NZCMRR President’s Message
Megaphone April 2011
A lot has happened since our last issue of the Megaphone, not only in relation to racing but other events that have touched us all. I refer to the massive earthquake in Christchurch, and the Japan earthquake and tsunami with the consequential nuclear reactor problems. From what I can gather our Register members in both locations are safe.
During January members of the Register took part in the NZFMR Chris Amon Festival. The organizer of the event, Jim Barclay, thanked us for entering a classy field of pre ’63 Classic Bikes. After such a great fine spell in January leading up to the Chris Amon event, the weather turned bad and limited our track time on Saturday. Then of course we were all rained out on the Sunday. It was a great a pity for all concerned. The organizers of the event believe the Classic bikes added a great deal to their programme and have offered the Register a place in the race programme next year. The dates will be Friday 20th January until Sunday 22 January, 2012.
The Festival at Pukekohe in February was our 32nd and yet another success. I see that we have had excellent media coverage in many motorcycle magazines. Two such examples are Old Bike Australia, who used the headline “Another Fabulous Festival” and KiwiRider “Festival Roars on at Pukekohe”.
The American 4-cylinder and Benelli displays were excellent and attracted considerable interest – thanks to all involved. Special thanks also go to Ginger Molloy whose Bultaco factory bikes continued to dominate the podium. Thanks also to Graeme Crosby and the NZPCRA guys who gave a great displays on Saturday and Sunday, to everyone who worked hard to make the event happen and to the riders. It really is amazing that everything comes together on the day and the smiles all round are a great reward.
We had just under 200 entries, and while this was a little down from last year’s 212, we did not have the usual container load of UK entrants. Some commented that the pits looked emptier than usual. This was the result of the Pit Space allocation system where the pit area was reserved for riders and their crew, and non-competitors camped on the other side of the track. Thanks to those who provided positive feedback - I’m sure that there will be fine tuning of the pit space allocation for next year.
The on-line event entry system also worked quite well for the first full meeting and over time it will become more user friendly. This system and the NZCMRR website has been developed by a volunteer, so please be patient as improvements are made.
A special thanks to Don Green of the Vintage Motorcycle Club for organising the Red Eye Rooster rally. Run on the Sunday morning of the Festival this is a great way to start the day for non-competitor riders.
If you ordered a T-Shirt from The Festival, there will be a delay in delivery. Our T-Shirt producer is based in Christchurch, and earthquake damage has delayed the delivery of our order. Our apologies for the delay. If you have any concerns, please email chris@motomail.co.nz
A number of Trophies from the Festival and from the 2010/11 season have not been collected. Please send Barry Deane a courier pack or S.A.E and he will get your trophy to you. Barry is at 260 Sturges Rd, Henderson, Waitakere, 0612 or phone on 09 8360515.
The post Festival Hampton Downs meeting was another fine event with a good turn out and great racing. Thanks to the Post Classic racers who participated and especially to Brian Deadman (Vice President of NZPCRA) for his contribution as starter for the meeting. As I had broken my collarbone at Pukekohe I drove the recovery vehicle for this event. This gave me yet another perspective on the efforts of our volunteers. Thanks to all who helped out with the meeting and to the MNZ Stewards in ensuring our safety. I’m sure we all wish Graham Peters & David Hall a speedy recovery from the injuries they suffered as a result of their ‘coming together’ on the warm down lap.
As I write this the April Barry Sheene Festival of Speed is taking place at Eastern Creek Raceway, Australia. 6 Register riders are part of a large contingent of solos and sidecars that have headed across the Tasman to contest the races. We look forward to the race reports...
The final two meetings before winter were at Taupo on April 17th and at Hampton Downs for the Roycroft Trophy Historic Racing Festival on 23rd & 24th April.
The NZCMRR attended the Roycroft event, held in conjunction with The Vintage Car Club and The Historic Racing Sports Car Club. As there were insufficient formal expressions of interest we participated in the event as a parade. That said rumor has it there was some rather rapid parading that went on and a certain silver streak left on the track at turn 3…
Paul Greet, our Secretary has resigned due to personal circumstances so his workload will be spread amongst the other committee members, in particular Chris Hyland is helping Corrie Logan with Race Secretary duties. Two other Register members have expressed willingness to join the committee – their names will be published in due course.
As I mentioned in my last message we are always in need of people to assist the committee and at our race meetings. If you have an interest in becoming a committee volunteer, a flag marshal, a grid controller, a noise monitor, a recovery vehicle driver, or an oil checker, please let us know. If you have a friend interested in motor cycle racing you might ask them. Send an email to contact@nzcmrr.com
Finally some late breaking news from the land of OZ – the New Zealand riders at the Eastern Creek Barry Sheene event won the Trans-Tasman Challenge Cup by 1 point. Well done to all who made the trip across the ditch.
Not long now until winter race bike maintenance and all those ‘go-faster’ improvements that we have thought about. Keep the shiny side up (unlike me...)
Dave Warren #78