If there's a heaven....

Then it has to have all the killer motorcycle stuff from this last weekend. Absolutely awesome! A big weekend of racing and events in recognition of Burt Munro, the fastest Indian and a brilliant Kiwi. He took a stock Indian motorcycle that had a top speed around 50 mph, doubled that top speed once, and then doubled it again reaching almost 200 mph. I haven't seen the movie yet but I will, oh yes, I will. And all of you should too!!

On Saturday they held races at Otari beach where Burt used to test out his machine. I only arrived for the final race, a 50 lap endurance race, but it was crackin'. And the wind was howlin'. Along with getting a bit of a sunburn that day I received a nice sandblasting. I'm not sure what other races they had that morning, but this one was pretty cool. Mostly motocross type bikes, but there were a couple of crazies out there on street bikes. Probably only half the field actually finished the race. 50 laps of a mile or so in the sand will definitely take it's toll on any machine. I've got loads of photos and it may only be interesting for those of you with a motorcycle fancy, but it was tons of fun.

The original Burt Munro Indian

Well used Norton

Beach Racing

Bikes around the rally

A little later that day they held 40 minute endurance races at the Taratonga Raceway, the local road track. All sorts of different bikes. I only watched warm-up and two races before moving on to other events at the speedway. The first race consisted of F1 and F2 caliber bikes with quite a mix. I think the dominator was the 996 ducati but there was also a kid out there on a 250 motogp bike. Each bike was required to take a 20 second pit stop so it wasn't all that clear to me who ended up in first, but those two guys were the top finishers the next day at the street races. The second race I watched was FIII with a couple of different classic categories. This field was a crazy mix with probably 50 entrants. It didn't seem at all safe to have so many bikes of such varying capabilities out at the same time. It was going fine for a while, but a crash with about 5 minutes left brought out the red flag. I didn't see it, but I heard that one guy went down with his plastics shredding all over the place and he got up and was walking ok, but another rider, maybe fixated on the crash, went down as well and his bike ended up flipping into the first rider. Needless to say the ambulance was on the scene quickly. Hopefully everyone turned out ok.

Bikes around the racetrack

Practice

A vespa? What the hell??

Ready for the Le Mans start

And they're off!! They had to jump over the fence first.

Pretty good view of the action.

More bikes around the racetrack

Well seasoned veteran. I think I saw the guy on the left racing at the speedway later that day.

I was able to get into both the beach races and the raceway for free somehow, so I figured I could walk back through to the rally. Not the case. I walked about 10 minutes through a field and was turned away because I didn't have one of the badges they give out at registration. Ok. I'll walk around and see how much it costs to get in for real. After about 30 minutes of walking around the long way I was sad to find that it would cost $40. Being the fiscally responsible backpacker that I am I declined the admittance and walked back to the road. Hmm..security doesn't look to tight...what's that? An opening in the brush and a very short fence to hop over? Ok, might as well. Yeah, yeah, don't get on me for breaking the rules, the rally wasn't all that great just a load of bikes with people camped all over. I was definitely the odd duck out, not knowing anyone and not having any sort of bike wear. But it did get me into the speedway for cheap (ok, free) and that was definitely worth it.

The speedway is basically a short oval dirt track that they run quick 4 lap races of either solo or sidecar action on what I'm guessing are standard flat track bikes. The track was banked in the corners so I'm not sure it could be classified as a true flat track, but I'm not too familiar with the sport since it's not run that much (I've only seen it in video). Crazy sport though. These guy are haulin ass around this little track with their rear wheels all over the place. And the sidecar action was really crazy. You wouldn't consider these sidecars if you saw them. They have an additional canted wheel on the outside and the extra guys hangs his whole body off into the corner. I guess it's pretty dangerous and at least one guy dies each year. Did I mention that the track is surrounded by a concrete wall?? It's not only dangerous for the riders, it can be dangerous for the spectators as well. During one of the last races I watched, before the sky opened up and started pissing rain and hail, one of the racers lost a muffler and it flew up and over the wall and into the crowd. Within seconds the people standing near there were beckoning for an ambulance. I heard later that pretty much everyone scattered except for this one poor bloke who just watched the muffled come down and smashed him right in the noggin. Split his head right open and blood was everywhere. Maybe that's why the weather changed so quickly. Someone upstairs was annoyed by the stupidity of some people. But I guess if that were the case it's be raining pretty much all the time everywhere :-) Anyway, with it becoming so wet, so quickly, I made for the main tent at the rally and hung out there for a little while until the rain let up and then hitched a ride back into town. Hitch hiking around here is pretty easy. I got a lift out to the beach and back without having to wait more than a couple of minutes. I think I may try to hitch to the next town instead of take the bus. It's also a great way to meet locals.

More bikes at the rally site

Crazy guys!

Very nice Norton.

More crazy racers.

And the tools of thier trade.

A couple more classics

Yesterday the racing action continued in a neighboring town, Whyndam. This was athentic street racing. Maybe a course that was a little under two miles laid out in the middle of town. Giant hay bales were the only thing separating the races from the audience. Up close action like you wouldn't believe. I'm sure they'd never get away with anything like this back in the states, at least not to this degree. It was just like On Any Sunday the classic motorcycle movie by Bruce Brown with Steve McQueen. Everyone should see this movie. It's a classic by the same guy that made Enless Summer, the epic surf flick. Racing was going on directly outside peoples yards. It was awesome. Bunches of different classes too. F1, F2, F3, Bears (non Japanese makes), pre-'63, pre-'72, pre-'82, and super motord. They ran all the 4 lap races and then started again from the top. We left after the second race of the second go round but I guess they were going to keep going until they ran out of daylight or the weather turned bad. Oh yeah, I got a ride that day from a guy that was staying at the hostel...on the back of his bike. The guy that runs the hostel had an extra helmet so I borrowed that and off we went. I must say, I much, much, more prefer being the operator than the passenger. I think the last time I was a passenger on a bike was sometime in my teens and then only for a short time. It's not that fun and a bit nerve racking.

Street racing in Whyndam. This is just practice. The guy doing the wheelie is on the 250 motogp bike. He couldn't beat the Ducati in the F1 class but did set the record for the fastest lap. Did I mention that the rider is only 18?

In the pits

racing action

The king of the day: the 996 Ducati. Super sweet sounding bike.

The first corner

The man himself. I think the quote reads "You live more in five minutes flat-out on a bike like this than most people do in a lifetime" Word homey.

Super tight Chicane action

Tailgaiting Kiwi style. That's a couch in back of the truck. But I guess they weren't going anywhere all day. They were on the inside of the course.

I don't think you can get much close than this.

Unless you were standing where someone went down. This guy was in 2nd until his fall. He was on a nekkid SV650 trying to chase down a SV650 with full fairings. I guess you have to push it that hard to make up for the aero advantage.

Start of the race. On the second lap of this one three guys plowed into the corner at turn one. Luckily no one was hurt.

Good on ya'.

Super Motard. The guy pulling the wheelie out of the corner was on an Aprilia that completely smoked the competition.

Sport bikes and chicanes and match made in heaven

Turn 1 of the Bears race

Still turn 1. Some pretty big fields.

So I'm still in Invercargill. I want to head over to Stewart Island but the weather has been really spotty, in fact it's hailing like a mother right now. We'll see. I can get a plane ticket on standby for just $105 so it's probably worth it to go no matter what. But Stewart Island is a place one wants to be able to enjoy the outdoors, so we'll see if I can get some sort of update on the weather for tomorrow and the next couple of days. Oh yeah. I had a bit of a scare this morning. My camera's focus stopped working. I though maybe some moisture so I subjected it to a spell with a hair dryer to no avail. I then remembered my mechanical engineering training and gave it a good thump with my finger. Cleared the problem right up :-) I knew those degrees were good for something.