The 1980's
Bob Currie - 1982 Winner
Bob's dad was the caretaker for the Northam Army Camp and he lived in Northam for most of his life. He grew up watching the Beverley to Perth going through town and started riding competitively aged 9. As a member of the Northam Club he regularly did the Northam-York-Northam runs. Amongst others he rode with Australian champion Peter Panton. Moving to Perth he joined the Midland-Bassendean Club and rode the Northam to Perth regularly.
For the 1982 Beverley Bob rode an Impala that he built himself. Race rules dictated that competitors rode with two water bottles and were only allowed to take extra food and water in designated areas. His daughter supported him in the '82 event to make sure he had water and food around York area.
Bob went on to start Ideal Cycles on South St O'Connor.
Murray Hall - 1985 Winner
"I recall the weather being mild and a large field had entered. Being a handicap event, the bunches were around 10 riders strong, spread out over 40 minutes to the limit riders.
The scratch bunch was very strong; all of the riders were national level A grade, a credit to the standard of professional cycling in WA in that era.
The scratch group had an unwritten agreement to work together to ensure that we caught out markers and to give us the opportunity to enter Beverley with the lead group. Most of the race was uneventful, average speed was high, and we caught the leaders around 10km from the finish. I worked my way to the front and noted a couple of riders had a 200m lead. I took the challenge to ride out to them. By the time I caught them one faulted and was dropping back, the other was going well, and I swapped a couple of turns with him.
I realised my fellow scratch riders wouldn't see the humour in me dragging another rider to the finish after all the effort they’d put in, so I attacked the leader and rode solo to the finish. I entered town 30 seconds in front of the group and rode up the main street to take out “The Beverley” and the WA Road Championship, run in conjunction with the event in '85."