Rex Powell

[stutowner]

Hello, I'm researching Rex Powell and all I really know about him was his involvement in two beach events of a Dirt Track Rudge.

They were at Greens Beach, Tasmania 1932 where he clocked 104 mph and at Bakers Beach, Tasmania 1935 where he clocked 116.8 mph.

Any help will be great as I'm Editor of the Rudge Enthusiasts Club here in the UK.

Thanks in advance.

Stu Towner

[Bavarian]

Rex Powell was quite prominent in Tasmania as a diver of a B.S.A. side-car in various motorsports events the late 1920's.

 

He established a new side-car record in the Launceston to Hobart motor cycle race in September of 1929. His then side-car passenger Percy Bryant would later become one of his main rivals in the dirt-track speedway events held at the Hobart Speedway in the 1929/30 and 1930/31 seasons. Rex Powell had bought himself a Rudge dirt-track bike in 1930, which he used also for the beach racing, and speed record attemts, too.

 

In the very first speedway meeting held in Tasmania, Rex Powell rode in the solos, as well as in the side-cars events. In this inagural Hobart dirt-track meeting, Powell's first competitive race was a solo handicap heat, which he finished in second place behind the winner Les Moore (the father of the later world speedway champion Ronnie Moore).

 

In January of 1931 Rex Powell, on his dirt-track Rudge, was challenging his former sidecar passenger Percy Bryant in a best-of-three match race for the Tasmanian Solo Championship. Powell, though, was beaten 2-1 by Bryant.

 

Rex Powell was one of the most prominent members of the Southern Tasmanian Motor-cycle Club. He was described as a "crack" rider, having won a large number of trophies to his credit. Being a skilled mechanic, he carried out all his own tuning.

 

Powell set up a Tasmanian speed record, riding his Dirt Track Rudge at Green's Beach, Tamar Heads, Tasmania, on April 25, 1930, averaging 104.5 miles-per-hour over a quarter of a mile, on his three-and-a-half horse-power Rudge-Whitworth motor-cycle. The previous record was 97 m.p.h. and 100 miles an hour had not previously been registered on a motor-cycle in Tasmania.

[Bavarian]

Rex Powell's 1935 Tasmanian speed record of 116.8 m.p.h. was established in a meeting organised by the Tasmanian Motor Cycle Club at Baker's Beach, on the North-West Coast, on the 28th of January 1935.

 

Powell, on his 499cc o.h.v. Rudge machine, covered the flying quarter mile during the speed trials in 7.7 seconds, being equal to 116.8 miles an hour. The previous record of 104.6 m.p.h., held by Jimmy Cridge of Launceston, riding a 493 o.h.v. B.S.A. motorcycle, had been established at Baker's Beach, on January 18th, 1932.