One of the original
instigators... Mike Ramsey
off-road riders coming from USA,
Australia, New Caledonia, UK and
Canada, many of whom found it
difficult to put up a serious bid for the
overall win.
Ben Townley cut his teeth in this
event in the early days when he was
sponsored by Bel-Ray and always had
a passion to win and beat Mark Fuller.
This actually happened one year,
not long after his hard earned World
Championship.
FINALS PRIZE GIVING
In less PC days, the prize givings
were almost legendary. Once the
official part was done, the trophies
and product prizes handed out and
the speeches all done (just about
everyone did a speech in the early
days), it was down to hard celebrating
and reliving the day’s riding with your
mates. Needless to say, some very late
nights and early mornings followed.
Hopefully I will have a DVD compiled
to view at the 25th celebration.
Whilst I am no longer involved in the
motorcycle industry, I still like to keep
an eye on the results and occasionally
pop in to an event to catch up with
the old lot. See you all at the 25th
Anniversary final.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For the early part of the Bel-Ray
history, the following farmers
must be acknowledged for their
huge input: Grant & Miles Dickey,
Dennis & Jill Kerr, Stuart & Caroline
Eyre, Wally Smith, The Dixon
Family, Brooks Family, Ted & Rose
Marshall, Duncan McNaugton,
Sunset Station, Ian Smith, The
Fuller Family, Earl Lapwood,
McGovern Family, Warwick & Trish
Smith, Vinning Families, Stark
Family and Bateup Family.
Also, the following gave their
weekend gladly for a few ales
and a good ride to help put it all
together. In no particular order:
Grant & Miles Dickey, Raymond
Reid, Ian Freer, Craig & Janine
Kerr, Martin Morgan, Grant
Dixon, Patrick & Donna Bird,
Warrick & Trish Smith, The Smith
brothers Blair, Damon & Nigel,
Stuart Eyre, Duncan McNaughton,
Lianne Marshall, Mark Fuller,
Tracey Fuller, Rob & Marcie Hintz,
Kay Ramsey, Jaime Stark, Mrs
Vera Riddle, Ed Heistand, Colin
Bousfield, Brent Hollister, James
& Fiona Fowley, Grant Dixon,
Marlene Dickey, Jason & Vanessa
Blenkhorn, Cliff Dixon, Paul Bailey,
Calvin & Janne Dixon, Jimmy
McNeill, Larry Baker, Colin Slater,
Bronwyn Slater, Sandra Healey,
Andrew & Karrin Singer, Heather
& Neville Barr, Dave Berridge, Paul
Whittle, Warren & Sue Moorfield,
Murray (Mo) Perry & Chris Evans.
The Te Kauwhata St Johns and
Len Dillon deserve a very special
thanks for their huge support to
the Bel-Ray during its early history.
Len and his volunteers attended
to some very accomplished riders
during this time and always with
professionalism.
Silver Bullet and John Rushworth.
John pioneered a scoring system
that he continued to tweak over
the years which provided a
welcome exit from the old tried
and true manual lap scoring
methods. This not only meant that
results were out quickly for prize
giving, but there was also a lap-by-
lap print out, and the results.
KIWI RIDER 39