BURT MUNRO CHALLENGE REPORT

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Southland’s Burt Munro Challenge is getting bigger – not to mention better – with each passing year. Big Dave has the story.

WORDS & PICS: Big Dave

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ROAD FEATURE BURT MUNRO

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t was my third trip to the annual ‘Challenge but a first for The Copilot. This time the good folks from Venture Southland got us as far as Christchurch and then we rode down to Invercargill on a fabulous Victory Vision test bike.

This was the first time either of us had ridden to the Challenge and it’s fair to say that the weather gods seemed hell-bent on making us remember it, battling, as we did, severe gales all the way from Dunedin, and conditions as we crossed the final flatlands out to Bluff for the first event of the 2009 programme, could only be described as atrocious.

However, however, however, it’s all the about the journey isn’t it, and

believe you me the journey didn’t disappoint.

Burt Munro won the Bluff Hill Climb in 1940, with a record time, and this year the event was included on the BMC programme, for the first time, on the Thursday afternoon.

TOUGH AT THE TOP I was seriously wondering if it would even be held at all given the conditions, but when we got to the venue we found that the tar-sealed 1.4km section was on the leeward side of the hill and the race was held in a stiff breeze with occasional sunshine and a few passing showers, while conditions at the top and on the other side of the hill were Antarctic.

Not exactly ideal to be pinning a lightweight Supermotard or F1 machine into the teeth of either, but the competitors hardened up, Southern Man style, and attacked it.

There was a reasonable crowd in attendance to witness the spectacle too.

Southland local Jason Feaver emulated Burt by taking his Honda CR500 to a new record time of 49.01 seconds for the overall win and the under 600cc class trophy as well.

Aaron Green from Gore rode his Kawasaki ZX-10R to the top of the hill – and the podium for the open class win with a time of 50.11 seconds. Shane Livingston was second and Andrew Stroud (making his first appearance at the BMC) took third on his Gixxer thou KIWI RIDER 47

ROAD FEATURE BURT MUNRO in what was also his first Hill Climb.

Kevin Ryan’s Bonneville was quickest up the hill in the Classics class and Tim George took the Quads in another first for the event. The four wheelers were quite spectacular going up the gradient, with several seriously crossed up moments in the action.

The event was an interesting addition to the Challenge itinerary and we headed back to Invercargill nicely

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entertained and with the mother of all tail winds. We then settled in to the Kelvin Hotel in the city for a few days.

AN EVENING WITH AARON & ANDREW The entry on Thursday evening’s calendar was ‘An evening with Aaron Slight and Andrew Stroud’ put on by the Southland Motorcycle club at the Ascot Park conference centre.

It’s a nice facility and it was great to hear these two Kiwi legends talking about their careers in a relaxed environment. They fielded questions from the floor into the evening. Andrew even plugged in his laptop and showed the crowd some of his best crashes projected on the big screen.

Aaron’s recounting of taking a pair of handlebars into the operating theatre to make sure his reconstructive surgery

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Gale-force westerly winds might have called off the Beach Racing on Friday but it didn’t stop the Bluff Hill Climb on Thursday or the street race meeting at Wyndham on Sunday.

(Rught) Quads – this one piloted by Tim George – supplemented the twowheel entry in the Hill Climb up Bluff Hill. Special guests (below) over the Challenge weekend were road-racers Andrew Stroud and Aaron Slight. And Roger Donaldson’s new multi-media (book/DVD) project on Burt Munro was officially launched at the event.

would accommodate a twist grip and Andrew’s recounting of the last days of his friend John Britten were amongst the sometimes emotional, but mainly good fun, highlights.

They are two great ambassadors for the sport and any aspiring racer should look at the way Andrew Stroud serves his sponsors for a textbook lesson on how it should be done.

NEW BOOK ON BURT Also featuring in the presentation was the launch of a new book ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ By Roger Donaldson.

The cover note reads ’Burt Munro – A Scrapbook of his Life’ and it was introduced by Burt’s son John at the conclusion of the AS show.

If you have been to the Museum in Invercargill and seen the very interesting Burt Munro exhibit, viewed the photos and wished ‘Gee, I’d like some of them as a keepsake’, then this is $50 you should spend. It’s a simply beautiful publication about this iconic Kiwi and his pals.

Friday’s forecast didn’t look too bad when we made our blog entry before turning in. By the way, you can check out our blog of the trip and hundreds of photos and video by following the ‘Victory Tour’ links on the kiwirider. co.nz web site.

Unfortunately the Friday weather did not understand the forecast and the winds and rain increased in velocity throughout the day.

The Victory was having its oil and filter changed by the most amenable blokes at KB Motorcycles, (212 Bond Street – and they have Kiwi Rider stickers) who informed me that the ‘winds are forecast to reach 145km/h on the sand this afternoon’.

BUGGER! Co-pilot cut the sheeting and I applied the tape as we spent some of the afternoon fabricating the best weather protection for our cameras and equipment we could make – then we hunkered down in a café with the Auckland crew.

When we eventually put ALL of our

gear on and headed out to the beach we knew something was amiss as soon as we turned towards Foveaux Strait.

Oreti Beach is 10 minutes from the hotel and the line of bikes coming back from the beach was as long as the one heading out.

They had all turned back to Invercargill.

‘We can’t keep the cones on the beach.’ And ‘The rain has opened up large ruts in the course,’ one of the marshals told me.

Sounded like all the justification that was needed to call it off.

GOOD ON ‘YA MATE! I love photographing the event – it’s a natural spectacle with sand fl ying and great angles, but I was glad it was canned. It was terrible out there, so we beat a hasty retreat to the Speight’s Alehouse and the promise of better weather for the Sprint Races at Teretonga on Saturday.

Thankfully the forecast was accurate and we got a pretty nice day. Still breezy, but the surrounding pine plantations made a moderately effective wind break for the picturesque circuit.

The fields were large – in excess of 40 motards had to be spilt into classes – and there were big numbers in Formula Three and Classics events.

With the championship season looming, Invercargill is a long way for some of the F1 and F2 teams to manage logistically, but Aces Stroud and Hayden Fitzgerald put on a great KIWI RIDER 49

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firs-rate Southland Motorsports facility to the nearby Oreti Park Speedway, for a full programme of slipping and a-slidin’ on the dirt oval.

The sight was reminiscent of classic British Speedway footage and feature films of the ‘40s, when crowds the size of an All Blacks audience turned out to watch Speedway Racing.

By the time the heats were in full swing conditions were sunny and clear and the crowd was three or four deep all the way around the Oval.

Grant Tregoning defended his Solo A crown, with Dale Finch and 2007 Winner Andy Aldridge separated by a run-off for the minors.

Chopper Bagshaw took the Solo Support win and Pete Stenning won the Classic Solo class.

show in some of the professional heats.

BRITTEN DEMO Andrew also got the Britten out for a few parade laps, much to the delight of the large crowd, and there was no shortage of starters for the ‘Have a Go’ parade laps.

Sidecars (the one leading here is powered by an old-skool Yamaha XS650 twin engine) put on a spectacular show at the Speedway on Saturday night before the party at rally HQ later that evening (and early next morning!!).

Fraser Gillespie and David Uitentuis took the win from a large field of Sidecars.

It was another great spectacle with some big spills. There was a slightly boggy spot between turns three and four which brought a few riders to grief

Nicholas Cole and John Ross also put on some good racing with several lead changes to share the F2 points on the afternoon and James Hoogenboozem stood atop the F3 standings after the heats.

Gavin Veltmeyer was dominant in the Open Supermotards, Mitch Rowe took second place and Darcy Prendergast was third.

Trevor Chapman took the SM2 class with John Crawford second and KR compadre Steven Croad in third.

It was a great day’s racing and the mood in the pits was befitting the celebration with large crowds milling around the Britten (which had its clothes off and was being a bit cantankerous) or they spent time moving amongst the machines and teams and the track.

Other groups were sprawled out around the park-like grounds that surround most of Teretonga and they were taking in some good dicing.

Co-pilot shot some hand-held video of the day which also can be found on the KR web site.

After the big session at Teretonga the large crowd made its way across the 50 KIWI RIDER

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SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE SPEEDWAY

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with some big impacts with the concrete wall. They all got up and walked back to the pits. Hard men.

PARTY TIME At the conclusion of the speedway meeting the crowd drifted back to the rally site in preparation for the night’s big party.

The huge marquee had to be repaired after tearing in the howling winds on Thursday, but was all in good order to host revellers enjoying the bands and a few bevvies late into the night.

Sunday dawned reasonably overcast and still a bit windy. ‘These winds are forecast to last until Christmas.’ The guys at KB had said. I was starting to believe it.

It was still fresh when we got to Wyndham, and the poplar trees surrounding the township were bent in the Westerlies, but the hay-baled streets were protected from the worst of it and another full day’s motorsport kicked off on time.

You get the feeling that apart from the ice cream posters and packaging not much has changed in the General Store in Wyndham since Munro was a boy.

RACING IN THE STREETS Now the biggest event of the year is the Street Racing. The locals move a couch onto the front lawn and the sleepy hamlet is host to competitors charging around its erstwhile quiet avenues at

Sunday saw the riders and spectators head north-west to Wyndham and the street race meeting which – from a spectacle point of view – was dominated by the Motards. That said, one of the most popular entries was Chris Fisken’s Indian – which won the girder class. Burt’s streamliner (not to mention his spirit) was never far from the action...finally, prize for the best ‘backing it in’ performance over the weekend went to our own ‘Croady’s Bling Bike,’ Steven Croad.

breakneck speed. Followed by a caravan of thousands of motorcycles and their riders.

It’s another good party day set to the beat of roaring engines.

Supermotard open class and Brent Scammell won the 450s. Croady was on the podium again too and was easily pulling the ‘best backing it in’ manoeuvers on the day.

Chris Fisken’s Indian looked a peach as always as he ran away with the Girder class classics. Chris McMeeken’s Suzuki again was dominant in the Posties, and the F3 was taken by Bryan Hill.

By the time we were backing the Victory out of its parking spot at the conclusion of the meeting our thirst for motorsport had been well quenched by the Burt Munro Challenge.

The F1 and F2 fields were combined and the 600s proved particularly well suited to the tight street track.

It’s a great, well run event and still the biggest one in Southland. This year was again a credit to the organizers and the Southland Motorcycle club.

Andrew Stroud took the day, but not after some very close racing with Nicholas Cole on his ZX-6R. Gavin Veltmeyer again took the

Can’t wait till next year and a chance to drink it all in again.

Hell of a weekend. KR KIWI RIDER 53