Sound Of Thunder 2016
BEARS
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:-
www.leatheronhand.com
