Ron Toombs won an incredible 17 major events at the annual Bathurst races west of Sydney during his illustrious career among other successes in Australia in the late sixties and early seventies. He retired from racing in 1975, then made a comeback at the age of 46 at his favourite track, Mt. Panorama Bathurst, running comfortably in 8th place on his TZ350F until injuries sustained when crashing into a tree claimed his life.
Before I started road racing I used to watch Ron Toombs ride at Oran Park. Back then he rode the Henderson G50 Matchless. He was magic to watch - I remember watching the race between Toombsie and Terry McDonald (G50 Matchless). It was the first time Terry rode Alan Black’s matchless. He won the race by the smallest of margins.
What is not said in any journo articles is that Rons point of impact into the tree was over 2 metres off the ground – he was significantly airborne at the time.
I was on the Mountain, saw him go past he seamed to tip the Armco with his shoulder and then shot out of sight, then I saw the tree shake……everyone was in shock, someone said that they must have moved the Armco.