Motorcycle Investor mag
Subscribe to our free email news
Keith
Campbell bio coming soon
Australia’s
first Grand Prix world champion is profiled by Don
Cox
Sep 30, 2025
The first Australian to win a
Grand Prix World Championship on two wheels or
four is to be celebrated in a much-awaited
biography written by renowned motorcycle racing
historian Don Cox.
Keith Campbell, Australia’s
First Grand Prix World Champion is a
well-researched 95,000 word account of Campbell’s
remarkable career featuring many previously
unpublished photographs.
Campbell secured the 1957 World 350 Championship in his debut season with Moto Guzzi, finishing on the podium at the Isle of Man and taking consecutive victories in The Netherlands, Belgium and Northern Ireland. He was the first Australian to win multiple Grands Prix in a calendar year.
Campbell’s world title was the culmination of an eight-year journey from Melbourne teenager welding vacuum-cleaner bodies to finance his racing and solo trips to the famed Isle of Man that launched his career as a Continental Circus rookie at 22 and then successful private entrant.
A fair-minded man, Campbell stood
up for proper payment for private riders at the
1955 Dutch TT. Along with other striking riders,
he was suspended from racing for six months.
Undeterred, he was back racing and winning in
1956, and then piloted Guzzi 350 singles, 500
singles and the fabulous Guzzi 500 V-eight as a
factory rider.
Guzzi’s withdrawal from racing in September 1957
left Campbell without a works ride. He returned to
the privateer ranks for 1958 with plans to head
home to Melbourne and start a business in 1959.
Campbell tragically died in a race accident at
Cadours, France, in July 1958.
Former magazine editor Peter Donaldson, and writer and publishing consultant Jamie McIlwraith have read the full text.
“This is a truly remarkable
biography of the racer, businessman and
entrepreneur who became Australia’s first
motorsport grand prix world champion,” Donaldson
said.
“Talent, bravery, speed, smarts and persistence.
Australia’s first road-racing World Champion Keith
Campbell used all of that to reach the pinnacle of
success,” McIlwraith said. “The man behind the
legendary Circus Life history of
1950s Aussie international motorcycle racers tells
the inspiring yet tragic story of Campbell's
extraordinary career."
Keith Campbell, Australia’s first Grand Prix
World Champion draws on interviews with
Keith Campbell’s family, friends, rivals, team
mates, helpers and travelling mates, reporters and
spectators from the day.
The list of those whom helped
contribute to the book includes Jack Ahearn, Keith
Bryen, Rod Coleman, Geoff Duke, Keith’s brother
George Campbell, key helpers Ron Day and Bob
Edmonds, Eric Hinton, Bob Mitchell, Maurie
Quincey, John Surtees and Vic Willoughby.
Keith Campbell, Australia’s
first Grand Prix World Champion is due for
release in late October, 2025.
Expressions of interest to KRCampbellbook@gmail.com
Or KR Campbell Book, PO Box 356 Haberfield NSW
2045
***
-------------------------------------------------
Produced by AllMoto abn 61 400 694 722
Privacy: we do not collect cookies or any other data.
Archives
Contact