Mulligan rides high at Old Bike Aus Challenge

Well known print industry identity Mitch Mulligan, managing director of Böttcher, has won the Old Bike Australasia Challenge – Formula 750cc, and he came third in another race at the event this month.

Mulligan admits that he’s always had a passion for motorbikes. He started building them when he was a teenager, and raced production motorbikes until 1991 when he left the circuit to help raise his family.

And what many not know is that prior to his role in this industry, he worked as national marketing manager for Norm Fraser Imports, then importer of Ducati & Cagiva.

In 2009, he became a racing club member of the Post Classic Racing Association (PCRA) of NSW, and returned to racing on a national level.

“To race motorbikes in Australia, you have to be a member of a Motorcycling Australia affiliated club and apply for a competition license, and then, with the right equipment and the right protective garments, you can jump on board and enter races,” he explains.

“If you've got a senior licence, you can race nationally which is what I did,” he says, confirming that he’s raced as far as Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland.

Mulligan estimates that since 2009 he has entered around six to eight races annually, of which at least three have been major national race meetings.

In addition to the two class wins that he won this month in the Old Bike Australasia Challenge, he has also won two Australian titles, and one in NSW, in the Period 5- 500 class at Queensland and Eastern Creek.

“I’ve also achieved around three class wins at Phillip Island over the years, along with several club championships,” he says, explaining unassumingly that he thinks that he has “just been lucky” to have won the races he has entered.

Mulligan admits that a highlight of is his racing calendar is The Australian Motorcycling International Island Classic, held in Phillip Island every January. It is the nation’s largest historic motorcycle race and the third largest motorcycling event on the Australian calendar behind the MotoGP and World Superbike events.

“We love this getaway,” he says. “It is my favourite track and to me it feels like I’m going home each year when I‘m back there.”

When Mulligan is not racing in his spare time, he can be found in his shed building motorbikes.

“The plan is to keep riding as long as I possibly can,” he says.