LAUNCESTON'S Michael Dobson enjoyed the best possible start to his campaign at the two-day Phillip Island Classic for historic road racing motorcycles, when he narrowly won the opening race on Westbury mate Grant Boxhall's TZ Yamaha 250.
He beat Stephen Ward, of New South Wales, by .17 seconds to claim the Period 5 race - for motorcycles built between 1973 and 1982.
Boxhall was going to race at the meeting but broke his pelvis at the Tasmanian championships in November and lent Dobson his bike.
Fellow Tasmanians Murray Seabrook and Mick Damon finished the combined Period 4 and Period 5 race fourth and fifth respectively.
Seabrook's fourth place on the track gave him the win in the 1963-1972 Period 4 race.
Ward turned the tables on Dobson in their second encounter, with Seabrook improving to finish third on the track, but first again in the 1963-1972 class. Damon backed up his 250cc fifth place with a fourth and third in the 500cc class.
Riverside's Malcolm Campbell was awarded seventh place in the first of the international challenge races after an incident saw the race red-flagged after three laps.
Campbell was moving up the field in the race when it was stopped and riders were awarded placings according to their race position at the end of the previous lap.
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