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Active Tasmania

Malcolm Bruce Campbell

Member 2001 Born 28 July 1953

Starting his career in the early 1970s as a raw but keen 16 year old, Malcolm initially structured his career on production bikes gaining only moderate success in those early years which belied his later wonderful racing career. He did win several club races and had some success in State Championships. By 1974 he had advanced sufficiently to be placed against top competitors in graded racing.

After a number of seasons on a variety of machines and with some victories on mainland tracks, he secured a factory ride with Honda in 1977. This saw Malcolm advance his skills on better production bikes and good wins at Surfers Paradise and Sydney thrust him into the limelight.

He flirted with Grand Prix racing in 1981 but suffered his first serious crash in that year and sustained a broken leg, ribs and collarbone ending in hospital for a long recovery period.

Undaunted, he bravely emerged from this setback and won the New Zealand Castrol 6-hour title in a display of both skill and courage which helped to separate him from his peers.

By 1983, he was dominating the production scene in Australia and won the prestigious Swann International Series. This win secured a further sponsorship deal with Honda as their lead rider and this enabled him to extend his rides to overseas venues.

In 1984 he won the Malaysia Grand Prix and Honda then contracted him to test drive new revolutionary and technologically advanced machines and he was invited to Europe to ride in France and Yugoslavia.

Malcolm or 'Wally' as he was known on the circuit, then moved into the Superbike Class and he achieved immediate success. In 1985 he won the Australian Superbike Championship for the first time and went on to win that title again in 1987, 1989 and 1990.

Despite his enormous success at this level, including defeats of both Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner, Malcolm was unable to secure a full factory backed ride in the 500cc Grand Prix Championship. It is interesting to note that Doohan, when asked to name his best ten riders of all time and from all nations, he included Malcolm Campbell in that list.

Arguably the best exponent of two-wheeled road racing to ever come out of Tasmania, Malcolm was recognised in 1990 as the second inductee into the Tasmanian Motor Sport Hall of Fame.