SHE was the first woman in the world to challenge the all-male sport of motorcycle racing.
So quickly did she become swept up in it that she bought herself a professional racing bike. It was a 350cc Yamaha TR2B.
That was in the late 1960s and now, at 74, Margaret Moorhouse still loves to race.
The Senior caught up with her as she was heading off to Melbourne from Townsville, where she lives on her yacht, to meet friends and again take to the racetrack.
The races may be in a senior category now, but it is still speed that is the draw, together with the skill and, as Margaret puts it, “that little taste of freedom”.
It was her late ex-husband who inadvertently introduced her to the sport. They both rode 250cc bikes – Margaret had bought hers for cheap transport while a student. They joined Victoria’s Hartwell Motorcycle Club and began taking part in informal meets and scrambles, using their ordinary road bikes.
Little did Margaret – then known as Peggy Hyde – know what was to come.
“In those days it was not only the buzz from racing but a need to beat the sexism barrier,” she said.
“There was tremendous prejudice. Out on the track I dressed in my father’s British air force flying suit, which my husband also wore at times, so no one realised they were racing against a woman.
“We also only used our initials when entering for races. It did come out, of course, but even then I had extreme difficulty obtaining the unrestricted licence I needed to race bikes bigger than 250cc.
“In the end, my unrestricted licence was granted by the national, not the state, body with an apology because of my race record – a sweet moment indeed.”
Margaret said she had no idea she had become the first woman in the world to be granted an unrestricted racing licence.
Talking about motorbikes she again becomes Peggy Hyde.
She won her first big race on Phillip Island in 1970 on an enormous Kawasaki Triple Mach111 500cc bike, often called “the widowmaker”.
For a time the Mach111 was the most powerful production motorcycle in the world, and it was an event celebrated in the delighted, if incredulous, headline in the Melbourne Herald, “Girl beats 90 men”.
Another special memory is of a five-circuit production race at Calder in 1970.
“I was riding a Mach111. I love that huge bike, and I was out in front on the second circuit, flying, going for it, and not really noticing anything except out of the corner of my eye I saw colour on the grass.
“I didn’t realise it, but colleagues had come off their bikes trying to catch me. I was riding for the sheer joy of riding, and I broke a lap record by two seconds.
“Afterwards, I heard someone say, ‘That’s a woman’. That was magic, and also vindication.”
While her successes on the racetrack led to her being lauded by the press, Margaret said she has always felt dogged by the frequent comments that she rode like a man.
“I always felt I had an innate understanding of the machine, it was as simple as that. I loved the sport and still do. The fact that I am a woman is immaterial.”
But Margaret’s life has not wholly centre on the track. In what she calls her other life, she is a psychologist and environmentalist. She founded The Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook and is a well-known champion of the Great Barrier Reef.
Her life has not always been a dream run. In 2016 she discovered she couldn’t control her foot, which led to spinal surgery. She was back riding three months later. She also has a problem with her wrist.
Still, she plans to keep racing as long as she retains her grip. “I have been asked if I’d like to repeat history and race a Mach111, now a classic bike, at Phillip Island again. That is a challenge I really hope I’ll be able to take up.”
