NZ National Rally
VCC of NZ National Motorcycle Rally • 15-17 February, 2019 – Blenheim, NZ
The Vintage Car Club of New Zealand’s 26th National Motorcycle Rally was based this year at Blenheim in the north east of the South Island in a district called Marlborough. It is known as the gateway to the Wairau Valley wine growing area, with spectacular alpine scenery to the west. Conveniently close to the inter-island ferry terminal at Picton, it attracted entries from most districts of both islands.
One hundred and eighty one machines entered; the oldest were a pair of 1911 Abingdon King Dicks and the youngest a 1988 BMW R80T. There was a good spread of machines across the age classes: 11 Veteran, 28 Vintage, 14 Post Vintage, 69 Post War, 48 Post 1960 and 11 Post 1980. All the major manufacturers were represented with BSA just beating Triumph for the most popular make. There were single entries from: CZ, Scott, Francis Barnett, Excelsior, Cotton, Singer, LMC, P&M, Panther, Puch, Rover, Rudge, Tomos and Jawa. This year’s event was truly international with five Australian, two English, two Dutch and one German competitor.
Blenheim is dominated by two busy State Highways that intersect at the town, so a lot of thought went into route planning. The organisers did an excellent job producing 4 different routes, of ascending complexity and length, to match the needs of single speed pre WW1 machines through to the powerful machines from the early ‘80s. All but the shortest route had to cross and run along the State Highways at some point but these incursions were kept to a minimum.
The competition started on Saturday morning with a timed nominated speed run through vineyards to the south of Blenheim. To keep us on our toes the organiser set up 4 check points on the routes. These included loops so competitors would be going in different directions at some junctions and also had some riders going in the opposite direction. After the timed runs all but the short route took long devious routes to Havelock, about 40km away, before joining the Queen Charlotte Drive to Picton. A 40kilometre winding road fringed with native forest offered one of the most scenic and challenging rides you’re likely to encounter. The road rises and falls from sea level to the top of cliff faces with cascades of tight challenging corners, a number of which are off camber 20km/h hairpin bends. A fantastic ride once you get into the rhythm but very tiring. I lost my rhythm for a short time after a pair of Velocettes slipped past more