Matt Compton

Written by Matt Compton
October 2021

My Journey with Prototype #2

I came into this story almost by accident …

Early Motorcycle Days

As soon as I could get my motorcycle licence at 17 y/o I bought my first bike, a Suzuki GN250. I must admit to some disappointment in the performance of this bike and quickly upgraded after six months to a Suzuki GS1000; slightly skirting the law that required me to stay on a provisional 250cc licence for 12 months. I kept that bike upgrade under my hat a little, seeing as my father was a high ranking police officer.

When I graduated high school I began working for Australia Post as a motorcycle postie on a Honda CT110; it was a surprising amount of fun. My plan at the time had been to move into Information Technology as I was attending college night classes. Just as I finished my diploma, my brother Steve approached me with an opportunity. He had always wanted his own business and had found a small motorcycle shop that was for sale. He wanted us to buy the business together; I would run the shop and he’d stay in his job as an accountant, whilst managing our bookkeeping after hours. What young motorcycle nut would say no to this plan?

Thankfully I had never used any of my holiday pay during the 3.5 years I had been with Australia Post, so I scraped together my accrued holiday pay plus all my savings, and with some extra help from Dad as a silent partner we made the purchase. This was the motorcycle business started by Brook Henry, of Vee Two Australia fame; originally called Webrook Ducati, though with a recent name change to Webrook Motorcycles.

Webrook Motorcycles

We purchased Webrooks from Clive Brannan in 1992 and Clive stayed on for a month to teach me how to run things. Clive had bought Webrooks from Brook Henry, after Brook’s decision to sell the retail arm of Vee Two Australia and concentrate on his engineering, development and manufacturing. At the time, Brook still had the factory unit directly behind and we’d chat regularly and often purchased his bevel-drive Ducati performance parts.

Webrooks didn’t have an official Ducati dealership, it just specialised in looking after Ducatis, but it was still a great set up. We were lucky to snag a versatile Italian mechanic, Gavin Carlini, who had vast experience in all makes and models of motorcycles. Gavin brought a lot of business to the workshop with his many bike-riding friends. He had won the 1993 Australian drag racing championship on his slick, and exquisitely tuned, Honda VFR750 which was often his daily ride. Gavin also became the pilot for our shop’s Ducati 900SS racebike in the 1993 & 1994 seasons of the WA Thunderbike championships.

Owning and managing Webrooks was a dream position for me. My prior motorcycle experience was limited to riding my two Suzukis, the postie bike, a handful of 250cc demo bikes and my mate, Seth’s, 1981 Katana 1100. I’d never experienced an Italian motorcycle prior to Webrooks and I was about to fall in love.

The Italian Experience

I immediately took to the Italian machines, astounded at what I’d been missing. I loved the experience of riding the big V-twins and thought I would never own anything else. I loved the bevel drive GT750, 750SS, 900SS, MHRs and Darmahs that came through the doors. I loved the Pantahs and the new belt-drive SS, if it was a Ducati, in my eyes, it was perfect. My first personal purchase was a 1989 Ducati 750 Sport; the previous owner had spent nearly $10,000 on performance upgrades through Vee Two and it was a rocketship, I loved it! I also planned to build myself a 900 Darmah from the vast array of second-hand spares Webrooks had stashed in the loft; regretfully I never found the time.

Ted Stolarski

About 12 months after taking over Webrooks we received a phone call from Ted Stolarski. I hadn’t met Ted and was unaware of his stature in the Moto Guzzi world and the wider Australian motorcycling community. I especially had no idea what a legend he was to so many Guzzisti in Australia and beyond. Unbeknownst to us at the time, Ted was starting to have health issues and was trying to scale back his involvement in retail to focus on the importing and wholesaling of his beloved Guzzis. 

Ted had received great feedback regarding our customer service through the grapevine, but due to our newness in the industry he was understandably cautious. Initially he approached us about putting Moto Guzzis in our showroom. At first we were hesitant as we didn’t have the credit to place a bunch of new Guzzis on bridging finance; but Ted explained there would be no cost, he’d supply the bikes on consignment and give us a percentage of each one sold. So we gladly said yes and thus began our connection with Ted and Moto Guzzi. 

Prototype #2

Things went really well for us selling Guzzis and supporting their very passionate owners, and in late 1993 Ted sent over his second prototype Magni-Guzzi “Australia” for us to campaign in the 1994 season. Chris Cooke, a friend of Gavin’s, was given the ride. So now we were punting two Italian beauties around Wanneroo Raceway. The ’94 season was a very successful one for Moto Guzzi in WA; Nick Phillips placed 1st on Ted’s C-Kitted Daytona in the state Thunderbikes Championships and Chris on Ted’s Magni-Guzzi came in second.

I was smitten by the large Guzzi and its raw, brutish, muscular engine, nothing else compared! I started riding Guzzis and they just got in my blood. I knew for certain that if I could only ever own one motorcycle it would have to be a Guzzi. Strangely, I could traverse the twists and turns between the shop and my home faster on a 1987 V65 Lario than on a 1992 Ducati 900SS. I have no explanation other than there was some merging of bike and rider, my brain harmonising with the Guzzi beat! I got my racing licence as quick as I could.

During the ’94 season I would head out as much as possible for a private midweek track sessions at Wanneroo Raceway. In those days you could pay for a half-day practice for about $50. You never knew who might be out there, it was the luck of the draw. It could be other bikes, race cars or even racing go-carts; a few times I was the only one there.

Ted’s Tricks

Ted would often come out to the track and give me riding advice for P2. I remember him saying, “Don’t worry about the tacho, just trust the bike and go by feel”, and, “You don’t need to rev it high as all the torque is pretty low”. It definitely had mountains of torque and this was so perfect for a short track like Wanneroo. It meant no one would ever beat me out of the corners or especially off the starting grid. Ted always said, “Just lean forward and keep your head down off the line. You can launch as hard as you want, just make sure to keep your wheel stand to only a few inches and just drive forward hard”. So I did … and it was magnificent! Every race I’d be jumping a row or two of riders from the start and into the first corner. I loved it!

Ted was proud of his personal modifications and improvements to P2. He told me, “I’ve specially modified the dogs in the gearbox to give a very smooth gear change with no false neutrals, a perfect shift!”. He instructed, “Except for the start, don’t use the clutch for the rest of the race, not to upshift or downshift. When you’re ready to shift up just back the throttle a tiny bit and when downshifting give the throttle a little blip”. This was new to me, I’d not had any kind of racecraft training and didn’t know you could even shift without the clutch. I followed Ted’s advice to the letter and it was brilliant, never missing any gears or hitting any false neutrals, it was as smooth as butter. It was the slickest changing Guzzi gearbox I’d ever experienced, as good as any Ducati or Japanese motorcycle I’d ridden.

Ted wanted the best brakes available when P2 was built; so he sourced Brembo Goldline Racing 4-spot callipers with 320mm full-floating Brembo rotors. He said, “I’ve put grand-prix spec brakes and suspension on this bike and it has the uprated frame, with the racier steering angle. I’ve done a lot of the weight reduction myself and it’s 30kg lighter than our race Daytona; we can put all the latest slicks on this one too!” He’d say to me, “No other bike out here has brakes as good as this, no other bike here can outbreak or out corner you! It’s you that should do that to them! Every time, every time!”. And, it was exactly as he said, I don’t recall anyone ever overtaking me under brakes into the corners at Wanneroo even though I was such a novice. I could always make up ground or overtake other riders. It infuriated some of the Ducati pilots in the field to have a shaft driven bike beat them, but I was beaming!

Settling The Suspension

Ted also fitted really top-spec fully-adjustable WP Racing upside-down front forks and WP Racing shocks for the rear; it was beautifully sprung! The WP suspension was amazing, with three levels of adjustment on the front and the rear; although, I must admit, I had no idea how to set up a racebike’s suspension. Even though I was clueless, thankfully serendipity was on my side. On one particular occasion I was at a practice day by myself and Russell Gidley (Owner of Kawasaki Northside) showed up on his mighty green machine. Russell and I chatted in the pits after a few sessions of practice and I shared with him how I couldn’t keep the front wheel down over the top of the hill on the back straight. It felt like the Magni just wanted to launch into orbit!

Russell said, “It sounds like your suspension needs some fine tuning”. Confessing my total lack of knowledge, he offered to sort it for me. Russell did a few laps, going in and out of the pits making multiple adjustments. After finishing his fettling he proclaimed, “Wow, that thing is amazing! Not what I expected at all … here, try it now!”. I went back out again and the bike was just perfect; into corners, on and off the gas, it was so solid and just took anything I threw at it. Russell’s adjustments alone allowed me to drop from running 67 second laps times down to my record of 64. I believe the top runners in the Thunderbikes that year were running in the 62 to 63 second range.  

Back then, I had no concept of the significance of Ted’s prototypes; no idea I was racing around on such a unique dual-prototype machine, one of only two in the world! Ted’s bike was the magnificent merger of an extremely rare Daytona 4V prototype engine plus Arturo & Giovanni’s  uprated Magni Australia prototype frame all rolled into one amazing bike! I’m sure my lap times would have suffered dearly had I known what I was punting around.

Moving Into Stolarski’s

Over time, Ted was very happy with the relationships we fostered with his Moto Guzzi customers; this was of utmost importance to Ted as his customers were like dear friends or extended family. Thus in ’94 he approached us with the final stage of his plan, explaining that he wanted to take a smaller role in Moto Guzzi retail and asked if we would take over the WA retail arm and move into the front half of his building. Ted and Dulcie (Mrs S) would keep the Australian Import arm of Moto Guzzi running from the back half.

We’d visited Ted many times at Stolarski’s Motorcycles since our collaboration, and the premises were huge. There were two levels and it was at least ten times the size of our little factory unit! It had previously been a smallish Bunnings hardware store, and every Aussie knows how big Bunnings stores are! We explained to Ted that we were very honoured with the offer but didn’t think that this would be possible for us financially. 

The rent would be a massive increase, let alone taking over the stock of spares plus new and second hand bikes and accessories! Ted replied, “Look, I own the building outright, I won’t make the rent much over your current factory unit”. He continued, “There’s almost no spares for you to take on either as we keep the full stock of parts in the back, you can order any item you need daily and just take a few steps to our side and pick up the order. There’s only a small amount of accessories plus the bikes and workshop equipment”. For only 10% more than our current rent Ted was offering us the front half of his building; upstairs for our showroom, accessories and retail sales, and downstairs for our parts storage and mechanical workshop area. We shook on the deal.

Ted’s Passing

Sadly in September 1994 Ted passed away just a very short time before we were scheduled to move in with his team, it was such a shock to lose him to his illness. Ted had sought treatment in an underground salt mine/sanatorium in Poland to try and leach the lead from his body. Regrettably this didn’t work … the world lost a great man … His family lost their anchor … and I lost a father figure, mentor and friend. Moto Guzzi in Australia would never be the same with the loss of Ted Stolarski. He had such a beautiful connection with people; his customers and the Moto Guzzi factory loved him, anyone who ever met Ted admired him.

What should have been an exciting time ended up a heavy-hearted and subdued transition for everyone as we moved over from Webrook Motorcycles to Stolarski’s. In the process we also renamed the retail side of Moto Guzzi WA to Pro-Italia. We shared the building with Dulcie Stolarski and her staff who managed the import and wholesale. Dulcie and I became fast friends and talked often, she was quite the character herself; Dulcie and Ted had been a wonderful team.

Ted and I got very close during his last 2 years, I loved hanging out with him. He was so encouraging and good hearted, and the most quirky and endearing person I had ever met. I’d listen as he shared his passion for Moto Guzzis … the simplicity of the design, their superior longevity and ease of maintenance. He’d say, “What other bike can you change the bottom end bearing on in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain using nothing but an Allen key and a spanner?”. Ted was chock-full of great advice and constantly had amazing and, at times, very amusing, stories. He was never lacking time for a chat and always happy and smiling. 

Stolarski’s becomes Pro-Italia

During the takeover of Stolarski’s we surmised we would need three mechanics. We still had Gavin, but we also asked Ted’s senior mechanic, Mario Poggioli, if he would stay on. He eventually declined our offer and decided to strike out on his own and start Thunderbike Motorcycles, which still exists to this day. Ted’s grandson, Clinton Rogers, was a 19 y/o apprentice mechanic at Stolarski’s when we took over and he was a natural fit. Clinton was a great young man and a fantastic mechanic; even at his young age he was very adept at tuning Moto Guzzis. No wonder though, with such amazing teachers like Ted and Mario. 

I also got to know Liz (Dulcie’s daughter) and her husband Derrick who both worked for the import and wholesale arm and supplied us parts multiple times daily. They were great people to work with, so was Dulcie’s general manager, Michael Lusher and her accountant, Robert Lee; all just an incredible bunch. An occasional visitor to the shop was Robert Stolarski, Ted’s son; a wonderful bloke, like his father.

Taking over WA Guzzi retail and all Ted’s stock meant quite an expansion of our business and we required some extra partners. Our oldest brother, Phillip, invested and so did Steve’s best friend Todd plus his father-in-law Baden; we were quite an expanded team. Steve still looked after the accounting, I managed accessories and parts, Todd was bike sales and Gavin and Clinton were our mechanics. My Dad (Jim) and Todd’s father-in-law (Baden) were both retired and would often drop by the dealership throughout the week and help out in many ways. They both also enjoyed coming out and contributing at many of our track days. 

Track Days

After the ’94 race season Chris had repaired his GXR and returned to superbike racing for the ’95 season. We no longer campaigned the 900SS because our distributorship focus was solely on Moto Guzzi, although we also sold Gilera. For the ’95 Thunderbike season we now had Ted’s C-kitted Daytona with Jon Iles, a specialist navy clearance diver in the armed forces, as our #1 sponsored rider. Prior to the start of the season we also put a Daytona front fairing on P2 to make it look even more Daytona-esque; I was sponsored as our #2 rider after taking over the ride on P2 from Chris.

Ted’s Magni Guzzi “Australia” was amazingly fun to ride! When pushing hard I was stunned with how smooth it always was, from the engine to the gearbox, the brakes to the suspension. The handling — incredible, totally surefooted, never unruly. P2 had more grunt and torque than seemed possible, and really could outbrake anything else in the field! I absolutely loved the left hander at Wanneroo and it seemed I could overtake anyone on that corner. I couldn’t believe I had such an amazing motorcycle to ride for my first ever race season, the entire package was just phenomenal !

One way Ted saved weight on his Guzzi race bikes was to remove the starter motor and charging systems. We ran a total-loss ignition system and cycled through two small batteries during the day with one on charge whilst the other was in use. When ready to start the mighty V-Twins, we used a handy Ted invention. Ted had welded two pins on a Guzzi starter which we’d hold in place on the matching holes in the transmission casing. This starter was wired up to a press button, all connected to a large car battery. Holding it in place by hand, we’d press the button and upon firing up the thunderous Guzzi engines immediately remove the starter.

On a couple of Sundays during the ’95 Thunderbike Championship I forgot to pack the starter motor. The entry road to the pits declined slightly and I’d push P2 up that road then attempt to start it rolling back down. I was woeful at bump starting, I failed with nearly every attempt and exhausted myself before the race even started. Luckily for me, Mark Purdy came to my aid. Mark had previously been the ’92 WA Thunderbike Champion on P1 and also had a couple of fateful stints on P2. In ’95 Mark was racing a Triumph, thus my competition; but he was a generous soul and would say, “Here let me help you out!”. Mark would throw his leg over P2, I’d get us rolling on pit road and Mark would just drop his butt on the seat and … Vroooom … P2 would fire up, first time, every time! Back then, we had about three or four races over a Sunday and I succeeded maybe once, ever, to bump start P2. I don’t think I’d have completed half my races if it wasn’t for Mark. Thanks again mate, I wouldn’t have had my results without your selfless assistance!

That year was another great Thunderbike season. Mark Purdy on JCS Motorcycle’s Triumph Daytona 900 Super III won the championship, Jon Iles was 2nd on the Pro-Italia Moto Guzzi Daytona and I was 3rd on the Pro-Italia Magni-Guzzi prototype (P2). It was my first year racing and I was pretty stoked with the results. 

I think Ted’s advice to me plus his faith in P2 may have made me a little overconfident. My good mate and pit crew that day, Seth Watts, told me that the race commentator once opined, “This new guy, Matt Compton, is going too fast, too soon, for his level of experience. I’m worried how this will all end!”. Thankfully for me I never crashed P2, maybe that was due to only racing for one season, or maybe it was just dumb luck. Thinking back, it may have even been providence. Every Raceday Sunday I would invite my mum to come watch the racing, but she always said, “No, I’m going to stay home and pray until I’ve heard it’s all over and you’re safe and home!”. Maybe that’s where my “luck” came from …

Except for one day when I really did think my luck had run out. Of course there’s always that “one day”. Early in my first season it’s possible I’d gotten a little overconfident or more likely I was starting to believe my own bullshit. Thoughts like, “Hey, maybe I’m a naturally gifted rider, and somehow I can take that, aforementioned, left hander quicker than anyone else!”. I was the newest competitor and so I’d usually start at the back of the grid. To quickly get to the front I took a lot of chances in braking and cornering and I especially pushed P2 on Wanneroo’s left hander … faster and faster and wider and wider until I started overtaking multiple riders at once. My lack of experience soon showed as I wasn’t aware all the sand and muck and old balled-up bits of rubber gets pushed out wide on the track, way-off the racing line. In my euphoria of how quick I could traverse my favourite corner I was eventually taught a lesson. 

One race I attacked the left hander at almost twice the speed of the guys in front of me, I was feeling great and could’t believe how much quicker I was taking the corner. I thought, “I’m gonna make it past all three of them !!!” But then … I lost the rear, and it wasn’t just by a little! The rear slid round almost 90 degrees and then bit, and it bit hard. It bucked me up into the air … the beginnings of a massive high-side. I was so startled, my legs heading to the sky, that I just keep white-knuckling the hand grips. Miraculously, P2 shook off the high-side, stayed upright and I somehow managed to land half on the tank and half on the seat. My left knee knocked the carby completely off and I made a rather sheepish and shaky exit from that race as a temporary 500cc. Thankfully I didn’t take anyone else out and there wasn’t a scratch on me or the bike. All that was wounded was my pride and that was definitely a good thing! All in all, it was a great year and I was extremely lucky to have experienced a full season with no offs and no injuries!

Purchasing P2

During the 1995 season Dulcie approached me with some touching words, “Ted saw you like a son and I know he’d love you to have the Magni, can you afford to buy it?”. I felt so honoured, I loved Ted and Dulcie, they were both so kind to me. Without hesitation I said, “Yes, I’d be delighted!”. So I proceeded to scrape together every cent I had to buy P2 from Mrs S.

Leaving The industry

Early in 1996, I’d been knocked off my Ducati by a car doing an illegal turn, so I was out for the start of the Thunderbike season due to a broken right wrist. During this year Todd and Baden made a buyout offer and after some negotiations my family decided to leave the bike industry. I definitely missed Dulcie & Clinton and all the special people we worked with; and the many great times and talks I had with the Guzzisti.

After exiting the bike industry, I decided to head into full time studies. I enrolled at ECU, initially in Psychology but after one semester switched into Software Engineering, so there was no longer money for bike racing. I also had some health struggles, another motorcycle accident and a car accident. With these different life events and P2 being garaged since 1996, I considered letting it go when Russell Aylward made me an offer in 1999. He planned to compete in the USA BOTT series for the 2000 season. An agreement was forged, Russell freshened up P2 and took off to the USA.

After a rollercoaster of unforeseen events Russell’s season in America was cut short. Although I felt really sorry for Russell’s circumstances, getting the Magni back was a great relief, as I quickly regretted choosing to sell. Russell was a very trustworthy bloke, and P2 was safely shipped from Florida back to me in Perth in late 2000. Since then it has been stored in Mario Poggioli’s Thunderbikes showroom. Mario and Ted go way back, they were very close, so he enjoys having one of Ted’s original prototypes in his showroom. When offered any storage fee he says, “No, no, no. It’s a great bike to have here, lots of history and a wonderful talking point to have around when the local Guzzi crowd drop by for a chat”.

Mario stores a number of his customer’s bikes for free in his showroom and when they return from working away he preps them for the riding season and afterwards, back they go. He’s got that old-style customer care and quickly becomes fast friends with the Guzzi faithful. Mario has been more than generous with looking after P2 for nearly 20 years. Whenever I’ve considered parting with P2 in the past and asked what he would want as a commission for facilitating a sale he just replies, “Buy me a beer and we’ll call it even!”. Mario is Perth’s one-stop Guzzi solution and I highly recommend any current or future Guzzi riders to drop in and have a chat, you can’t go wrong!

P2 Visits P1

During the last couple years since creating the Magni Facebook Group, it’s been a pleasure to talk to folks who were involved with Ted and his bikes. It's been wonderful to reconnect with old friends, and make new ones. Over a year after reconnecting with Barry Jones, the maestro of Italian Motorcycle Engineering in Melbourne and the owner/caretaker of P1 since late 1994, I decided in February 2020 it was time to get P2 running again. So in early March we shipped P2 over to Barry. Who better than an engineer and an expert in all things Italian to work on Prototype 2! Not to mention his 25 years experience with the only other bike like P2 in the world; with the same prototype 4V-OHC Daytona engine and a very similar prototype Magni “Australia” frame. 

First Fire-Up in 20 Years

Awaiting Display

There were tentative plans to display both P1 and P2 at Broadford Bike Bonanza (Victoria) for Easter 2020. Barry would unveil P1 with its restored original livery and rebuilt engine, and I would show the first running of P2 in 20 years. It would've been sensational to have both of Ted’s prototypes running around the same track again together, the last time they raced side-by-side was in 1993! But alas, it was not to be, the Bonanza was cancelled due to the corona virus outbreak. So for now P1 and P2 are sharing a stable and eagerly anticipating their time out in the sunshine again. I can’t wait.


Thank you Ted !

I am always amazed and honoured that such a unique piece of Moto Guzzi and Magni history has ended up in my hands. I’m so grateful to Ted for the positive influence he was to me in my earlier years and for his encouragement and love. Never forgotten.