The only woman to beat a man in a speed race on equal terms is recorded in Greek mythology, when the fleet-footed Atalanta told her many ardent suitors: “Catch me if you can and I’ll marry you”. But none could.

Finally, a cunning bloke called Hippomenes rolled “golden apples” in front of Atalanta when she raced past him, and because diamonds are a girl’s best friend, stopped to pick them up — and the Hippe won.

He was promptly “eliminated” by the gods, for cheating.

Now, Australia has produced her own version of Atalanta, a pretty, brown-eyed lissome blonde, Peggy Hyde of Melbourne.

At the three-mile Phillip Island GP circuit, Peggy became the first woman in Australia (if not the world) to win a high-speed race against male competitors.

(Peggy had already become the first woman in the world to be granted an Open Competition Licence, in 1967 – Ed.)

In the six-lap Senior C-grade event, on her 500cc three-cylinder Mach III Kawasaki (with the headlamp removed to comply with regulations), Peggy soundly trounced a field of 90 men, many on pukka racers with streamlined fairings, to win with 15 seconds in hand.

And to prove that none could catch her, she returned the fastest C-grade lap at 2m 21s (77 mph).

“A first-time fluke,” bleated some of the red-faced he-men.

So Peggy, again on her Kawasaki, went to the Victorian TT meeting at Calder Raceway a month later – and scored another win!

In the final of the Unlimited C-grade race, over six laps against some 30 men, Peggy was slow off the mark.

The little lady just hadn’t the muscle power to heave a big bike into motion for a clutch start as quickly as the men.

But within three laps. she had swept past the entire field except the leader. It was the race of the day for the crowd, as they watched Peggy close in on the only man left to beat.

Together they rushed into the “S” bends at the top of the course.

Without hesitation, Peggy swept round him on the outside of the corner to take the lead.

The poor man, so startled, all but ran out of road, on to the grass.

Peggy went on to another clear win and again returned the fastest lap of the race, at 58 seconds for the mile.

Trevor Negri, veteran race commentator, who had described her gallant riding all the way in the race exclaimed: “It’s the greatest exhibition of riding I’ve seen at this circuit for years,” and everyone there agreed.

At the 1.5-mile Symmons Plains track, near Launceston, last year, Peggy, again riding her 500 cc three­cylinder Kawasaki standard machine, won her third open race against the men.

She took the Unlimited C-grade race, run as part of the Isle of Tasmania TT meeting, by a clear margin and returned fastest lap in the race at lm 15s (approx 73 mph).

Peggy Hyde on the same day also scored a third place in the Unlimited B-grade race on her Kawasaki, and a fourth in another event.

But don’t get the idea that this groovy female motorcyclist has hit the top of the ladder in two short races.

In fact Peggy has been racing motorcycles for the past 18 months at circuits from Surfers Paradise in Queensland to Mallala in South Australia and including Winton Park and Hume Weir tracks in Victoria.

With each race her riding has improved and her results — from 10th to third — to bring her into the public eye.

In my over 20 years association with the sport, there has been no record, anywhere in the world, of a female beating men in a motorcycle or car speed race.

The best speed achievement I can recall is that of a Miss Schilling who, before the last war, won a “Gold Star” by circling the now non-existent Brooklands banked race track, near London, at 100 mph on a 500 cc Norton. (The only Aussie to gain this distinction is Denis Minett of Melbourne, the old Lobethal, South Australia, circuit record lap holder at just over 90 mph, who also lapped Brooklands on an ohc Norton at over 100 mph.)

After her Phillip Island “first”, Peggy Hyde received an air letter from a Miss Anke-Eve Goldman of Wiesbaden, West Germany.

Anke-Eve, a school teacher, was thrilled to read the cabled report of Peggy’s win on the front page of a UK motorcycle paper.

Anke-Eve, who has been riding and racing a BMW twin since 1955, said it “was sheer music in my ears to read that a girl has won a road race against men”.

Anke-Eve said she had raced on such famous European circuits as Zandvoort (Holland), Hockenheim and Nurburgring (Germany) in races “for women only”.

But, she added, “They were strictly unofficial and the public was not admitted to the track to see the race because of the risk that an accident would have resulted in ugly headlines in the daily press!”

The only official women’s motorcycle race, Anke-Eve said, was in the Soviet Union.

(Note: Women were permitted to race against men in the Isle of Man TT meeting but were limited to only the three-lap, 50 cc TT. The ACU of GB evidently did not consider it safe for a girl to race an engine bigger than 50 cc!

That race has now been abandoned. An Aussie, Barry Smith of Melbourne, was the last winner in 1968, riding a Spanish two-stroke Derbi.

It could be the thin edge of a very tricky wedge, or a great leap forward in the sport, depending on your point of view — or sex.

But there’s no denying that Peggy’s wins against seasoned race men are something of a landmark.

Peggy Higginbottom was introduced to motorcycles about seven years ago when, as a Melbourne University music student, she was in need of cheap transport.

Her fellow students told her to contact Julian Hyde, a Maths scholar who rode his bike to “the shop” every day.

Julian, who fell for Peggy at first sight, took her to a nearby park and started her off on his bike.

He never got it back, so claimed her hand in exchange!

Later, the married couple travelled far and wide, each on their own bike, with Peggy becoming an ardent two-wheel enthusiast.

Next, to assist the family finances, Peggy took a city job as a despatch rider on a scooter, but it had a sudden ending with a car (driven ironically, by another female) and put paid to Peggy’s ambition to become a concert pianist.

Despite this, she still plays the organ and piano (with her wrist injury now mended) and hopes soon to sit for her Bachelor of Music degree.

She also loves touring the country on a motorcycle. She has been to Lightning Ridge and her last long trip was a 4000-mile jaunt from Melbourne to Mackay in North Queensland on a 750 cc Norton twin.

She went alone as Julian, a systems analyst with a computing firm, was not free to go.

Now a competent motorcyclist, Peggy decided to join her husband in the sport of racing a motorcycle.

But she was in for a rude shock. After owning several machines of varied engine sizes, Peggy had developed a preference for a big engine.

Imagine her disgust when the ACU of Victoria said the rules limited ALL women in road racing to a mere 250 cc capacity.

Gamely she tried, on a stock standard Suzuki, to keep abreast in this highly competitive class of riders on bikes with super-tuned engines.

Finally the ACU relaxed its engine size ban and success, with the big 500 cc Kawasaki, was almost immediate.

To her credit, Peggy has never crashed in a race and mechanical breakdowns are the cause for her few race retirements.

With each race she acquires more experience and she can now match her ability in cornering and braking with the best of men.

Her secret, of course, is that she is one of the lucky ones in sport — any sport — who, from the start, are endowed with a natural aptitude to do things the right way and to improve with careful self-judgment and observant study of the top riders in action.

Although Peggy leaves her machine and engine preparation to those more qualified (her motors are Lindsay Love-tuned, as the inscription on her tank reveals), she is highly conversant with the inner workings of power units, so she races with a “feel” for her motor.

Today, most men on the starting grid do not think twice about Peggy as one of their opponents — indeed, dressed in similar leathers and a helmet, she is difficult to recognise, except for a smooth, pretty face behind the racing goggles.

She thoroughly enjoys the battle in each race, competing in as many as seven or eight races at any one meeting.

But she has now reached the stage when she yearns for a real racer.  At Winton Park, with its many corners, she remarked: “The Kawasaki mega­exhausts scrape the track on corners and I have to squirt it up the straight to make up for lost ground!”

You might think that being brilliant at motorcycle racing and music would be plenty for anyone. But at her hillside home at Emerald, in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, Peggy breeds prize-winning Toggenburgs, goats noted for their massive milk production.

And, as if that weren’t enough, she and her husband have another hobby. When it is convenient, they ride off to the mountains to become amateur miners and dig for opals.

Then think what might happen if Peggy were to take it into her head to give up all her other distractions and really concentrate on motorcycle racing!

By George Lynn, Two Wheels, June 1970.

Statement from Motorcycling Australia

Motorcycling Australia is mourning the passing of 82-year-old Peggy Hyde, who cut a swathe through local road racing in the 1960s and 1970s, setting precedents and benchmarks for female participation in what was then a male-dominated sport.

The Melbourne-raised Peggy (or Margaret Moorhouse to others) began road racing at Winton in 1967 (sharing a Suzuki T20 with her partner, Julian) on an open competition licence – the first woman in the world to do so.

A couple of years later she purchased a Kawasaki H1 triple, which could be a tricky proposition at the best of times, but in her first meeting at Mallala she rode it to the event to run it in and finished sixth in the Senior GP – taking home three bucks prizemoney!

In 1970, she really started to form a potent combination with the H1, and in the Harvey Wiltshire Memorial meeting at Calder star duo Ken Blake and Peter Jones both crashed trying to keep Peggy in their sights.

By the late 1970s Peggy’s life was moving on from racing – sailing and the tropics became a huge passion – but she did make an appearance at the 2014 Broadford Bike Bonanza riding the ex-Mike Hailwood Ducati 750SS using her 40-year-old leathers!

Peggy also became a staunch advocate for environmental causes in far-north Queensland, as well as continuing to champion a variety of female issues, particularly domestic violence.

Vale Peggy: a true trailblazer for women in motorcycling and someone who lived life with absolute conviction.

Old Bike Australasia magazine’s Jim Scaysbrook wrote an excellent piece on Peggy’s life and career in 2020. You can read it here

Peggy herself gave this brief interview to the ABC as part of its 2023 New Year coverage in Queensland, and in 2021, as part of its Women in Motorcycling series, Motorcycling Australia did this feature length interview.