MOTORCYCLING NEW ZEALAND - International Honours Board

A list of International motorcycling achievements, dates and events of special interest involving New Zealanders.

Please note that FIM World Championship wins are in bold print. Also included are top ten world Championship and TT results as well as other major events of international significance. This document was proudly compiled by Ray Whitham / Nov 2002.

This document covers almost 100 years of Motorcycling in New Zealand and has been divided into the following time periods; 1910 - 1949, 1950 - 1959, 1960 - 1969, 1970 - 1979, 1980 - 1989, 1990 - 1999 and 2000 - 2002, 2003, 2004- to present.

The Appendix for all periods is below.

Alan Woodman, who in 1910 was the first New Zealander to enter for the Isle of Man TT races did not get to race. He crashed in practice and lost a leg.

Hugh Anderson is New Zealand’s “most capped” road race competitor with 25 Grand Prix wins and 4 World Championships.

A New Zealander has never won the world 500cc Road Racing Championship (now the MotoGP championship) although four, Ginger Molloy (1970) Keith Turner (1971) Kim Newcombe (1973) and Graeme Crosby (1982) have finished in the runner-up position.

Aaron Slight is the only rider to win the Suzuka 8-Hour race three years in succession.

Graeme Crosby won the Daytona 200 and the Imola 200 in the same year, an honour he shares with Giacomo Agostini as the only riders ever to achieve this double.  Crosby however is the only rider ever to win each of the Daytona 200, Imola 200, the Suzuka 8-Hour and an Isle of Man TT.

As of June 2002 eight New Zealander’s have won a total of 11 Isle of Man TT’s.

NZ motorsport history is rich with examples of competitors building or developing machinery that has ultimately proved internationally competitive.  Kim Newcombe developed the German Koenig 500cc GP racer, Keith Turner’s 1971 Grand Prix TR 500 Suzuki was developed in New Zealand, David Hiscock campaigned the “Plastic Fantastic” F1 Suzuki developed and built by Steve Roberts in Wanganui, and the revolutionary Britten bike was created by the late John Britten in Christchurch.

Motorcycle sport has brought New Zealand 22 World Championships, more than the number achieved by any other sport.

The New Zealand Junior TT and Senior TT were raced as support races for the New Zealand International Grand Prix meeting at Ardmore in 1959 in front of a crowd of 80,000, the biggest ever for a one-day sporting event in New Zealand.  John Hempleman won both races setting new lap records in each.

New Zealand was represented at the Motocross des Nations between 1995 – 2000 by the same team of Josh Coppins, Shayne King and Darryll King.

When Ronnie Moore won his first speedway solo world championship in 1954 he was the youngest ever champion at 21 years of age.  Incredibly, despite riding with a broken leg he scored a 15 point maximum to take the title.