Burt Munro Challenge Weekend :: Munro Tribe Portal :: News, Media, History of the Munro's

Public

Public Chatter

Online

There are 2 unlogged users and 0 registered users online.

You can log-in or register for a user account here.

Articles: Burt Munro Challenge Weekend

Saturday, December 16, 2006 - 09:02 AM, (1295 Reads)

This was held on 24/25 November, 2006. HJ was asked down to Invercargill to start races, present trophies and hold interviews.

On the Friday night the Museum of Southland held a private function to open the new Burt Munro display which occupies almost a whole floor! John had a speech some of which was the same as the Hall of Fame speech in Ohio (*NEW see video link inside at the bottom) where the audience laughed uproariously at John's statements. The Invercargill audience managed to produce a slight murmur as they took the meaning in!
The next morning, a Cold Front had marched in from Stewart Island and together with wild winds, hurled sand particles into eyes, ears, noses and down crevices into your clothes! The motorbikers had no worries, being fully protected by motobike gear and couldn't wait to get into the beach races!

John leaned into the wind and swiped the flag down to start the roars from the bikes. This was for the main race of the day - the 50 mile one where numerous bikes had to pull out or fell over in the sharp corner.

This is the photo of the guy who won this and the treasured Burt Munro Trophy.

That night over 2500 bikers gathered in a huge marquee with all their fancy jackets. Prizes were given out for best motorbikes and other awards. John and sister Margaret made speeches and the band was loud. Oysters and whitebait fritters were available as were muttonbirds.

Sunday brought all these bikers to overwhelm the tiny village of Wyndham where street racing was organised - the first in the South Island. Bales of hay caught the odd biker who was flung from his bike on a slippery corner and locals set out tables and chairs in the gardens to watch the furious speeding cycles race past in a deafening roar of sound. The population swelled from the normal 600 to over 10,000! It was a great success and the bikers all acknowledged Burt as well as son John "a privilege to meet you".

Our accommodation was met by Invercargill and Venture Southland at the beautiful Ascot Park Hotel.

PS able to see Tracy, Anton and Aimee too!

Video of Ohio trip & speech:

Email to a friend | Print this article