opportunity to find out the smartest way to do just that. With a couple of hundred people there on site, pretty much any question could eventually be answered with a few conversations. Often there are a few tall tales intertwined but that is classic racing … Speaking of generations, the sidecar fraternity have a bunch of families out on the rigs together. Special mention must go to Neville Mickleson and his daughter, Jo Franzen, for performing an almost perfect front-flip after sliding wide in a bend. The well-known Matchless sidecar outfit hit the kitty litter and flipped, landing back on its wheels, beached but upright. Nev was in the ward with me with a broken collarbone, but Jo was back racing the Velocette Venom solo for the rest of the weekend – good effort, Jo.
RACES WITHIN RACES For those new to classic racing, the different coloured number boards on the grid denote different classes within the period and separates early factory race machines from what were called Clubmans, as in affordable machines available to club racers. All a bit confusing until you open the fabulous program that explains all things to virtually all people – any of the people in the pits can help with any questions, just rock on up and ask. Right, enough nostalgia and warm fuzzies, to see the results of the 45 events, head to marktime. co. nz / results / nz-classic-motorcycle-racingregister / 2025 to see who came where. It is a fantastic site to use and they cover tons of events, so bookmark it to stay up to date.
Les Harris hits the‘ ton’
34 KIWI RIDER