Three Aussies were invited as guests to give it an international flavour and I was one with my 1939 Mk.8 KTT, together with Eric Debenham on a Vincent/Norton special and Elmer McCabe on a 7R AJS.....
I flew Velocettes over for several years, then borrowed racing bikes, then retirement from racing set in but I attended continuously until around 5 years back.....
It has come a long way since then....many European former champions, together with exotic racing machinery have been the meetings special guest(s), John Surtees, Ivan Rhodes, Sammy Miller, Paul Smart, Kevin Schwantz come to mind and this year was Dutchman Ferry Brouwer with his 125cc 4 cylinder Yamaha....
Ferry and I correspond....He has done much for the Classic scene in Europe with his coupe being the Centenary TT at Assen in the late 1990's...many former NZ and Australian racers of the period were invited....so payback time....
Would I come over and meet up with him....? Of course, but circumstances at the last minute prevented his coming and his two mechanics, Melwyn and Andre did a good job keeping the Yamaha fettled for the display laps and former world champion NZer Hugh Anderson climbed aboard and did the honours....
Following are a few pics from my camera... looking back I should have taken more diverse ones....
But I'm sure these will prove interesting....
Left click on the images to enlarge.....
The Anderson family had several KTT's in imaculate fettle....
An unknown...to me, Mk.8 KTT...engine number KTT918
Andre fettles the Yamaha 125/4....
NZer and Veloman Neville Mickelson with his Matchless outfit and daughter in the chair....
Some years back this minaturised 250 DOHC desmodromic Manx Norton appeared.... one of a pair, the other a conventional DOHC engined bike was bought by Ferry Brouwer....
For several years a Japanese rider,Shizuka Motegi, has ridden his 1950's BMW Rennsport at Pukekohe....thanks to Glenn Ducey for ferreting out his name- I'd forgotten it!
A Jawa racer....
I've seen this replica of the 250 BSA racer than never graced Britains race tracks.... the original BSA factory race effort was a flat single and from memory had cylinder and head finning to suit.....just the same this is an interesting effort.
Being a Velo man I like to fraternise with the NZ Velo folk..... well this pic shows some other Aussie Velo people outside the NZ Velo Register display and tent.
A typical paddock scene the world over.....
4 comments:
that desmo head norton was that the one terry shepperd raced for awhile?
Hi, the Japanese lad who used to campaign a BMW R 54 must be Fumio Ito
Cheers
Rennmax
The BMW belongs to Mr Shizuka Motegi of Japan, who was entered to ride
it but had an eye operation and could not fly to NZ.
The rider was NZ resident Yuki Mimbu who raced in NZ and Japan in the
1990's.
The 250 Norton was not involved with Terry Shepherd...
The bike was made completely in NZ within the last 10 years, is a minaturised Manx...i.e the wheels are 17", brakes 7" dia. everything scaled down...
A "large model" you could say....
Dennis Quinlan.
I was at Pukekohe and only sorry that I attended before having your excellent blog pointed out to me by a friend in Australia (http://jcpearce.blogspot.com/); otherwise I'd have said hello and welcome.
If you'd like to see my Pukekohe photos (inc Velocette #305!, my blog is here: http://geoffjames.blogspot.com/. Just scroll down the page a bit and there's also a link to the full set on PicasaWeb
Best wishes,
Geoff
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