MORIWAKI MOMENTS!
For 1981, Mamoru Moriwaki was on a talent search, and that search took him to Australia: what happened next was a magical Moriwaki moment…
Wayne Gardner recalls: “It was the Swann Series and the gossip around the paddock was that Moriwaki was in town looking for a rider to go to Daytona with. I was riding Peter Molloy’s CB900 or 1000 superbike and it blew up in the first round at Oran Park. Unfortunately we didn’t have the money, sponsorship, and parts to repair it for Queensland, where Moriwaki was going to be. I watched on TV, completely gutted. I rang up Peter Molloy and told him how Mamoru was there looking for riders. So, Pete got the bike put together and going for Sandown. It looked like it was going to rain for the Swan Series race, and I was really fast in the wet. I thought: ‘If it rains, I can win this on a four-stroke because everybody was onTZ750s and 500s… those two-stroke things.’ The race started but it didn’t rain and I ended up slipping and sliding around as I’d started on wets and everyone else was on slicks, so I finished in 12th. I was only entered in that one race!”
Then fate took a hand… Gardner: “The heavens opened up and it was pissing down when they started calling the Australian Unlimited Championship contenders to
