Top Left : Three-time winner Graeme Crosby on the Heron Suzuki race bike for Daytona 1970 Bottom Left : Graeme Crosby and Pops Yoshimura face the press Top Right : Bruce Anstey admires the Britten on the island Bottom Right : Shaun Harris celebrates 1000cc victory in 2003
Halswell , Mangare , Taumarunui , Wanganui , Gisborne , Whakatane , Paeroa , Te Aroha , Gracfield , and Manukau to mention just a few . In the 1970s the Ceramco Grand Prix was run in the streets of Auckland , and a festival road race in the streets of Dunedin . Street racing is pivotal in the history of motorcycle racing in this country . Purpose built race tracks were expensive , and airfields , which were often used , were
featureless and lacked the excitement of street racing . A shift away from street racing in most countries began in the 1960s , but it didn ’ t really bite until the island lost its World Championship status in the 1970s . It was a blow to the event when riders like Giacomo Agostini , Phil Read and Rod Gould boycotted the meeting . In 1976 the FIM , the world governing body of motorcycle sport , stripped the TT of its Grand Prix status , and
KIWI RIDER 73