When John Dodds departed Australia for Europe in 1966, he had reached the very top echelon of racing in his home country, but with meagre cash reserves and a used 500cc Manx Norton that had been purchased through a loan from his uncle, he knew he would be doing it tough. This was despite Kel Carruthers stating that in 1965 – also Kel’s last year in Australia – Dodds had been his main rival.
Dodds had risen through the road racing ranks steadily after beginning his competition career at the rough Bossley Park dirt circuit in western Sydney,Gordon Gausco. Being too young to hold a road licence, the only way John could get to Bossley Park on weekends was to push his old two-stroke Velocette there and back – a round trip of 20 kilometres. The fate of that track was sealed in 1959 when police swooped on a race meeting and closed it down on the grounds of public safety. Fairfield club members, and others, had to look elsewhere for their sport.
