Farewell, Pukekohe race track

First, a bit about me..

I’ve been riding motorcycles since Noah was a lad. I got into it when I started work as an apprentice.

Money was tight in those days and buying an old slow secondhand car and then spending my weekends fixing it, wasn’t an attractive idea. So I got into motorbikes and enjoyed easy parking, the wind in my face, and all that other good stuff. Rain is a bit of a nuisance of course, but in those days, I just put up with it and took it as part of the experience.

I joined the only motorcycle club in my town in those days, who were into Classic motorcycles, and so my interest in older motorbikes grew imenensely.

This was in the 1980’s at a time when Japanese motorcycles had largely taken over, and non Japanese bikes were mostly ridden by enthusiast’s and gang members.

1970’s British bikes like Triumph Bonneville’s and Norton Commando’s were very sought after then, because of their speed and superior handling to the new-fangled Japanese stuff.

Anyway, onto what I was going to write about…

Motorcycling Mecca for me has been going to the annual classic motorcyle races in Pukekohe every year.

In it’s hey day, the event has hosted some very prominent ex Grand Prix winners and their bikes from around the world.

The likes of Giacomo Agostini, Sammy Miller, Ginger Malloy, Hugh Anderson, Surtees, Corser, Baylis, and numerous other ex grand prix riders have been to Pukekohe at some point.

This year will be the last event ever

The racetrack is closing and is destined to become a dedicated horse racing track.

I think it’s a shame for Pukekohe in general because once upon a time, it had it’s own unique identity and motorsport was a major part of that. It wasn’t just the racetrack by itself of course, because there were all these motorsport engineering bussinesses who specialised in motor racing.