Burt Munro Challenge 2022: the Speedway Spectaculars exhibit is coming
Ask any motorcycle enthusiast in this neck of the woods, and they’re bound to tell you the same thing: nothing beats the Burt.
The team at Classic Motorcycle Mecca is no different. The annual Burt Munro Challenge is our favourite time of the year. We’re already fizzing for February, and planning for what we’ll have in store for visitors to our museum is well underway.
We’re excited to announce that guests visiting Classic Motorcycle Mecca during the Burt Munro Challenge 2022 will get to check out our upcoming temporary display – Speedway Spectaculars – set to open at the end of 2021.
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Celebrating the sport that promises “racing out of this world” – and sees almost 13,000 Kiwi competitors and crew take part during the season between Labour Weekend and Easter every year – the limited-time-only display is bound to be one motorbike fans enjoy.
Speedway has long been popular throughout New Zealand: the first Speedway meeting for motorbikes was held at English Park in Christchurch back in 1928. Since then, the sport has gone from strength to strength. Now more than 20 venues up and down the country are home to meets that regularly draw crowds of thousands, all there to get a taste of exhilaration and excitement.
Classic Motorcycle Mecca volunteer Colin Clark hopes Burt Munro Challenge 2022 visitors will be excited to check out some of the bikes ridden by the best in Speedway.
“It has a huge following not just here in New Zealand, but around the world. You just have to look to the likes of Burt Munro, who we celebrate every February, to see that we love stories about Kiwis taking on big names from the States, the UK, all over the world. Speedway is a bit like that too,” he says. “New Zealand’s a small country, but our top Speedway competitors are able to go up against the best in the world and give them a run for their money. Our exhibit is going to share some of the stories of the best of the best, and give people an up-close view of the bikes they ride.”
The atmosphere at Classic Motorcycle Mecca during the Burt Munro Challenge is always great fun, Colin says.
“The Burt for me is all about showcasing the quite incredible collection we have here at Classic Motorcycle Mecca, and meeting new people – as well as catching up with visitors who have been here previously,” he says.
“Being the largest motorcycle event held in this part of the world, the variety in the different types of racing and all of the social events, make the Burt Munro Challenge what it is. People look forward to it all year, and it’s not hard to see why.”
Our workshop manager and museum curator Graeme Williams agrees.
“It’s in the name – the Burt Munro Challenge,” he says. “People coming for the rally, whether as participants or as spectators, get their enjoyment from the challenge aspect of it all, right from their trip down to Invercargill. Sometimes they have to overcome challenging weather, there’s the distance of getting here in the first place, and the mechanical challenge that comes with taking older, less advanced machines on a longer-distance ride. People take a lot of satisfaction out of overcoming those challenges.
“That’s part of the appeal, and so is getting to an event with other like-minded people. The Burt Munro Challenge has a very unique atmosphere and being able to enjoy that with other enthusiasts is a big part of what draws people back again and again.”
The way the whole city of Invercargill celebrates everything wheeled during the challenge just adds to the atmosphere, he says.
“The whole city really gets into it, and the fact that we have two world-class automotive museums in Bill Richardson Transport World and Classic Motorcycle Mecca shows how much the people of Invercargill embrace the people coming here for the rally,” he says.
The Speedway Spectaculars exhibit won’t be the only drawcard to visit the leading classic motorcycle collection in the Southern Hemisphere during the Burt Munro Challenge 2022.
Stay tuned here to find out what else we’ll be showcasing at our museum – and make sure you get amongst the atmosphere the team at Meccaspresso have lined up too. Click here to find out more.