Bill Watson, from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, has been an ambassador, pioneer and legend of the sport of motocross for over 75 years. He has to be the Australian (if not the world) recordholder for hosting a motorcycle competition racing license for the longest period – from 1949 when he first joined the Goldfields Motor Cycle Club, through to today.

During this period Bill has successfully raced all forms of motorcycling, but it was Scrambles (motocross) where he made his mark winning seven WA State Championships and finishing on the podium three times since the National Motocross Championships began in 1953.

Amazingly, Bill was born in 1928, the same year that the inaugural Harley Scramble was held at the Rope Works Circuit at Mosman Park, near Perth – and just four years after the sport of motocross was established.

Bill started racing in 1947 and in the 1950s was a regular competitor at Perth scramble circuits, including the Rope Works, where he had much success.  

In 1955, he won his first WA State title there and was the Runner-up Australian 500cc Motocross Champion and third outright (in the Unlimited class and Harley Scramble) behind other BSA riders Peter Nicol and Ron Edwards.

The National Championships that year were combined with the famous Harley Scramble with a record crowd of 20,000 people attending the coastal circuit near Cottesloe Beach at Buckland Hill between Perth and Fremantle – a record that stands to this day with only the 1992 International MXDN’s (Manjimup, WA) and 2000 500cc Grand Prix (Broadford, Victoria) matching it.

Due to the success of the annual Harley Scramble, the Auto Cycle Council of Australia (ACCA) approved combining the Championships and Harley Scramble, adopting its unique format.  Instead of classes being run separately over short distances, all groups were run concurrently and covered the same number of laps (10 laps of the 4.2km Rope Works circuit in the morning and 14 laps in the afternoon) with the class winners determined by their finishing positions and the size of their machines.

To regularly compete at this event, Bill would ride his BSA from Kalgoorlie to Perth and back in one weekend – a 1,200 kilometer return trip, then ride through the night (often without lights) to be back at work on the Monday morning.

Bill was one of WA’s first motocross heroes when the sport boomed in the mid-1950s.  He was one of WA’s first motocross heroes when the sport boomed in the mid-1950s, racing under the No.1 plate from the 1950s through to the late 1980s.

Bill was, and is still part of many technological advances throughout the sport’s history, holding a competition license today at age 95.