Alcohol may have been banned on the streets of Methven during the racing, but only a bale of hay separated the spectators from the smell of gasoline as the bikes gave you a blow wave as they roared past you only millimeters away. If you're sensitive to noise, then earplugs are a must at Methven. Yes, they are that close... and as noisy as a screaming gym teacher!
The Mako Racing Team was there
Shannan Mako....happy racer!
The sleepy hamlet of Methven came alive!
The local community and businesses sponsored this event and did a fine job.
There were some classic machines there that would wow the most passionate bike fan.
Street racing at Methven can give you some idea of what it must be like to be a spectator at the Isle of Man TT. Up close and personal.
1941 Indian
CAMS would have been proud to be a partner in the action that brought to you the pleasure of watching Classic and Post Classic motorbike racing. The older machines were predominant in such classes as Vintage pre 46, Classic pre 63 and post classic classes pre 72, pre 82 and pre 89.
Three Velocettes...all in a row
1930 Rudge
'59 Beeza
Norm rode down from Kaik on his gorgeous Thunderbird
When it came down to the racing, Shannan was a little tentative during his practice laps. The track was moist in the early morning and threw up gravel. One lap was all over in 34 seconds.
The bikes were coming and going so fast that it was like watching a tennis match!
It was going to be a hot weekend when Shannan Mako and myself turned up on Friday morning to set up camp for his Triumph 955. I rode his Kawasaki ZX-10 out there for a bit of fun and memories came flooding back about why they called these bikes one of the original superbikes. Smooth and powerful! Norm gave me some stick about riding a Jap bike to a BEARS event, but I wasn't the only one brother!
The "Pit Crew" was without Norm for the weekend. He was nursing a sore back. By crikey, there was some good racing, brother!
The engineer and "brains trust" behind the 955 - Roger Cotterell with Shan.
Practice times were in the high 1.48's for the 955. That earned Shannon a spot on the right hand side of the second row of the grid for the Best of British and an 8th place in the race.
For the large field of 60 plus bikes for the Bears Formula 1, Shannan started at the back of the field and cut through half the field in both races to come 30th and 35th on the Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Some of the classic racing machinery out there this year was just simply awesome and jaw-dropping.
These two 600 Triumphs of Pete Wilson and Barry Payne were never separated. They ran 4th & 5th and 6th & 7th in two Best Of British classes. And in the huge field of F1 they still managed to cross the line within two places of each other. I reckon they were joined at the hip at birth!
And they sounded awesome to boot!
These boys came down from Palmerston North. Unfortunately, Ray blew the motor on his Ducati 749 (#358) at practice on the Friday and had to sit out the racing.
This time-honoured Rickman-Weslake 900 of Red Mantell runs on Methanol to put out 100hp.
Wait'll you hear this baby run...
Another Weslake there, was Kevin Ryan's, from the West Coast. This is an eight-valve beast, bored out from 650 to 800.
At one stage of the racing these two classics were neck an' neck, side by side!
Also in the Palmerston North camp was this '88 Moto Guzzi of Vince Burrell. Vince scored three 1st's in the Heritage class.
Nice sounding Guzz!
Another Moto Guzzi that blistered the skins at the start of his race was Graham Dunn's machine.
A first time racer at BEARS and only his 4th meeting, Graham's '88 1000 showed some class.
Have a look at this start!That's him in the black leathers and obviously jumping to the lead of this pack!
Peter Harper brought down his Buell 1200 from Nelson and also had a go on his Street Rod 1130
He reckons it was so powerful that the disc's were buckling under cornering manoeuvres!
Catch a glimpse of the LED's under the tank. He reckons everyone thinks he's a cop and slows down to let him pass!
Dead set! What a fest! There were more classics than a Kirk Douglas/Burt Lancaster movie! Check out these time-honored works of art....
Jarrard Winter's Norton 500
The Triumph 1050 and Street Rod 1130 of Kerry Williams.
Peter Horridge's Triumph 750
Glen Ornsby's Triumph 750
Get a load of this representative of time...Eric Swinbourn's Norton 500
You can't go to a BEARS meet without a '77 Buick....!
Norm's brother Brendan turned up on his Harley 1600? (he reckons)!
And his mate Chris on his 650 Four.
What a weekend!
You wanna ride like these guys...get ya leather gloves from:-
This one's a hum-dinger. 180 mph down the straight at Ruapuna, without effort, but with class!
No, not me...Jeremy has.
The power comes from a compact 998cc liquid-cooled Inline-Four, four valves per cylinder with Dual Stage Fuel-Injection and the boys have attached that upswept muffler....sounds awesome eh? She's about 170 hp @ 11,000 rpm!
This superbike has a unique frame. There is a limited number of pieces that make the frame. She weighs in at just over 200 kg with a full tank.
On January 2nd 2016, it was a day of drizzle at the Port Nelson Street Races.
Shannan Mako came up from Christchurch to compete on the Triumph Daytona 955i prepared by Norm Kereikeepa - sole pit crew and sole sponsor - Kereikeepa Contracting of Kaikoura. He says he loved every minute of his first street race.
Previously he'd done Ruapuna and Levels circuits, but this was different racing.
"You're only using three gears, maybe just hitting fourth" he says, "I just do my best, as hard as I can, and that's what makes it fun."
He came 6th out of a field of 22. Not bad for a first time street racer!
The next weekend was the NZ Superbike Championship at Ruapuna. The Mako Racing Team was there! To my knowledge, they are the only Maori motorcycle racing team in NZ. The Tangaroa (God of the Sea) Blue Triumph Daytona was there.
Shannan (left) & Norm
Practice times on Saturday morning were consistent...in the 1.49s
The last race on Saturday at 4.30pm...BEARS F1 & F2
Shannan had never dropped the bike, but half way through the 8 lap race, as he was chasing a nimble 675 Daytona, he screwed the throttle exiting the dipper...too much, too soon. The rear wheel lost traction and he highsided, luckily at only about 40 mph. Norm and I watched from the pit wall in disbelief. Norm told me, "It could be a late night." Shannan knelt trackside for minutes and you could sense that he was really pissed off. He started the bike again and came into the pits. He parked the bike, took his helmet off and gave us that radiant, charismatic smile that you get accustomed to from him. "I was catching that 675," he said, "but I gave it too much, too soon and.....ah shit!"
He had a sore neck and sore knuckles and the bike had minimal scrapes and a bent clutch lever. Scatches on the helmet required a new lid. A new clutch lever was tracked down straight away. Not a late night after all!
The next day, Sunday, was cold and windy. The southerly wind that blew across the track, gusted up to 30-40 mph. An accident on the first practice session of the day didn't help either. Shannan's 3 lap scrub in started an hour late at 10am. His race was the 4th of the morning. He started at the back of the field and was back in the pits after a couple of laps. Problems with neck mobility did not allow him to have full vision around him. This, compounded with the cross wind, lead him to make a wise decision to come in and call it a day. It was an early day at Ruapuna for the Mako Racing Team.
This Tangaroa Blue Mako Daytona is distinctive and has character. It's extraordinary, cool and gnarly. It produces a gruff rumble at start-up. The bike sounds like it has plenty of torque coming from the fuel injected engine. "The most fun on two wheels," Shannan says. Hell yes, it's the ultimate streetfighter!
Check out a selection of motorcycle racing gloves at:-
In 1969, Jackie Ickx pulled on his leather driving gloves
and walked across the track to his race car, while the other drivers
did the traditional "run and jump" start. He did this in protest,
encouraging the other drivers to race with seatbelts fastened. Jackie
Ickx would go on to win the 24 hrs of Le Mans in a Ford GT 40. He won
this event six times. The traditional start where drivers ran across the
track to their cars, was last used in 1969.
24 hrs of Le Mans is steeped in history and prestige. It is the most
widely known race in the world. If you are "anybody", you race at Le
Mans...if you win, you are "everybody".
At Le Mans, race cars are 85% at full throttle for most of the long
straights and top speeds of 200 mph are reached until knuckles become
white beneath leather driving gloves as the grip on the steering wheel
resembles the grip of rubber on the road, as the braking system is
tested, bringing the car down to 50 mph, from the Mulsanne straight to
the fearsome Porsche curves.
The outcome of each curve determined the fate of the next.
"The Flying Scot" Jim Clark, refused to race at Le Mans. He considered it too dangerous.
The Detroit News said in June 17 1966:- "This racetrack is a
cornfield airstrip in the jet age. It was built 50 years ago for cars
that went 65 mph. Tomorrow 55 race cars - some of them capable of 225
mph on the straight and all of them over the 130 mph class - will get
off at 10am (Detroit time) and it will be a miracle if nobody gets
killed. Nobody is fearless. Some of these drivers are scared stiff".
Back in the days when driving gloves pulled on leather helmets and
goggles, an endurance race had a totally different meaning. When Duncan
Hamilton won Le Mans in 1953 in a Jaguar C-Type, he was so drunk that
when the team offered him coffee during pit-stops, he refused, saying it
made his arms twitch, accepting only brandy!
These days Le Mans is a 24 hr sprint through thousands of gear
shifts, millions of crankshaft revolutions and constant forces on every
component, you drive every lap as a qualifier. This makes the 24 hr of
Le Mans the purist all round challenge in motor racing.
Corvette Racing
stood atop the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday June 13-14
2015 as Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor wrote the final
chapter of a storybook comeback that ended with the team winning the GTE
Pro category in their No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. The trio in their
No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R completed 337 laps for 2,864.50 miles in
a frantic battle that eventually saw the Corvette win in class by five
laps. Sunday's victory goes along with Corvette Racing's wins earlier
this year in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring
in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
British, European, American Racing (BEARS) paid tribute this weekend to the passing 20 years ago of one of it's most inspirational members, John Britten.
Seven Britten motorcycles were on display, along with various memorabilia.
When the chips were down and it came time to pull on the racing gloves the event attracted 170 competitors, both nationally and internationally.
Once again the Galway clan were riding those quick machines from Bob Nesbitt's stable up there at Classic Cycles in Upper Hutt.
That's Terry the Dad on the left with son's Jaden and Jamie next to the maestro himself Big Nes!
They all rode well with Jamie taking out 2 wins and three seconds at my last count anyway. The '62 Atlas 750, #515 above, literally flew and Jamie, riding the Speed Triple below, came a close second to Andrew Stroud.
Terry got his gloves wet when he stepped off his 850 Commando coming out of the sweeper when we think he hit the white line...he was up and running after the bike as it was still skidding along the track!
