Motorcycle racers relish classic
Top of the south riders enjoyed a weekend of memories and motorbikes at the Mike Pero Southern Classic 2017.
The annual gathering was held at Levels near Timaru with well over 300 entrants. Race classes covered everything from classic bikes over 50-yearsold to post-classic bikes of the 70s, plus classes from the modern era.
Many big names from the world of motorcycle racing attended, including Aaron Slight, Hugh Anderson and Andrew Stroud plus US superbike racer Wes Cooley who was on hand to celebrate ‘‘The Superbike era of the 70s and 80s’’.
The ‘‘Past Masters and Champions’’ parade included a stunning array of motorcycles and riders, including Wes Cooley on a Suzuki GS1000S replica of his winning race bike, Gary Goodfellow riding the ‘Aero-d-Zero’ Britten 1000 and Andrew Stroud riding a ‘CR&S’’ Britten 1000. Hugh Anderson paraded Terry Reed’s Honda RC30, Graeme Crosby rode his Moriwaki Kawasaki-powered Superbike, Dennis Charlett rode the McIntosh hand-built Suzuki Superbike, raced so successfully by Roger Freeth. Slight paraded his Honda SP1 and Paul McLachlan a TZ350F.
Motueka Motorcycles ran a team of riders on 1970s Yamaha TZ350 Grand Prix bikes. They including Paul McLachlan, Steve Brown, Jason Holcroft and Marlborough veteran Jock Woodley who campaigned the 1976 TZ350C model which began its competitive life from new in the Woodley family, having been ridden successfully by all three of the inter- national racing brothers through the late 1970s.
In the Southern Classic ‘pre 1982’ class, Rick Jamieson from Dunedin on his Yamaha 600 was favourite but a broken gear lever in race one on Saturday gave him a DNF.
Woodley dominated the class by winning the first two races on Saturday and led the third race up until it was stopped due to a fallen rider. On Sunday, Woodley went from pole position to win the first race but had a fall in the final points race, opening the way for his opponents. Rick Jamieson from Dunedin, on a Yamaha 600, won the race but Brown’s second place gave him the class win with Tyler Lincoln on the Norton 500 second overall and Woodley relegated to third.
‘‘When I crashed, I stayed with the bike through all the sliding and spinning, and immediately got up to try and rejoin the race but I found the clutch lever broken ... unbelievably that and the foot-rest being ground down was the only damage to the bike. There wasn’t a single scratch on all the bodywork.
‘‘It was an exciting finish to the weekend’s racing ... our team taking two of the podium spots was very pleasing,’’ added Woodley.