Rev up the bikes for the Burt Munro Challenge

JOHN HAWKINS/ The Southland Times

READY TO RACE?: Aaron Green is a picture of concentration as he gets ready to ride in the Bluff Hill Climb. Green won the open class of the event with a fastest time of 50.11 seconds on the 1.4km course.

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Thousands have begun roaring into Invercargill for the Burt Munro Challenge weekend.

More than 3000 people are expected to flock to the city for the four-day event, which kicked off yesterday with the Bluff Hill Climb.

Several hundred people gathered to watch the 1.4km hill sprint, the first time an uphill motorcycling race has been held in Bluff in 13 years.

The open-class title went to Gore's Aaron Green, who saw off the challenge of Shane Livingstone and Andrew Stroud. In the up-to-600cc class, Invercargill-raised Jason Feaver shattered his outright hill record from 1997 with a 49.01-second ride. Tim George was the star of the show in the ATV quad class, while Kevin Ryan took out the pre-63 and pre-72 class and Chris McMeeken claimed the classic pre-89 category.

While the wind was so strong it blew hay bales across the road, the conditions did little to deter the enthusiasm of entrants and spectators eager for action and organisers are expecting the excitement to continue.

Following on from yesterday's hill climb will be beach racing this afternoon at Oreti Beach.

Sprint races will be held at Teretonga tomorrow, with a speedway spectacular keeping the crowds buzzing tomorrow night.

The action will finish with the popular Wyndham Street Race on Sunday.

Running in conjunction with the racing is the rally at Oreti Park. The park has been transformed into a tent city by thousands of motorcyclists keen to soak up the live entertainment and action throughout the weekend.

Among the spectators watching the action yesterday was Pam Aldworth, of Wellsford, north of Auckland. The avid motorcycle fan was unable to explain why there were so many die-hard motorcycle enthusiasts.

"If you have to be told, you'll never understand," she said.

Southland Motorcycle Club committee member Anthony Edwards, who is still competing despite suffering a broken collar bone, concussion, second-degree burns and a broken finger in a serious crash three weeks ago, said the allure of motorcycle racing was just too great to stay away. "It's a sickness, mate, once you've got it you can never get rid of it."

The excitement of motorcycle racing was also brought to the fore at the launch of Roger Donaldson's book The World's Fastest Indian last night. Launched at the Ascot Park Hotel, the book chronicles the achievements of Southland icon Burt Munro.

Three of Munro's children, who were at the launch, said they were thrilled with the stories in the book and proud the achievements of their father had prompted such an exciting weekend of events.

"It's bloody good fun," son John said.

Daughters Gwen Henderson and Margaret Popenhagen said the book instantly transported them back in time.

"There were quotes from Dad and that was wonderful because they were verbatim and I could hear him as I was reading it," Mrs Henderson said.

Southland Motorcycle Club president Dave Morris said the weekend was jam-packed with excitement and the launch of the book added to that.