Fresh from competing at the Bonneville Speed Week, Indian Motorcycle’s Spirit of Munro Indian Scout land speed bike – piloted by none other than Burt Munro’s great-nephew Lee Munro – has been confirmed to be heading to New Zealand in early 2019.
While discussing his recent assault on the Bonneville Salt in which the Spirit of Munro achieved a maximum speed of 192.74mph, Lee let us know that not only will the bike be heading ‘home’ to New Zealand, it’ll be a star attraction at the 2019 Burt Munro Challenge in February.
“The bike will be here for February and the Burt Munro Challenge, Lee told BRM. The Burt Munro Challenge were actually one of our sponsors this year and they put in a big effort to make sure that I go there and without their help, I wouldn’t have got there.”
So what is the plan for the Spirit of Munro’s debut on New Zealand soil?
“We’d like to do a demo run to open the beach racing, so it’d be nice if we could get the bike out there and do like a good blast up and down the beach on the beach circuit just to open the inaugural beach races. I think that’d be ideal because at the end of the day that’s where Burt cut his teeth and tested his bike, and it’s also where I grew up so it makes sense to get there and do it.”
Along with the bike hopefully opening proceedings on Oreti Beach, it will also have a strong display presence at the Burt Munro Challenge.
“It’s fitting I think, the bike will be on show for the meeting as well, so if people want to come and take photos with the bike and have a chat we’ll be there, Lee says.
“The effort that the Burt Munro Challenge is putting in is huge. It’s no small feat to get a motorcycle brought over from America for just a week. These guys have got the love and the passion. When you see things on the internet its great, but when you can actually touch the bike and get a photo with the bike, see it, hear it, smell it, it means a lot to us as New Zealanders because we’re so far away we miss out on a lot that goes on in the world and if you can’t get there what better way than to bring it to us. Massive ups to the Burt Munro Challenge for making it happen.”
After successfully moving from its traditional November dates to February for the 12th running of the event, the 13th Burt Munro Challenge sticks with the sunnier summer weather and takes place from February 7th to February 10th 2019.
For info on the Burt Munro Challenge and other motorcycle events, make sure you check out motoevents.nz for NZ’s most comprehensive list of motorcycling events.
