New Zealand Tourist Trophy and other NZ Motorcycle Races

[Roger Dowding]

The New Zealand Tourist Trophy Race - for Motorcycles was first run in June 1931 on Waiheke Island.
The roads used were a 6 and 3/4 mile circuit starting in Ostend and running through Onetangi back over the hills above Palm Beach and down to Ostend.
Roads used were Ostend Road - the start, to Onetangi Road, hard left turn into Sea View Road and up over the hills between Onetangi and Palm Beach back to Ostend Road

Waiheke was used from 1931 to 1950 [ a break from 1941 until 1946 because of the War ] and after 1950 went onto the Mainland, at Seagrove, a circuit at Mangere and later Pukekohe.

This is a collection of images from the Newspapers of the day " Auckland Star " and " New Zealand Herald ".

Other images are from a website called " Barnstormers " and also from Graeme Staples " jellywrestler " archives.

Map of the proposed Track of 7 and 1/2 miles - Auckland Star archives - May 1931.

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Map of the Track as used 3 June 1931 - 6 and 3/4 miles - remove the loop around Belgium St, Wharf Road and back up Ostend Road to Sea View Road intersection where the start line was.
[ Graeme Staples archives ].

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A couple of photos - with notes from the 1st Events. N Z Herald archives. As found by John Dowding - my cousin and who incidentally now owns our Grandmothers house at Waiheke, which has a view of a small part of the track " Devils Bend ".

3rd June 1931
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The event moved to summer and was held in January 1932.
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More to come, and this is the thread for any NZ Motorcycle racing images.

Cheers

Roger

[jellywrestler]

When I wrote my book -----Spydas Guide to New Zealand Motorcycle Road Racing Circuits---- I measureed each and every circuit and this came out at 5 1/4 8.5kms, not the 6 3/4 as was on the map.
Roger sent me the 'other' circuit diagram today, which i had not seen, the map as used is one i always thought was used, and was used but of course now i need to double check whether in fact this actually was used early on. I have the History of the Auckland Motorcycle Club here now to start that research.

[jellywrestler]

Thanks Roger for starting this thread, I'm sure we'll enjoy some stuff coming out of the woodwork....

[jellywrestler]

Sid Moses pictured in the first thread was in charge of metrication of nz's money,Winning at the Waiheke Island TT gave him an entry to the Isle of Man TT that was the reward dangled in front of them. Sid was the first kiwi to finish a IOMTT in 1933 from memory, I visited him in the late 90's he showed me the scar on his arm 60 years since he'd hurt himself in practice.
He still raced and completed a race in that condition. You could imagine the injury must have been a beauty to have that still visible after 60 odd years.
The waiheke Island event was essentially NZ's first road race, certainly first actual street race and it was on an island in the middle of the sea in winter, not fun. It was to imitate the IOMTT which was run at the same time, Queens/Kings birthday here. Teo things, the IOM is at the start of their summer that time of the year and the winner wouldn't be there to defend their title if the race had continued at that date, seomthing they may not have considered.....

[Milan Fistonic]

Some info from the programme for the 25th NZTT held at Mangere on February 21, 1959.

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[Roger Dowding]

Milan, thanks for those images with the results.

Also interesting in reading the Len Perry article is the mention of " Billings Store " at Devils Bend.

Used to shop there for my grandmother in the late 1950's, and then on to Crocker where we would get a packet of cigarettes and put them on Grandma;s account there. Only manged to do it a couple of times,though .

Waiheke Island businesses put out a Fun Map in 1948 - a very stylised version of the Island.
Devils Bend is where " Patterson's " Truck is on the map, at the corner of Onetangi Road and Sea View Road.

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Photo of the winner Sid Moses at the NZ TT in 1931 - from the Central Supply Co archives.

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The T - shirt that started the NZ TT search.

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After reading the articles should have bought the " Velocette " logo one

[Roger Dowding]

More from the NZ Herald archives and the " Barnstormers " website post.

S Moses - winner in 1934, 3rd win in four years.

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Images from1949

Senior TT
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Junior TT
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[Roger Dowding]

NZ TT 1950..2nd January 1950. New Year public holiday, New Zealand they had the 1st and the day after off, and still do. Not so across the Ditch ..

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Camping out at Onetangi for those that couldn't stay in a Bach,or wanted to be in a group - all part of the event

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The Programme Cover [ one of the ones as shown on another thread - they belong here ].

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[jellywrestler]

The GP Triumph in post number 8 is an interesting beast. Normal triumphs have splayed out exhaust pipes, these ones go out the front parrallel. Up until then they had iron head and barrells but these are alloy. During the war triumph made an engine for the lancaster bombers to run the generator for the electrics, the put alloy head and barrells on it, straightened the exhausts to narrow it up and all. On the side of these barrells there's a cast in alloy block half way up, some are drilled some not on bikes. The genuine GP triumphs are not drilled but if they were generators on the planes they were drilled and an air directing plate attached for cooling. There are plenty of replicas around as the generator sets were not uncommon and ripping bits of them was an upgrade for your bike. NZ's Dene Hollier, of car racing fame, got fifth in the 1949 IOMTT on a GP, the factory gave him the bike.
He then put another engine, a 350 AJS from memory, into it as he wanted the same chassis for the 500 and 350cc class. This pissed off both AJS and Triumph at the time although to be fair triumph didn't have a didn't 350 race bike then

[Roger Dowding]

Spanning a few decades.

the 1934 Programme Cover;
as mentioned on another thread a scan of a copy of a copy !!

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The NZ TT Organisers - the Club and later the Auto - Cycle Union, had based the Race on the Isle of Man TT and a rider or riders were invited to the event on the other side of the world - held in the Northern Summer - June.

[jellywrestler]

The NZTT is still an active trophy, Uusally at the Auckland Motorcycle club annual meeting, but not always. This year classes outside of the NZSBK, new zealand superbike championships, will be competed for at the Cemetery Circuit on boxing day. The NZSBK didn't happen in 2022 so there was no chance of it running. for those classes.

[Roger Dowding]

S Moses was very successful in 4 years 1931 to 1934, 3 wins and a second as noted in this brief newspaper cutting

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Having difficulty with extracting the images from the National Library archives as they are in " Gif " format
- not Jpg or JPEG. Could be the old system I use- Windows Vista, or the lack of skills by the operator !!
- Just thinking.

[Roger Dowding]

These reports appeared in an article - with credit to the New Zealand Motorcyclist - from Graeme " Spyda " Staples archives.
Have edited them in to 2 or 3 years to scan here

1931 - 32

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1933 - 34

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1935 part 1936.

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1936 part and 1937.

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To follow 1938 1939 1940 1941 then the war years no events 1942 - 1945 and after 1946 - 1950

[Roger Dowding]

1938 - 1939 - 1940.

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1941, 1946 - 1947.

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The last events

1948 - 1950.
Before the event went to Seagrove for 1951 and later to Mangere in the 1950's 1952 on.

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The Heading of the article with the Map of the Track.

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[bry3500]

Off the web

[Allan]

Inflation was alive and well between 1951 and 1954 I see.

[jellywrestler]

Off the web

just picked up 69 of these mags in CHCH on monday, some cool reading.

[Roger Dowding]

As has been posted on another thread, by " jellywrestler " the last " Classic " Motorcycle meeting has been held at Pukekohe - and probably the last Motorcycle event, ever ..

Back in November 1963 a " Clubmans Day " Motorcycle Event was held at the " new " track.
I was recently given some Programme's from Pukekohe by Auckland Car Club and Northern Sports Car Club and in the middle of a Car Programme was this..

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Have taken copies and the " original " with all the handwritten notes is going to " Jw " soon.

[jellywrestler]

yip final competitive motorcycle event at pukekohe park.

[jellywrestler]

This man raced at an incredible 26 circuits in new zealand and won many an NZTT and NZGP as well as NZ Championships, approx ten of them. racing career starts at 59 minutes https://www.youtube.com/live/2RQu8U1d4Kc?feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2ajUewG2ln0CJca5lNgitFZO48ue2ma2b3UG_G3-4_6fvgg7NvX430lAU

[bry3500]

This man raced at an incredible 26 circuits in new zealand and won many an NZTT and NZGP as well as NZ Championships, approx ten of them. racing career starts at 59 minutes https://www.youtube.com/live/2RQu8U1d4Kc?feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2ajUewG2ln0CJca5lNgitFZO48ue2ma2b3UG_G3-4_6fvgg7NvX430lAU

The man himself

[Roger Dowding]

The last events on Waiheke Island were held on 31st December 1949 and 2nd January 1950 - New Years Day must have been a lay day ..

Poster from the Last Event - posted on the Waiheke Historic Facebook page.

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The event moved to Seagrove Airfield for 1951 then Mangere until 1958 as seen the results - and again for 1959, 1960 and 1961.

There were Motorcycle Races at Ardmore in 1960 and 1961, which were noted as the Ardmore Motorcycle Classic - a Race of 12 laps = 24 miles.

For 1962 both the Junior and Senior New Zealand Tourist Trophy [ NZ TT ] events were held in conjunction with the New Zealand International Grand Prix at Ardmore Saturday January 6th.
The Senior TT was 25 laps = 50 miles and the Junior TT 12 laps = 24 Miles - same as the previous two years Ardmore Classic.
Junior TT was for machines up to 350cc and Senior TT machines up to 500cc
Thanks to Milan Fistonic for the image .. [ posted before ].

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[Milan Fistonic]

Quote - The last events on Waiheke Island were held on 31st December 1949 and 2nd January 1950 - New Years Day must have been a lay day ..

January 1, 1950 was a Sunday, which could be why there was no racing that day.

[jellywrestler]

Quote - The last events on Waiheke Island were held on 31st December 1949 and 2nd January 1950 - New Years Day must have been a lay day ..

January 1, 1950 was a Sunday, which could be why there was no racing that day.

i think traditionally they didn't race on the island on New Years Day as a rule anyway. As for racing on a sunday it was quite OK to do so, but for many years you could not pay prize money. Quite a few of the cemetery circuit races were the day after boxing day as riders wanted prize monies.

[Roger Dowding]

Programme Covers from a couple of the early events 1932 and 1936.

From Graeme " jellywrestler " Staples collection.

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Graeme is looking for any programmes and other items on the TT Races held originally on Waiheke Island from 1931 ..

[Roger Dowding]

Very confused now - these two images .. should have read closely **
posted on page one. a very poor quality image which has been enlarged.

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Image from " jellywrestler ", posted on the " Historic Waiheke - Facebook page.

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If the events started in 1931 - should be the Fourth TT, not the Fifth,
Did they hold two events in the same year ?? .

**
.- yes they did the Fourth on 29th January 1934 and he Fifth on 29th December 1934.
Later they ran a Senior and Junior TT over two different days ..

[jellywrestler]

The minute size of the piccies needed o here is a headache, I should find a quick easy way to resize as right now i seem to have to do it in several steps. Must try harder.

The first race was june 1931, emulating the IOMTT on an island etc. It ws very creditable but apart from some races at hennings speedway loosely under the road racing format there had been no other road races in nz and certainly no lead up to either test the endurance and abilities of the competitors, or the popularity. All this in winter, in a depression.
By 1932 it was in January, in summer so common sense prevailed.

later, post war as Roger had said they ran two races, a Junior for up to 350cc macines usually new years eve, and a Senior for 500cc early in the new year, jan 1 or 2nd, they mondayised meetings where possible as it wasn't against the law to race but it was against the law to pay prize money. I have many duplicate NZTT programmes from Waiheke Island, Seagrove, Mangere and pukekohe park available and many CUT NZGP spares too if anyone is after copies

[jellywrestler]

January 1, 1950 was a Sunday, which could be why there was no racing that day. it was fine to race on a sunday, but they couldn't pay prize money hence mondayising it a few cemetery circuits were 27th dec not boxing day

[bry3500]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAJsSmpUn7I&list=WL&index=4&ab_channel=McLarenArchive

[Roger Dowding]

Bry3500,
- They can't claim the " First North Island Road Race " unless they mean Mainland North Island NZ ..
maybe they meant " First North Inland Road Race "

Just thinking.

[jellywrestler]

Bry3500,
- They can't claim the " First North Island Road Race " unless they mean Mainland North Island NZ ..
maybe they meant " First North Inland Road Race "

Just thinking.

there was a motorcycle class at the 1933 Orakei street races too, to be fair magazines were spasmodic in those days and people didn't now what had gone on elsewhere often, we didn't have these forums to discuss things, There was also road races held at Seagrove prior to this meeting too.
There was a race in Brunswick near wanganui labour weekend 1948, I scored a programme for that meeting two weeks ago, but that followed the 1948 hamilton 100 too.

[Oldfart]

It does say in the commentary that "it's the first road race in the North Island where the roads have been specially closed for the race".
100 miles, 100 entrants!!!!!

[bry3500]

It does say in the commentary that "it's the first road race in the North Island where the roads have been specially closed for the race".
100 miles, 100 entrants!!!!!

The plot thickens :)

[jellywrestler]

It does say in the commentary that "it's the first road race in the North Island where the roads have been specially closed for the race".
100 miles, 100 entrants!!!!!

1st motorcycle only event 1933 Orakei was car and bike

[Roger Dowding]

A Montage of photos from the archives of Hec Cole - posted in the November 2022 NZ Memories Magazine.

They show Hec and a fellow Motorcycle Courier in 1940 - in WW2, Photo A

Events around Auckland in the 1920's including Motorcycle Football at Blandford Park in Grafton - now part of the Grafton Motorway section.

Photo B is the start of a run to Beachlands from Greenlane in 1925,
Photo C - middle Top - A Days outing from Remuera
Photos D -set of 3 - middle Motorcycle Football at Blandford Park top and bottom and Hennings in 1926
Photos E Len Coulthard at a Hill Climb in Mt Roskill 1926 and on a track
Photos F - a pair Racing at Takapuna 1920's and in 1935.

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[jellywrestler]

fantastic set of piccies, not sure whther D hennings speedway 1926 is correct, The facility wasn't opened till 1929. I recently was given 5 late 1920's early 30's grasstrack programmes from takapuna and kensington park and Len Coulthards name is there a few times

[Roger Dowding]

fantastic set of piccies, not sure whether D hennings speedway 1926 is correct, The facility wasn't opened till 1929. I recently was given 5 late 1920's early 30's grasstrack programmes from takapuna and kensington park and Len Coulthards name is there a few times

" jw ", I do not know, just what was in the article - well the notes with the photos ;

- Blandford Park, however I do remember as used to be taken there as a Youngster to watch the Soccer Matches, especially if Grafton was playing, as my Dad had played Senior Team Soccer for them in the late 1930's into the 1940 Season.
This was before he left to join the " Fleet Air Arm " on the ill-fated " Rangitane " Voyage in November 1940 - sunk by a German Raider the " Orion " off the Coast of New Zealand.

Had read about Motorcycle Racing at Takapuna, but never seen pictures

[jellywrestler]

seeing things that may not be correct on a forum and noting them often either brings out the correct details, or disproves the person who says something, they are great things for searching further. I'd love to post more piccies here but i have not eaily mastered dropping picture quality so low, must spend some time on that as i have so much stuff to post. Busy busy these days too
I travelled south a couple of months ago and spent $2k on programmes, that was what i offered, i now have 27 odd page list of what i have and there's oodles of stuff in them.
great info about blanford park, i have read a bit on it

[Oldfart]

JW, a quote from you 14th Oct "There was also road races held at Seagrove prior to this meeting too." Were these held on the roads at Seagrove, or on the airfield? What qualifies as "Road Races", I visited a number of the Northern Ireland road venues apart from being insane, they have to be on roads, not constructed circuits

[GregT]

In the motorcycling world a roadrace circuit has a formed surface and has both left and right hand turns. Historically the surface can be almost anything from rolled and oiled dirt to modern hotmix. But it's as smooth as possible.
It's quite distict from a motocross cicuit which should have a "natural" surface - albeit often roughly graded.Usually including jumps.
The Irish "real roads" circuits these days are an anomaly. I think Ireland and NZ probably have more surviving than anywhere else. sadly I suspect their days are numbered.
Spyda knows more about the Seagrove setup than me,

[Oldfart]

Thanks GregT. I suspect that may be why there can be a level of confusion, as for the last 6 decades I have assumed a "road race" to be on roads, not circuits.

[GregT]

The "Road race" term I assume came about to differentiate between scrambles/Motocross on a soft surface and races held on a hard formed surface.
"Scrambles" held on rough ground were certainly run here well before WW2. My father talked of riding in them as well as Hillclimbing around the Canterbury area

In Europe and the USA of course there were "Track" races on banked tracks like Brooklands and the board tracks. If you want to get awkward about it, I've seen the racing at some Uk circuits prewar described as "Path racing"

It can be a bit of a minefield..

[jellywrestler]

JW, a quote from you 14th Oct "There was also road races held at Seagrove prior to this meeting too." Were these held on the roads at Seagrove, or on the airfield? What qualifies as "Road Races", I visited a number of the Northern Ireland road venues apart from being insane, they have to be on roads, not constructed circuits

In NZ we have rule books for road racing and other classes, it's about the style of bike rather than venues. Seagrove did some racing on the airstrip and some including the NZTT on a combination of the airfield and the roads at the facility. In my book New Zealand Motorcycle Road Racing Circuits I covered Airfeild, closed circuits, street circuits (like cemetery circuits 1 mile downtown) and road races, like pateas 10 mile 16 km circuit. I've covered 160 venues inc variations of them in nz, for the airfield ones i only covered one version at each venue, as the layout was often a fixed route yet corners varied due to traffic cone placemnet on wide open spaces effectively giving them endless options. hope that claifies things?