Classic Motorcycle Festival Revs Up for Event

MEDIA RELEASE
19 January 2010

Classic Motorcycle Festival Revs Up for Spectacular Event

The 31st New Zealand Classic Motorcycle Festival at Pukekohe next month will be bliss for bikers, with more than 250 riders from five countries and events for more than 350 bikes.

Held on February 6 & 7, 2010, the annual event will also feature former Grand Prix stars Paul Smart and Stan Woods, team-mates of the internationally renowned Barry Sheene in Team Suzuki in the 1970s.

This year the festival has attracted a group of 14 British riders and bikes, including the top European Classic Racer, Lea Gourlay, racing a 1968 Moto-Paton 500. This bike holds the Isle of Man lap record for Classic Bikes at over 110 mph and has been bought to New Zealand for the first time by its owner, Roger Winfield.

The festival will be marking the centenary of the famous Rudge motorcycle with a huge display of both racing and road machines.

Before the Second World War Rudge was one of the most popular bikes on the New Zealand market, but sadly the company did not re-start production when peace returned. Rudge was famous not only for its high quality but also for pioneering the use of four valves per cylinder and four-speed gearboxes, when most bikes were two valves and three-speeds.

On display will be the famous ex-factory 1932 Rudge that won an incredible four New Zealand Tourist Trophy races in the 1930s on Waiheke Island.

In a New Zealand first, four-times World Champion Hugh Anderson will give a demonstration on a 1968 V4 Yamaha of only 125cc capacity, a bike so successful that Bill Ivy and Phil Read won nearly every GP event between them in 1967 and 1968.

Bill Ivy’s 1967 lap record by a 125cc of the Isle of Man stood for an astounding 21 years. The bike is being provided by Dutch enthusiast Ferry Brouwer and was the ‘blue-print’ of the fearsome Grand Prix 500s that ruled Moto GP until the arrival of the four-stroke era in 2002.

With bikes and riders coming from near and far, the 2010 New Zealand Classic Motorcycle Festival once again promises to be classic motorcycle-enthusiast heaven.

Event Details:
“New Zealand Classic Motorcycle Festival”
Place: Pukekohe Park Racing Circuit.
Date: February 6 & 7, 2010

ENDS

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