does anyone do dirt track racing in NZ like they do in the states???
does anyone do dirt track racing in NZ like they do in the states???
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...yeah..at times...a few people over the years have tried to get flat track racing an up and going thing...its hard pushing shit uphill...
nah well im keen to try organise even a 1 off event possibly called the "New Zealand Grand National" or something like that
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It was quite strong around ChCh for a while. There was a track out Little River way...
http://nzftra.webs.com/
i would be keen to ride in one, in my travels i went to a drit track meeting in Taree just north of Newcastle, Troy Baliss was making a return to the track in the first time in 15 years or so, very interesting quick fire 4 lap races round a kydney shaped track, the hot set up was motard wheels and wets on mx bikes,
in the US now they runa singles class using 450 MX motors, and then the big twins which are using the normal xr750 harleys, but also triumph, ducati suzuki twins, and even ninja 650r kawasaki motors,
....I built the track at Little River...Wairewa Oval...670 meters on the inside line...I had about 15 meetings there...like most attempts at keeping things going forward, it got too much to keep that oval in racing trim...pretty typical stuff really, only me and a couple of others putting in so much energy that we couldn't keep it up...we had some fairly big and spectacular meetings there...Chris Hyder on a Morgo Bonnie had the lap record...cant remember it off hand...20ish seconds..90+mph...I have lots of vids and pics...I went road racing, a handfull of my friends still turn up regularly at Leeston and Ashburton Speedway...
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...every paddock will be of a different nature...yank flat track is run on 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile and mile tracks, they must also do a tt which has a right turn and a jump to be able to own the number 1 plate, they even do it on tarmac...Wairewa Oval was at the head of a lake and was soft silty stuff and somtimes it was fairly damp and hard and sometimes it was like clay...beggars cant be choosers...if you can get a paddock and a friendly grader and digger operator and a few bucks you can have a flat track...good luck...
Flattrack was fairly big in Auckland when Bryce Subritzky started what was called the Stock Bike class at Rosebank Speedway in around 1977/78 - basically any stock framed bike, practically the only rules were no brakes, no knobs, and a 750cc limit. I remember the first few meetings, it was pretty popular and all sorts of bikes turned up - I took my Rickman out, disconnected the brakes and took my baffles out, rode it home again. There were up to 25 bikes on track !!! Sleepy Tripp the midget driver came down, borrowed a bike and went out wearing a T shirt - he went down in front of the pack and they ran over him. Then they split it up, but still a dozen bikes out there.
It became a very popular class and there were other tracks where they rode - I know there was the Outlaw track at Meremere, and one at Kumeu...and I know they went to other tracks as well. I got the Rosebank guys to come and race at our dirttrack on Waiheke Island when we got bikes onto the car dirttrack. But by the early '90's it was all over. I think one of the main reasons was cost. When Bryce first started the class it was to get guys out on the track, and they just dragged anything out of the shed - a much cheaper way to get into the sport than the whole speedway bike thing. But in the end people were using modern MX and enduro bikes in flattrack - it became very expensive. Why spend 10 grand to be competitive in flattrack, when you could get an old 2 valve for a couple of grand and do real speedway.
Owl Morris is a member here, and he wrote the Stock Bike rules in the MNZ rule book. You can see some old flattrack stuff on his website. http://owlmorris-ttsr500.4t.com/catalog_3.html
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Aaaaaah Sleepy Tripp, what a driver!! Farkin' awesome in a midget, made a huge impression on me as a youngster when we did our annual trip to Western Springs. Those were the days: Sleepy Tripp, Leo Vercoe, Mel Kenyon, AJ Foyt vs Ted Tracy, Max/Barry Butterworth, Owen Shaw etc etc.
It's a shame that a few cocks are gonna kill Western Springs and all the heritage that goes with it.
When Sleepy Tripp first came over with his VW powered midget he drove around the local drivers like they were standing still and he was on a slalom course - next year half the field were VW's, a year later and they all were. No more Offy's, Daimler V8's, Vauxhalls and Holdens....or V8 2 strokes....
One year I was working next door to where Sleepy's midget was stored when it came over. So it turns up on the transporter and unloaded - then the cops swoop! When it was on the wharves the drug dogs were really interested in it, specially the hump. When they opened it up they didn't find drugs but engine parts. Some druggy must've been pushing it onto the boat. Sleepy got into trouble, fined and I think he had to miss a meeting or two.
Of course he had flattracked bikes when a lad, so he wasn't too bad out there on a bike.
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Cool, good story. I can remember he had the first of was it the torsion bar setup? Instead of the ordinary ol' ladder type chassis? Everyone else was hammering around as per normal and he comes around the outside with the inside front wheel pawing the air a coupla feet off the ground. Looked awesome at the time. Especially in those luvverly VW powered cars with the big K and N's out each side, they were just the schizz as far as I was concerned, and sounded great too.
....see how hard it is OP, to try and compete for track time or interest from speedway types...cant get a look in for the overiding interest in 'cars'...we used to play on country speedways a lot...sometimes we got rocks thrown at us by tintop fuckwits who reckoned we were stealing their track time...
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