“I got the opportunityto be an integral part of one helluva trip. Eddy
Garner’s Aussie Bike Tours were the instigators. The Burt Munro Challenge now
being held in February instead of November all helped us all make up our
minds. Eddy had 23 takers in total. Some to race, some just riding around, some
participating in rallies. The emphasis was the ‘Hand Change Challenge’ being
Harley and Indian bikes racing each other, Australia versus NZ. Eddy did a
marvellous job getting everyone over to NZ along with their bikes and of course
all the logistics involved once we got there.
Our first competition
would be The Hill Climb at
The Bluff, about 20 km
from Invercargill. Wow
what a hill, what an event,
laid back officialdom, pits
spread throughout the
backstreets at the bottom
of the climb. Everyone was
excited to be there and just
couldn’t wait to start up their bikes and be part of this institution, The Burt
Munro Challenge. People coming up to chat and admiring our bikes. This
included many Aussies, some I knew, some were friends of friends others were
strangers but we all had one thing in common; heaps of people lining the road
up the hill a la Isle of Man style. The merchandise caravan could not keep up,
Burt Munro stuff selling like hot cakes. This event ended around 2.30pm and we
all headed over to Teratonga race track where the Drag races were destined to
take place as a twilight event. Me with my Manx-framed G50 along with all the
C Class Indians and Harleys from Australia were to do ‘demo runs’. I had never
done drag racing before, so with some tutoring from my pal Murray Johnson, I
thought I’d give it a go. Reaction time was credable, elapsed time of 15.04 secs
was too along with 90mph terminal speed. I just did one run, most of the hand
shifters did two!
Wow what a day, two events participated in on one day!
Friday had us back to Teratonga for a bit of practice for Saturday’s circuit
racing, before heading off to Oreti Beach for the Beach races. I stood out of that
event and used the time working out of the Transit van to change my gearing in
readiness of the racing on Saturday. All the hand shifter mob raced on the beach
and had a ball. Gee the crowds were huge and just loved it.
Saturday came around and the Road Races at Teratonga were just great, one
quick circuit indeed. I was thrilled to be dicing all day in every race with Isle of
Man legend Bill Swallow. Once races were done we headed to the speedway for a
look, wow huge event indeed. Sunday was our last event, Street Races, unfortu-
nately rain came, roads were slippery and as such the event got cut short after
qualifying and just one race. I’m sure most of us will do it all again in 2020.■
Danny does Invercargill
Danny Ahernjoined a group of intrepid Aussies to the
2018 Burt Munro Challenge in NZ. He made a few notes:
ABOVE Danny gets the Manx/G50 under way up the Bluff
Hill Climb. INSET BELOW Danny Ahern, Bill Swallow and
Murray Johnson swap stories at the Hill Climb.