Biker hurt in Nelson’s annual street race
Organisers of an annual street motorcyle event in central Nelson have hailed it a success, despite intermittent rain, and several crashes.
Thousands of people attended the annual Port Nelson Street Motor Races on Tuesday, which started amid wet conditions.
The riders coped really well with the rain, clerk of the course Brenda Watson said.
‘‘They were running on wet tyres and later in the morning the rain stopped and the track cleared, so they changed their tyres again to cope with the conditions. The rain came and went all day.’’
Three riders were taken to hospital for further monitoring after their falls, and they were all reported to be stable, Watson said.
One of them, a 29-year-old man from Whanganui, was treated for moderate chest and abdominal injuries after losing control in the last race of the day, known as the King of the Port.
‘‘He lost control on entry of corner one. For the past several years that we’ve run that corner, we’ve never really had any problems with it,’’ organiser Adrian Curtis said.
The all-day event was cancelled last year while the area was redeveloped by Port Nelson.
Track crossing points were taken out of this year’s course due to the upgrades, which allowed freer movement for the crowd, with racers negotiating nine corners instead of eight.
The riders enjoyed the changes and the races went ahead as planned despite the rain, Curtis said.
‘‘The weather didn’t actually affect the event, it was great. It gave the riders a bit of variety and we just saw some amazing results.’’
Safety was a ‘‘massive priority’’ he said.
‘‘It’s not an unusual thing to have a crash at a road racing event,’’ but hospitalisations were normally a precautionary measure, he said.
‘‘If a guy comes off a bike, no matter if he’s walking, he always gets checked by a medic.’’
‘‘You’re always trying to minimise the risk and it’s just really unfortunate when an accident does happen.’’
Dan McKenzie from Christchurch took the King of the Port title.