NZ On Cars

Les Harris was born in the small town of Pirongia in the Waikato region, North Island, New Zealand on the 26^th of February 1925. Before he settled into a professional career he moved around a lot but had lived on the family farm in Harris Road, Pokuru, King Country, which is still in the family today.

Having many different jobs over the years including owning and managing the Thames and Waihi rubbish run, general carrier with a couple of handy trucks, mechanic in various places including Citroen motors in Thames, working on the wharves in Wellington in the 1950’s, driving buses in Auckland for many years after an unsuccessful attempt at owning a fish ‘n chip shop in Epsom and café in Queen Street before retiring at 65.  He built his own house in Mt Roskill, and invested in a few houses over the years, being a landlord and working and maintaining on those properties until he was around 80 years young.

Les’ first bike was an old do-up back on the family farm, rumour has it as an old Harley, then later gaining an interest in BSA’s in his early 20’s. His first race was at the Ohakea Air Base in the Manawatu region of the North Island around 1951/52. Being hooked on racing from then on he went on to win many class prizes and a few wins racing all the way up until 2019 winning the regularity trophy when he finally retired from circuit racing, well sort of. He had one last outing in 2020 at Pukekohe but unfortunately that was cut short when he dropped the bike off the start rollers breaking a few ribs, and that was only a few months after his hip replacement.

After his first marriage of 26 years broke up (rumour has it because she was sick of all the bike parts taking up space on the lounge floor and kitchen table! Amazingly they are still friends today), Les re-married a good friend only to have it annulled a short time later because they were better friends than a husband and wife. His last wife he adored. Les cared for her lovingly after she became unable to fend for herself becoming almost a paraplegic from multiple stokes. He took her on cruises and refused to leave her alone in a home. She passed on 11 years ago and he misses her dearly, getting a tear in his eye whenever he mentions her.

Along comes 2023. The big annual event rolls around after not being run the last couple of years due to COVID restrictions.  The 43rd Classic Motorcycle Festival at the historic Pukekohe Park Raceway south of Auckland on the weekend of the 4^th to the 6^th of February (Monday being the 6^th February, a national holiday). This was set to be an extremely emotional event due to the fact that this historic circuit is being closed permanently from April 2023. It is to be dismantled to make way for a horse stud by the owners, a trotting club, after 60 years of operation hosting many classic event’s including Formula 1 in the early days. This weekend the track and facilities looked immaculate, much to the credit of the manager, Gary, and his team, considering the entire pit area, and large parts of the track were under water the week before after a destructive rain storm flooded parts of the city.

The 43^rd Classic Motorcycle Festival event attracted riders from all around the world including Australia, the US and the UK. There were over 330 riders entered and over 400 bikes ranging from a 1920 Harley Davidson, the legendary Britten motorbikes and some late model machines.

There were many BSA motorbikes entered including Les’ black 1960 BSA Bantam 175. As if it wasn’t enough that Les himself was racing this bike at 97 years young, also on track was his son, Rod Harris at a young 65 years old on a borrowed highly tuned BSA Bantam 175. But the icing on the cake was Olivia Harris, Les’ granddaughter, at 21 years old riding Les’ hill climb bike, a 1950 BSA Bantam 175. This was her very first time on track. Three generations all on track at the same time. An exceptionally special time for the Harris family, and it showed through in the emotion from all involved over the weekend.

All three were racing in the classic regularity races. It was a dramatic weekend on track with plenty of disruptions caused by many red flags (usually thanks to the sidecar class) resulting in delays and, at times, last minute rushing and panicking to get the bikes out on track to do their run. This wasn’t helped on the Saturday with the PA system for pit lane being out of action so those of us that were further down pit lane weren’t hearing the announcements to get ready to fire the bikes up and head out on track. Les’ popularity was such that he was often being stopped for autographs and many, many interviews for documentaries and news articles. One such article had to be cut short as he had to rush out on track.

The trio unfortunately weren’t able to set a time in the first two races due a little issue with a faster bike being on track completing the required timed laps much faster than the others, bringing out the checkered flag earlier with most of the field not managing to complete two timed laps. After some discussions with the officials, Tim Harris (Olivia’s father and team boss) managed to get them to agree on running the third and final run a lap longer giving the three Harris’s time to do their required timed laps.

The official time card for this run put Olivia at 21^st place, not bad for her first time. Rod was sat in 8^th place, although he had swapped bikes with John Sendall so it’s John’s name on the official results. Rod also clocked the fastest time on record for a Bantam around the Pukekohe circuit.

Les placed 4^th overall on the timing card. An exceptional effort and shows that he has most definitely still got it!

An application is currently in progress to have this event recorded as a Guinness World Record to have Les Harris as the ‘Oldest Competitive Motorcycle Racer (male)’. This process can take some time but looking likely to happen.

What next for Les? Hang up his racing suit? Not bloody likely! He has plans on racing in a hill climb at Pakiri, north of Auckland, on April 2^nd. Possibly looking at the Burt Munro Challenge next year and wherever the 44^th running of the Classic Motorcycle Festival might be held.

As his son Tim puts it, “He is a good fella, stubborn, self sufficient but a heart of gold and as soft as a marshmallow”.

In the short time I have known him I have been in awe of what he can do at his age. He is always happy, always has a smile. Will always ask how you are and often has advice to share, and wise advice it is too.

You can guarantee if you were to pay Les a visit at his house in West Auckland you will find him in his shed tinkering with one of his bikes, sifting through the years of saved up treasures of parts and memorabilia, and just ‘busy doing’. As Les said recently in a TV interview: “I’ve just got to keep doing, I’m not ready to finish”.