Five-time world motorcycle champion Mick Doohan is one of a dozen motorcycle racers inducted into the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame in Melbourne at the weekend (March 19, 2016).
The full list of riders is:
- Lionel van Praag – 1936 World Speedway Champion – the first motorsport World Champion
- Jack Young – 2 time World Speedway Champion
- Jason Crump – 3 times World Speedway Champion
- Kel Carruthers – 1969 250cc World Champion, Isle of Man 250TT Champion
- Wayne Gardner – 1987 500cc World Champion
- Mick Doohan – 5 times 500cc World Champion
- Casey Stoner – 2 time MotoGP World Champion
- Gregg Hansford – 10 times Grand Prix winner, Bathurst 1000 (touring car) winner
- Troy Bayliss – 3 times World Superbike Champion
- Stephen Gall – 5 times Australian Motocross Champion, 4 times Mr. Motocross, Australian Speedcar Champion
- Jeff Leisk – World Junior Motocross Champion, 2 times Australian Motocross Champion
- Mark Burrows – 7 Australian Off-Road Championships, 5 Finke Desert Race wins
Hall of Fame inducteesThey were among 30 inductees from F1, motorcycle GPs, World Superbikes, karting, motocross, off-road, speedway and drag racing. Among the other inductees were the late Peter Brock and former F1 champion Alan Jones.
Chairman of the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame Committee, Garry Connelly says the inductees feature 29 Individual and Team World Championships – including the world’s first motorsport World Champion, Lionel Van Praag, who won the World Speedway Championship in 1936.
“For a country with Australia’s population to achieve what it has on the global motor sport stage is truly impressive,” he said. “The achievements by Australians in motor sport in a competition sense, an engineering sense and an administrative sense is a wonderful story that as a nation, should be celebrated.”
The Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame is an initiative from the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) involving Motorcycling Australia, the Australian National Drag Racing Association, Karting Australia and Speedway Australia. It is the first time that the Governing Bodies of every major discipline of motor sport in Australia has come together to produce such a function.