Seeing a twenty something getting pressured by a wily pensioner was fabulous , as was the camaraderie between them afterwards . Respect , sure , but no quarter given when the methanol was lit .
HIGHLIGHTS It was a case of too many to cover , literally , with 450 bikes putting on a show of the ages . So a few picked out of the sweet-smelling air would include the obvious ones , like seeing three Brittens and a gaggle of ex Freeth McIntoshes ( plus a couple more ) out on track ( easy to work my age out from that alone ) to the display that was the pit lane . Many of the blue-ribbon classes had nail-biting slipstreaming , hard braking tussles right down to the wire . Sure , the racing was awesome – but with such big fields , that awesomeness flowed throughout the field as some of the sports biggest names from the past and present rubbed shoulders with the community that , fundamentally , are racing . That was the highlight for me . That , and the exotic bikes going at it with some of the winners and second placers separated by hundredths of seconds after swapping the lead multiple times . It was as good as it gets . All smiles afterwards – that ’ s what it is all about . Sad to see ‘ Puke ” go , but my hope is the event has fortified the resolve to make the sport even better in spite of and despite the end of an era .
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES Some of the world ’ s greatest ever racers came and raced at Pukekohe and it was the launching pad for many of our best en route to the world stage . Was it the best track in NZ ? Like old racers discussing how the older you get , the faster you were , it ’ ll be a conversation rolling around in sheds for years . Love it or not , it did have its points of difference . Was it better in its original format ? For the young ones , it used to have another section down the Turn 1 end before it was trimmed to the possibly better known format just before that massive back straight ( have to admit whooping out loud down there a few times ) was curbed by the chicane as raced at the Classic Festival on Waitangi Weekend . Always fast and always
58 KIWI RIDER