Fairbrother earns dream ride in UK

GREYTOWN bike racer Doug Fairbrother thought things couldn't get much better a couple of weeks ago after he won a ride on one of the world's most famous machines, a 1972 John Player Norton.
The occasion was the 27th Pukekohe Classic Festival, a meeting which attracted hundreds of classic machines.
The Norton was the standout, and Fairbrother, through the Greytown Racing Team, outbid other hopefuls in an internet auction for the chance to ride the 750c racer, first in a two-lap "formation" of Norton Commando-based bikes and then in four quick laps of the circuit.
That would have been enough for anybody, but the icing on the cake came when the owner of the bike, former John Player Norton and Honda mechanic Norman White, was so impressed by Fairbrother's performance at Pukekohe that he invited him to race the ?200,000 machine in England next year.
White and the Norton were accompanied in New Zealand by former leading British bike racer Peter Williams, who rode it to victory in the 1973 Isle of Man Formula 750 TT. Williams was forced into retirement by injury, but he retains a vast fund of knowledge about the sport. For Fairbrother, who has competed at the Isle of Man several times, the combination of men and machine was irresistible.
The fact that 2006 is the 100th anniversary of the Isle of Man meeting made his decision to pack his helmet and leathers inevitable.
Sadly, he won't ride the Norton on the Isle of Man. The ride will be at either Oulton Park or Mallory Park, almost equally-famous racing circuits.
And how was the Auckland experience?
"Bloody good," Fairbrother enthused.
It was like a time warp to 1972, with the works team fussing around him.
He took part in the Commando "parade", which turned into a race in its own right, and pulled away from the pack on every lap.
His main impression of the Norton was its size ? "it's really small," he said.
"It's got nice handling. There's no obvious power band ? it's really smooth and tractable."
Fairbrother took a liberal view of the 7200 rev limit (thinking this would be his only opportunity to ride it) and hit 165mph on the main straight. This on a 33-year-old machine!
"I was going as hard as I could without going past the mental limit," he said yesterday. "I would have hated to have thrown it down the road."
As it turned out, he will get another go on this rare piece of motorcycle racing history.
"Afterwards Peter Williams said I had to go to England. They guaranteed me a race if I turned up there," said the Greytown man.
They didn't need to ask him twice.
 Hopefully, getting to his next ride on the bike will be less traumatic than the last one.
It took Fairbrother and his team 29 hours to get to Auckland in their 1968 Bedford bus, suffering mechanical and electrical problems all the way.
They ran out of gas and got a speeding ticket before arriving at the circuit at 4am on the Sunday of the ride.
The return trip took just 8 hours.