Racer follows in tracks of ‘great-uncle Burt’

Motorcycle racer Lee Munro’s bike was put out-of-action and he burned his leg, but he reckons his great uncle, the famed Southlander Burt Munro, would be proud.

Following painfully close in Burt’s footsteps, Munro returned home from speed week at the Bonneville Salt Flats on Friday with a burned right leg but also a new personal record.

Munro’s grandfather’s cousin was Burt Munro, and was always known to Lee Munro as ‘‘great-uncle Burt’’.

Just like Burt, Munro pushed his bike and body to the limit at speed week, which was held on August 11 to 17.

‘‘Once on the return road I looked down to see a great hole where there once was an O2 [oxygen] sensor.’’

It felt like his leg was on fire and was a sign to pack in for the year, the Christchurch-based racer said.

‘‘Burt had to deal with a burnt leg so it was only fitting. It’s like someone upstairs was saying ‘that’s what Burt dealt with’.

‘‘It was making me work for it and I like that ... when you work at it it creates passion and an overall consuming desire to keep going.’’

After competing at the competition last year and setting his own speed record, Munro returned to the United States with hopes of putting what he learnt to the test and cracking 200mph on his Indian Motorcycle.

While he missed the target, with his best speed being 192.74mph, Munro said he was pleased with how he ran regardless.

‘‘At the end of the day I knew that 200 would be pretty huge to achieve ... we were going over there to make adjustments [to the bike] and see how close we could get to 200.’’

Munro’s bike was just under 1300cc, but was competing in the MPS-G 1350cc class. MPS-G class means modified partial streaming with a gas/petrol engine.

Speed week ran from August 11 to 17. Munro had five runs during that time – each run with a better time than the previous.

‘‘It was all positive stuff. I didn’t win a race but I progressed and learnt a lot.’’

Munro said he was keen to return to the competition.

He will also return to Invercargill for the Burt Munro Challenge in February.

‘‘It’s like someone upstairs was saying ‘that’s what Burt dealt with’.’’ Motorcycle racer Lee Munro