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WLT Press Release:
Ivan Mauger`s Website:
E-Mail - Ivan Mauger:
MAUGER MOTORSPORT
PO Box 3064
New Plymouth,
New Zealand.
Phone +64 6 758 7335
Fax +64 6 758 0053
Mobile 021 799 915
A motorcycle worth its weight in gold was unveiled in New Plymouth this week as the city continued to rev up for this year's Long Track Speedway World Championships finale.
The gold-plated Jawa 500 speedway bike (Pictured with it's owner, Ivan Mauger) is the treasure of the Kiwi who, even 18 years after retiring from the sport, still ranks as the No.1 man worldwide, nine times former world champion Ivan Mauger.
The bike was centre-piece to this week's official launch of the New Zealand Grand Prix on November 6, held at the New Plymouth District Council Civic Centre.
It will be the second consecutive season that New Plymouth’s Pukekura Raceway has hosted the season-defining final round of the world series and that New Zealand should even be considered for a the role is a tribute to the determination of Mauger to bring his sport home. “I raced for 32 years, in 31 countries but was never able to race a world championship meeting in New Zealand. It has long been my ambition to see a world championship meeting staged here,” said Mauger.
“It is due to my friendship with New Plymouth businessman Ian Riley and thanks to the support offered by the New Plymouth District Council that we have chosen to bring this event to New Plymouth,” said Mauger. The gold plated motorcycle, the only one of its kind in the world, is insured for a cool $1.2 million and today’s launch was the first time it had been seen in public in New Zealand. It has for many years been on display in London and, more recently, at the Donington Park Museum in England. It has been brought to New Zealand to feature at the free-entry three-day GP National Motorcycle Show, inside the TSB Stadium, being staged in conjunction with the Long Track Speedway World Championship final round.
The gold bike will be on show, along with the New Zealand-created but world famous Britten road-race bike, one of Bruce McLaren’s race cars and a BSL (Buckley Systems Limited) road-racer, “all of which are superb symbols of Kiwi world-beating ingenuity”, said Mauger.
As it was last season, this year’s final round is expected to reach a worldwide television audience of about one billion viewers and Mauger said the event would again be beamed into more than 166 countries.
