27.03.2008
Speedy kiwisCar News /
Bloody plucky. That describes the 227 classic-motorcycle racers who participated in the 29th Classic Motorcycle Festival at Pukekohe Park Raceway near Auckland, New Zealand, Feb. 8-10. What else could you be if you"ve reached the age of knowing better and race your cherished BSA, Norton or Triumph in the rain anyway? Plucky, indeed.
That"s our conclusion after a weekend at this Kiwi-style vintage-racing festival. Some 41 sprint races, six demonstrations and two "regularity" events crowded the weekend program, and most ran without a hitch despite wet weather on Sunday.
Organized by the New Zealand Classic Motorcycle Racing Register every February, the festival might be the purest vintage-bike-racing weekend in the world. From Aermacchi and Ariel to Velocette and Vincent, some 291 machines from between 1920 and 1975 were entered this year, and while most participants were New Zealanders, others came from the United States, Australia, England and Japan.
One was Paul Adams, a retired airline pilot from California, who races his Norton Manx here every year. "At the early Cal Club events, they had cars as well as motorcycles," the former Porsche 356 owner recalled. "When the bike races started, here they came, Nortons with silver tanks leaned over at an incredible angle. That"s what really started my fascination with motorcycles."
Another attendee was Suzuka Motegi from Gunma, Japan, who owns a 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280SL and has been racing classic bikes for 20 years. He shipped his rare "58 BMW Rennsport 500-cc boxer to Auckland to partake in Pukekohe"s convivial atmosphere. "Everyone asks if I am enjoying the racing and the event," he said through an interpreter. "It is different from Japan--here it is more joyous and not as serious."
The guest of honor this year was noted British trials rider and collector Sammy Miller, who brought a replica of a 1957 Gilera four-cylinder and the world"s only running AJS E90 Porcupine, the first motorcycle to win a modern 500-cc world championship, in 1949. Miller gave some insight into why he"s stayed with bikes for so long while others, notably John Surtees and Mike Hailwood, eventually gravitated to four wheels. "I never could afford to get into automobile racing, but I have driven Minis and Formula Two at Oulton Park," he said. "I quite enjoyed it, but I was so focused on what I was doing that I never pursued it."
Another special machine on hand was an exotic V-twin racer developed by New Zealander John Britten, which earned the 1995 BEARS world championship. "The Britten is a home-built that took on the world and showed how it could be done," owner Kevin Grant explained. "The look was so far ahead of its time, and the sound is something that people still can"t believe."
While the Gilera broke its crankshaft early in the weekend, the AJS and the Britten amazed and delighted--as did a four-cylinder 1968 Honda RC181 owned by Digital Instruments cofounder Virgil Elings of California and once raced by Hailwood. (Only three exist; the Honda Museum owns the other two.) When the three bikes fired up for their demonstration laps, the crowd surged and then parted like the Red Sea to let the riders through.
The traditional festival soon will move away from bucolic Pukekohe Park and its grass paddock, where the winter Tasman Series for Formula One cars was once held, with Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2009, scheduled as its last appearance there. Find more information at www.nzcmrr.com.
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