ROGER MORONEY
At the end of the second day of the three-day World's Fastest Indian and Classic Motorcycle Show in Hastings Paul Chambers of Clive was all smiles and almost lost for words.
"We are just blown away by this," he said as he and son Adam, whose road-racing career inspired
classic bike enthusiasts Eric McDougal and Jim Thorne to organise the show, met and mingled with hundreds of visitors to their stand.
Adam's racing career is on the rise, and for the past two seasons he has staked a solid place in the top three of the highly competitive 125GP racing class.
Now the teenager is aiming at the fast and furious 600 Production class on a Kawasaki ZX6RR.
But a major racing campaign is not cheap, and that's where Eric and Jim came in.
"We set ourselves a target of raising about $30,000 for Adam and I think we'll be nudging close to that," Mr Thorne said.
On Saturday about 1500 people attended the show, where the Burt Munro Indian was the undoubted star, and on Sunday that figure was doubled.
They expected another good turn-out today.
Motorcycle enthusiasts young and not so young cast admiring eyes over a gleaming landscape of Nortons, BSAs, Matchless, AJS, Triumphs, Harleys, Indians (of course) Moto Guzzis and even a rare 350 MV Agusta and the remarkable Plastic Fantastic race bike campaigned in the 1980s by the late Robert Holden.
"There would be $4 million of bikes in here," Mr Thorne said, pointing out that about 98 per cent of the 140-odd bikes on show were locally owned.
Adam said he had picked up a couple of new sponsors who approached his display stand, and said he was itching the get more miles on the sparkling new Kawasaki and prepare it for a couple of winter race outings in readiness for the national series in summer.
But what about Burt's Indian. Would he have fancied a twist of that throttle?
"Oh I don't know about that," he laughed.
"I think I'll stick to the 600."
