What a wonderful start to the transfer from Pukekohe of the premiere classic motorcycle racing festival in New Zealand. The APS Classic Motorcycle Racing Festival was a weekend of celebration, challenges and extremes as over 300 racers engaged in some close racing in a mix of rain, thunder and lightening on Saturday with sunshine on the Sunday. The weekend started of with a parade through to the town square in Feilding showing a great cross section of the motorcycles that would race that weekend. The town square has probably not experienced such sights and sounds and it certainly brought many of the locals out to support this new event for the town. Unfortunately the weather the following day was not repeated and the riders were given quite a challenge at times and plenty of near miss tales would have been told over a beer or two that evening!
The arrival of sunshine on Sunday saw a great turnout of spectators who came to enjoy a very special day of racing. It was pleasing to see the Blue Hazers amongst the spectators and the competitors. Kim D was out on his Aprilia enjoying his time on the track and sharing tent space with Wayne M from Whanganui who brought along three bikes from his stable. Dion was in support performing "paddock duties" and muttering words that sounded like "I would rather be out on the track". Tim, with the support of Mark and 'Bob" was also out on the track making the most of the occasion with two bikes. For us 'Hazers' the Yamaha TR was making all the right sights and sounds and ran reliably all day. It was also good to see so many other strokers out on the track doing the business as well. His CBR 600 also proved to be trouble free and I am sure Tim would have gone home with tired but rather large smile on his dial. Also worth a mention is Pete S on his Dresda Triumph 600 that proved to be very quick around the track. He has spent a few years developing this motor so it was nice to see it all come together.
Having the Britten there was also very special and what a machine. It really does have presence all of its own with its distinct engineering forms and colour scheme. Once it comes to life with Andrew Stroud on board it is poetry in motion on the track and always a crowd pleaser. Having a Brough out there with the Britten was also rather special. it is the only one still racing anywhere in the world.
The racing on the day in all the classes had full fields and plenty competition with some very intense battles between individuals very evident. Off the track was just as interesting with plenty to see in the pits with some really well turned out machines and riders. The display in the big tent had a an excellent selection of bikes of Steve Roberts developed and built the frames for. What an extraordinary range of bikes and over such a long period of time. I hear even in his 'retirement' he is still making frames.
It was also great to see Garth and Bryan Thomas sharing there engineering wizardry with motorcycles and Garths car and both available to talk to the many admirers who dropped by. The Manawatu Classic Club also had some machines on display inside outside the tent. Thanks for waving the flag. What a great weekend of nostalgia and racing. It sounds like all the right noises are being made about its return next year. Can't wait!
If you want to check out some more photos click here.
