For the 19th year, the roads around Nelson’s port area are closed off and the petrol heads take over. It’s rather old-fashioned, in that the spectators can get really close to the action with the minimum of interference from barriers and fences. Here are some shot to give you the flavour of the event. I’ll post some more of the racing images later (for the motorbike enthusiasts). Or you can check them out on my pBase gallery, here.
The winner of the elite classes was a very fast Suzuki ridden by last year’s winner, Dennis Charlett. He was reaching speeds of more than 195 km/hr, not bad for a tight street circuit.
The riding style for these bikes is very different from that seen on the ‘Supermoto’ class. Here’s the traditional, very elegant style I’m used to:
Whereas the Supermoto riders are much more upright. Note how careful the rider must be with the throttle. They have a lot of power, so winding it on too early can cause the front end to lift. Too early and there may be problems:
Actually, this guy timed it perfectly. That first corner after the longest straight did prove difficult at times though. Just before I arrived there was a serious accident amongst the Supermotos, with a rider being taken off with back injuries. Here’s another incident, fortunately with no injury at all. Whe one of the front runners falls off, things get very congested:
A few running repairs and he’s off again.
There was a good crowd, with some characters amongst them. This guy had obviously been here last year, he’d even bought the tee-shirt:
while these next spectators were part of a large group from Hokitika. They had got hold of a large truck which was parked at a really good spot with grandstand seating set up on the tray, giving them an excellent view (and lots of shade). They were mostly dressed in the same uniform, complete with policeman hats (which they said they had to take back at the end of the day, sadly). I thought they looked great – reminded me of Y.M.C.A and the Village People.
We met again again the next day, out at Mapua (where I could see that they were riding some impressive gear), but that’s another story.
Once again great photos and coverage of what is a premier even in Nelson. Shame it was not a 2-3 day race meeting attracting international riders. Would realy feel like the Isle of Man TT. We had a fantastic day and met some very intertesting people from all over the world.
hi guys wer 5 lads from liverpool thinking about a trip to port nelson street races can any one tell me wen its on and wat airport to fly in to wer all bikers and been going to the I O M T T races for a long time just fancy a change thanks for any info p .s not very good on conputer as you can tell
It is always on in Jan – next one is Wed 2 Jan 2013 – there is an airport in Nelson but only takes regional flights so you would fly uk (can fly from Manchester) to Auckland then get internal flight to Nelson – you’d have to google renting bikes here as got some of best biking roads in the world (I’m from UK but living in Nelson now)