The Vintage Karting Association
.VKA - 1st Annual New Castle Vintage Karting Event
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Below is a video of the Vintage Single Rear Mount Engine class recently run at New Castle Motorsports Park on June 18-20th 2009. This event drew over 100 show and demonstration racing entries from all over the United States. The video footage includes segments shot at 300fps for a sensational slow motion effect… Visit the New Castle Vintage Karting Event Photo Page
The Vintage Karting Association
.VKA - 1st Annual New Castle Vintage Karting Event
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June 18-20th 2009, New Castle Motorsports Park hosted one of the largest vintage karting events in the United States. Hundreds of people attended from all over the US, many top drivers and notable people from the 60’s & 70’s were in attendance, such as: Faye Pierson, Jim Whitehead, Mickey Rupp, Mark Dismore, Jim Walters, Junior Neal, George Ito, Jeff Brown, Butch Stewart, Pete Berlt, Jimmy Mann, Bill McCornack, Richard Peck, Lake Speed, Terry Trader, Terry Ives…. The video below is footage of the dual rear engine class, which is typical of the C-Open class ran during the 60’s. Visit the New Castle Vintage Karting Event Photo Page
The movie “World’s Fastest Indian”, was a big hit at the box office when it was released in 2005. This movie was Hollywood’s fictionalized story of Burt Munro’s determined efforts to set a land speed record at Bonneville. Burt Munro spent most of his life in New Zealand, in a clay floor garage lit by a single light bulb. In this garage he fabricated his ideas into reality, using extremely limited resources and money. Burt spent days/years literally cutting and hand filing connecting rods from scrap metal, casting his own pistons, fabricating large bore cylinders from discarded gas pipe….. He transformed his 1920 Scout Indian from a stock 60mph motorcycle, into a bike that would eventually carry his nearly 70 year old body pass the 200mph barrier at the Bonneville Salt Lake Flats. Burt’s efforts are an amazing story of determination, value of friendship, and success despite seemingly insurmountable limitation.
Below is some actual footage of the real Burt Munro ….
Burt Munro did set several land speed records at Bonneville over the course of almost 10 years. His fastest Bonneville runs were made in August of 1967 at the age of 68 on his 47 year old Indian … 205mph unofficial one way run, and an official 2 way world record run average speed of 183.586mph. A record that still stands for streamlined motorcycles under 1000cc.
Roger Donaldson was the movie director for “The Worlds Fastest Indian” starring Anthony Hopkins, but he also produced a documentary in the early 70’s called “Offerings to the God of Speed”, which covers Burt Munro’s achievements. Below is an interview with Roger Donaldson, which includes some footage from “Offerings to the God of Speed” and some details on the making of “The World’s Fastest Indian”….
R.E.A.R. Rear Engine American Racers
