some ogling at the Richardson’ s Transport Museum or a quick spin around the Catlins saw bikes all over Southland before heading to the hallowed sands of Oreti Beach. With sprint races for all classes, it was like peeling back time as the machines, many almost too pretty to be thrashed on the beach( nah... not really), the sounds and smells of decades past were a real highlight for the crowd. Speaking of which, where else do you see crowds and pits with all ages, both road and dirt, shoulder-to-shoulder and supporting each other’ s racing? With one of the classic road bikes putting up a fight to cough into life, it was a couple of young, fit moto lads that provided the necessary boost to get the job done. Smiles all‘ round, it was race time. And when the young guns on their motos let loose on the half-mile straights, backing their machines in from way, way out, almost in Fiordland, it was a thing of beauty with the top riders from both NZ and‘ Straya’ showing how it was done. With none better than Australian ace, Damien Koppe, his luggage allowance flying home was maxed-out with trophies from the sprints as well as NZ’ s oldest motorcycle
competition trophy, won on the epic 50-miler, fresh from the trophy cabinet of Josh Coppins. The flag for the big race was dropped by the producer of the uber-successful and iconic Kiwi movie, The World’ s Fastest Indian, Roger Donaldson, a huge fan and supporter of the event that has grown around the feats of Burt Munro that were encapsulated by the film, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins. Now, Josh loves that trophy, so next year will be interesting as I can’ t see JC not pulling out all stops to fill that conspicuous gap on his mantlepiece. Maybe a bunch more of the Kiwis will join in the scrap to reclaim that piece of our history – we’ ll see.
Road Racing and Speedway Spectacles
With the coveted trophy heading across the ditch for the first time, the Australian supporters were in fine form in the bars across the city, so were a little more subdued come Saturday and the blazing sun at the world’ s southernmost track, Teretonga. With vehicles parked in the outfield right to the
54KIWI RIDER