Burt Munro 2024
Another Burt Munro challenge complete.
There was a fair bit of interest in the NZ scooter community for this year’s event and a few north island riders had indicated that they may be keen.
The usual social media banter and scooter frothing ensued, and things were looking up, for a good turnout. The Auckland contingent pulled out after the loss of a loved one and then a Wellington rider also pulled out. It was a shame they couldn’t make it but the commitment for an event like this is huge.
Three of us registered for the event in the Classic pre 63 with girder fork class. Ian and myself had raced there last year and Mike put his hand up this year. We also had two friends join in just for the Burt experience. The weather looked fine for the Friday track day but the weekend racing looked dodgy, with rain and wind forecast.
Riders and Racing
Mike is well known for his mechanical prowess and knowledge of scooters and other bikes. Amongst many other classic scooters he has also built an NZeta with a 300cc KTM engine in it. Some of his other projects include a classic Indian Scout and a 1960’s Daimler car. He built his bike for this event out of some parts he had spare. It was a Lambretta frame with a modified water-cooled engine based on a Yamaha Banshee cylinder. A Vespa disc brake front end and various other modifications turned it into a funky cut down. It performed exceptionally well on the track.
Ian normally races his highly modified Vespa PK on some of the local Kart tracks in Wellington. He is quite quick around this circuit. Ian ended up on his spare Lambretta last year after a seize on the track day, but this year the PK was flying. He clocked at GPS 127kph down the straight at Teretonga. That’s not fast among the bigger bikes but anyone racing any scooter can appreciate how fast that is.
Both riders were pretty close down the straight but Ian was a little quicker in the twisty parts of the track. Both of them passed an Enfield 350 in one of our races which was just huge in the context of our class and the event. We are only in this class as its generally the slower older bikes running in it.
Depending on the race numbers, sometimes the classes are combined which isn’t really fair for us. The number of laps are then dictated by the faster bikes not normally in your class. Currently, this is the only event of this type that allows us to race scooters, so we just do our best and finishing is winning.
Summary
This year was great with good friends staying and doing something that not many scooterists get to do. I had some issues with 2 engines and ended up racing my old bike from last year but that’s racing. I thought my racing was done after seizing on lap 2 of the track day and totally got the hump at that point. But luckily for me, my friends came through and gave me the push I needed to get the old bike out. As it turned out I was quicker round the track this year, so that’s a win.
The numbers were down a bit on last year but that could be for various reasons. Hopefully this event will carry on and still allow us to turn up and ride.
Get in touch if you want to race.
Burt Munro 2024