed himself doing it. We give thanks for that, and we extend our condolences to his family.

Gregg Hansford enjoyed Bathurst success with Larry Perkins. Image: Auto Action Archives

A number of star drivers from the time also paid tribute to Hansford led by his Bathurst winning partner Larry Perkins…

“He always knew in his own ability and I was fortunate enough to give him a car that I know he felt matched this ability. He was never one who ever shouted about his ability, but it was demonstrated all times he drove with me. It was a delight to work with him and he had a drive here as long as he wanted and he knew that. He was a terribly nice bloke, unassuming, never telling others how good he was. It is a terrible tragedy and he will be sadly missed,” Perkins said.

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