MOTORCYCLE REPORT

If you did not know it, Winter is here – with vengeance! At least Canterbury has not more than doubled its rainfall for the year – yet!!

Past Events

8th June – Old Codger’s Run. June & July’s OCR’s have been cancelled; too bloody cold.

11th June – Restoration of the Year. Congratulations to our Motorcycle Convenor, Paul Ainsworth; he won the motorcycle restoration of the year with his 1976 BMW R100S. It was pleasing to see that the motorcycle class did have more than one entry!

14th June – Motorcycle Section AGM and Noggin. About 50 or so members fronted up, drawn by the promise of a supper after the AGM proceedings. A bit predictable; with the return of all office holders elected unanimously. Office holders are:-

Convenor – Paul Ainsworth

Secretary – Mike Glenday

Treasurer – Royce Baker

Committee – Barry Townshend, John Benn, Graham Barnett, Joseph McClintock, Quentin Wearing, Dave Malcolm, Jens Christensen, Kurt Ebrecht. Hub Scribe – Chris Leith.

The supper did not disappoint – Thanks Royce & Jan!

2023 Trophy winners were:

Tolhurst Trophy – Graham Sword – 1914 Triumph. Oldest vehicle entered on both Branch and Motorcycle Annual Rallies.

Triumph Trophy – Chris Leith – 1969 Bonneville – Best Performance on a Triumph.

Indian Trophy– Alan McLeod – Best Performance on an Indian.

Dave Sparrow Memorial – Jens Christensen – 1979 Honda CB750 – best performance by 4 cylinder.

Miles Family Memorial – Dev Dhurvas – 1952 BSA C110

McGregor Trophy – Peter Lambert – 1956 Triumph – best performance by a PWV bike

24 June – Fish & Chip Run. Cold, wet & miserable. Two turned up, one went home, and the other had a right royal blast out to

Annual Trophy Awards presented at the Motorcycle Section AGM. Award winners from left to right:

Jens Christensen : The Dave Sparrow Memorial Trophy.

Peter Lambert : McGregor Trophy.

Alan McLeod : Best performance on an Indian Motorcycle.

Chris Leith : Triumph trophy.

Graeme Sword : Tolhurst Trophy.

Dev Dhurvas : Miles Family Memorial Trophy.

Ian McKinlay : Presenter of the trophies on the night.

Leeston for lunch, then onto Rakaia Huts, Coes Ford, Selwyn Huts, Lincoln then home. Cool and windy, but dry roads all the way… Thanks Peter Lambert for the report.

Future Events

12th July – Motorcycle Noggin. This will be a dinner meeting at the Richmond Working Men’s Club. Meet there at 6.00 pm for a 7.00 dinner. Need to advise numbers etc., so PLEASE indicate your interest to Mike Glenday, mike.heatherg@xtra.co.nz or 021 192 0581. You all have had a rark-up via my event reminders, but if you are a late starter, still get in touch.

13th July – Old Codger’s Run. Cancelled, but look out for the revival of this event in August.

22nd July – Fish & Chip Run. It has been decided to CANCEL this run, in favour of the Mid-Winter Run next week. For those who do not want an overnight run the suggestion is to join the MWR to travel south, but peel off at any time to return to Ch Ch. One suggestion is the MWR will probably stop in Ashburton; you could return to Ch Ch from there.

29th – 30th July – Mid Winter Run. John Benn is organising, and there will be visits to a couple of collections etc. just to make the trip a bit more interesting. Visits to Geraldine Restorations Ltd and the Geraldine Vintage Car & Machinery Museum are planned on Saturday. Plenty of accommodation in Geraldine; but the Crown Hotel is closed for renovations. Try Andorra Motels or Top 10 Holiday Park… Sunday’s run home will take in the Roger Mahan Heritage Centre. See elsewhere for more info. No shingle. Will boot bums with a reminder about the middle of the month…

9th August – Motorcycle Noggin. At this stage looking at a motorcycle collection to go and view, more details later…

10th August – Old Codger’s Run. Just to ease our way back into OCR’s might do the run to Cust that we tried some time ago but the weather beat us… Route 72 Café Bar and Emporium at Cust. Meet there 10.30 am; tell BS stories then your choice for a lunch venue etc.

26th August – Round the Bays Run. This will also double as the Fish & Chip Run for the month.

That is about it for this month, keep warm!

CML

Ready for the start

What a handful! Harry Dawber in the Pontiac.

May the 28th turned on the perfect day weather wise for a play on our grounds at Cutler Park.

With 19 VCC club members and 8 Holden club vehicles joining us the range of vehicles was varied in age from 1927 through to 2013. We even had 2 motor bikes compete in the 3 test sections. It was good to see a large group of spectators turn up to watch and enjoy the beautiful day.

The first course was based on a Cambelt design with 6 cones placed on the outside circumference with a centre cone in the middle. The idea being to go around each outside cone returning to the centre each time before stopping across the finish line. Being the first test of the day the grass was slightly wet which resulted in some rather untidying driving. Not many of the entrants got the idea of stopping aside the finish line.

The second event was set up like a T where you started at the bottom going up the centre before turning right circling the top section before returning down the centre. The grass had dried out a bit but this did not stop the swarm of Mazda MX5’s covering the spectators in clouds of dust and rubble. With Harry Dawber in the 1965 Pontiac making them jump up and run from their seats on his first run. The final section is known as Ever Decreasing Circles where you start and race up to the furthest cone away before looping back down to where you started before heading back to the second furthest cone and so on. This event allows for lots of speed along the straights and with our bumpy grounds threw a lot of vehicles off their course.

The Holden club seemed to enjoy their day out. Many had never driven their vehicles in anger on a grass paddock but quickly caught on to the concept. The selection of younger members in the MX5 certainly put on a show with wheel spinning 90% of the time and several spin outs around the cones. I don’t think they caught on to the fact that spinning wheels don’t propel you forward.

At the end of the day all this action was in vain as the purpose of this event is regularity. Points are deducted for the time difference between your first and second run. No matter how fast you go, or the better show you put on, it’s consistency that wins the day. All the effort put into adding limited slip diff’s and rally tyres did not count in the end with Pat O’Connell using his years of experience to achieve an almost perfect score in his MGA. A great fun event, utilising our club grounds for a bit of fun.

Fraser Kear