Burt Munro
Burt Munro Challenge 2015
Over the last 10 years The Burt Munro Challenge has evolved into a four-day motorcycling festival that takes over Invercargill in the very south of the South Island, New Zealand. Now one of NZ’s major motorsport events, the laid back event attracts over 260 competitors and over 10,000 visitors, including an increasing number of Australians and Europeans.
The racing covers six disciplines; it kicks off on Thursday with NZ National Hill Climb championship and Super Cross later that day, Beach Racing on Friday, Circuit Racing and Speedway on Saturday and culminates in Street Racing on Sunday. The city takes on a whole new atmosphere during the Burt, it’s not just about the racing as there is a host of supporting events adding to the party atmosphere. A four day motorcycle rally, attracting over 1500 people, is the core of the non-racing activities, with a number of social events. The Southland Vintage Car Club held a motorcycle exhibition with 60 machines on display, featuring Harley Davidsons this year, but with a host of other machines, ranging from a 1902 Ariel to 1983 Norton Rotary. The Bill Richardson Truck Museum (in the final stage of a multi-million dollar rebuild) was opened especially for the Burt with over 1500 visitors. Indian Motorcycles held a major publicity event displaying its new models at E Hayes and Sons hardware store (home of the Burt Munro Indian). The place was packed every day, with hundreds of visitors admiring the Indians and Hayes’ own collection of 30 motorcycles and vehicles. Not to be outdone McIvor & Veich, the Dunedin Harley Davidson dealer, had the new 2016 models on display at the motorcycle exhibition.
Racing covers fifteen classes from Pre 63s with Girder Forks to Super Motards and Formula 1, with the eight classes for Vintage, Classic and Lost Era machinery attracting a very diverse range of entries. BEARS racing was reintroduced this year and Sidecar racing was back. The big change this year was the Sunday Street Racing moving into the suburbs of Invercargill, with the city council (one of the main sponsors) closing a number of roads to create a roughly rectangular circuit, with sweeping bends, fast straights, a chicane on the back straight, an excellent pit area and good access for the public. With an event this big it is impossible to cover all the races in detail so the following are some impressions of four days of fantastic racing. The Hill Climb is a tortuous 1.4km public road that winds up the side of “Bluff Hill” with large drop offs and rock faces, a few short straights, a small stream and several challenging corners. The fastest time of the day was 46.64secs set by Tony Rees on his Open Class Honda CBR 1000. Graham Peters on his 1958 BSA Gold Star won the Pre-63 class (55.41 secs). The Honda NZ Super Cross Championship is held just outside of Winton (30km north of Invercargill). Racing was cancelled after qualifying, as a storm blew in from the Foveaux Strait. The riders instead put on demonstration laps for the large crowd and there was an awesome display of Motorcycle Dirt Drag Racing. Beach Racing was held Oreti beach, the scene of many of Burt Munro’s record attempts. A 1 mile circuit around two marker posts ½ mile apart is laid out just below the high water mark. The racing is very different with all kinds of motorcycles out there, from road based machines, Moto Cross, Super Motards and Long Track Speedway machines competing. Two very distinct cornering styles emerged, the Moto Cross boys favoured slowing down and taking a tight line around the post, whilst the speedway riders favouring broadsliding though on a wide sweeping line. One of the replica machines from the “World’s Fastest Indian” film was blasted up and down the beach.
Teretonga, on the outskirts of Invercargill, is the venue for the circuit racing with 4 lap sprints races around the 2.6km “B” shaped track. The weather added to the drama of the event alternating between torrential rain and bright sunshine, allied to a very fast drying track had the racers on more modern machines swapping between dry, intermediate and wet
tyres. Sidecars raced on the circuit for the first time, and once John Blaymires & Charle Bilby shot off into the lead on their Moto Guzzi Le Mans outfit, the rest of the field had a great race, particularly Neville Mickelson & Mark Thompson on their indecently quick Matchless G12. The re-introduced BEARS provided great racing with, Triumphs, Aprillas, Ducatis, an MV Augusta, a BMW, a Harley Davidson and a Buell on the grid. The new Street Racing track was a great success, racers liking the flowing track and spectators enjoying the view. Arguably the best races were the Pre 63s with Girder Forks dominated by Phil Price’s superb collection of original Velocette racing machines, with two really close races between Chris Swallow (the eventual winner) on an immaculate 1946 350cc KTT MKVIII Velocette and Cloud Craig-Smith on a 1949 350cc KTT MKVIII Velocette, with Bill Bieber on a 1934 500cc KTT Velocette snapping at their heels. The final event was the speedway on Sunday night, postponed from the previous night due to track problems, a full meeting was run capping off an excellent 2015 Burt Munro Challenge. The Munro Family Trophy, for competitor of the year, was won by Doug Wood (a Kiwi living in Australia), who has competed every year; most recently on his Yamaha FZR 400 in the Post Classic pre 89 class.
It is sights and sounds of the event that remain in the memory, like Paul Riley’s Honda 500-4 replica on full throttle, Chris Frisken’s 1941 Indian Scout accelerating hard away from the first corner, and the Super Motards pack charging up to the first corner. To get a real feel for the racing, and atmosphere visit the Burt Munro Challenge Facebook page, great on-board videos and a host of photographs.