Vandals hitting the Wairarapa Motorcycle Club are a bigger headache than claims new jumps at the club track are dangerous for riders, says club president Vic Jacobson.
He was skeptical about non-club members questioning the safety of two new jumps and said the club was much more concerned with vandalism.
Last week
a wood and tin shed, which was to have been an ablution block, was torched by vandals while the club's water tank, which fed its only flush toilet, was stripped of its piping.
He said the fence at the front of the 15ha property has been cut through and breeched on more than one occasion.
"Quite honestly we've had more vandalism problems than anything else, in the whole time I've been with the club I've never heard about anybody being carted away from an accident at this track," he said.
The club is an exclusive members-only organisation that follows stringent licensing and safety rules set down by Motorcycling New Zealand.
It is well signposted with warnings and is as secure as the club's finances would allow, he said.
"If parents choose to allow their kids to do anything more extreme after reading signs then we can't be held responsible.
"We give our members access to the property and if they can't be responsible for their own actions then it's hard for us to police that.
"We're extending the track to get it to the national standard and we're making the track longer.
"If motocross is your chosen sport then you have to be able to train and ride on tracks that occur nationally and internationally," he said.
The new jumps, now just preformed mounds, would be an extension to the existing motocross track at the South Road, Masterton, grounds to be completed by February and still need to be settled, regraded and dressed.
Mr Jacobson said the club couldn't be held responsible for outsiders' misuse of the grounds.
"Quite honestly you can't legislate against stupidity.
"Nobody in their right mind would jump either way off these jumps."
