[Russ Noble]

Bert Munro put Invercargill (where?) on the map when that mighty film was released. Invercargill is also host to the worlds southernmost international motorracing circuit, namely Teretonga Park.

Christchurch has a modern day equivalent in the form of the late John Brittan who also built his own bike and took on the might of the factory teams at Daytona and beat them.

And there is another lesser known guy by the name of Phil Garrett who more recently built his own side car outfit and broke the world landspeed record for the class (1000cc n/a, I think) on a closed public road just out of town here with fences and telegraph poles an either side of the road!! They weren't a problem, it was the undulations and camber changes on the road that made it almost uncontrolable and limitted the speed of the machine. It was way below it's potential but still managed to beat the existing record,held by another NZer, Bob Burns, by about 30mph. That outfit has been sold to a racer from the States whose name escapes me at the present time, but he has no legs!! He has already had it to Bonneville and last I heard had exceeded the speed but only on a oneway run so the record still stands.

Both John and Phil achieved their results on homebuilt machines crafted by a team of enthusiasts and built on an absolute shoestring. The spirit of Burt Munro is still alive and well.

Ross, it was good to meet up with you, I have no idea where the time went, it was amost interesting day. Good luck with your next race meeting, we await results.

Cheers