Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger

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Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger

20th pictures

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

1/20
Horst Saiger accepted the official invitation to the Suzuki series, …

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

2/20
There are also no awards ceremonies – they will only take place at the end of the series, which consists of three events, after the road race in Wanganui on the Cemetery Circuit.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

3/20
Cemetery Circuit, that is – as the name correctly suggests – a circuit around a cemetery.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

4/20
And while the drivers fight for every tenth of a second on the route, this graveyard rules …

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

5/20
… anything but mood of sadness.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

6/20
TT warriors understand each other all over the world. Guy Martin also took part in the road race in Wanganui.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

7/20
Hugh Anderson, four-time world champion and two-time TT winner, with the newly crowned SSSS …

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

8/20
This made headlines – on the radio as well …

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

9/20
Written out: Suzuki Series winner Saiger.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

10/20
Saiger was amazed at the races in New Zealand. “It doesn’t take long to fool around on the starting grid, screen girls and that kind of fuss. No sooner has a race been written off than the next one is already there and has 30 seconds to drive out. Starting line-up, and – bang – off we go. “

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

11/20
Horst Saiger on the Kawasaki ZX-10R.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

12/20
… after race organizer Allan “Flea” Willacy became aware of the Austrian through his road races, Macau and the World Endurance Championship.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

13/20
Saiger was supposed to defend the title in the three races for the Greens, and so it came about …

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

14/20
… the racing globetrotter to a place in the Red Devil Racing Team.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

15/20
This team includes Mike Wilkins, Angela Jelaca, Horst Saiger himself, Tamara Saiger, Graeme Cole and Tony Illingworth (from left).
Saiger says about Cole – facing …

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

16/20
… its spare parts store: “They don’t throw anything away. Who knows if you might need it again.”

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

17/20
Saiger ahead of the local competition:
The H stands for Horst, because every foreigner …

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

18/20
… gets the first letter of the first name as the start number.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

19/20
“New Zealand is a racing driver’s heaven,” says Saiger enthusiastically.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger
Saiger / Doug Cornes

20/20
in the local press.

Sports & scene

Motorsport

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand
Horst Saiger as Lord of the Rings

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Horst Saiger wanted to find out what is going on in terms of motorcycle racing in New Zealand today and accepted an invitation to the Suzuki Series in New Zealand.

Horst Saiger, Uwe Seitz

02/10/2015

The island nation on the other side of the world is best known for its kiwis and the setting for the Lord of the Rings films. Thanks to tough motorcycle racing, New Zealand doesn’t exactly make headlines, although the Kiwis even have a Grand Prix World Champion in Hugh Anderson, the king racer Kim Newcombe almost made it in the premier class if he hadn’t had a fatal accident before the end of the 1973 season, and the Ingenious designer and lateral thinker John Britten built perhaps the most spectacular sports motorcycle of all time there. 

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Horst Saiger as Lord of the Rings

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Horst Saiger wanted to find out what is going on today in terms of racing with the Kiwis and accepted an official invitation to the Suzuki series there after race organizer Allan “Flea” Willacy became aware of the Austrian through his road races, Macau and the endurance world championship. Saiger was supposed to defend the title in the three races for the Greens, and so the racing globetrotter got a place in the Red Devil Racing Team.

Cooling fins from the old refrigerator for the ZX-10R

Team boss Graeme Cole then embodies the basic qualities of a real Kiwi technician. “Nothing is thrown away,” says Saiger of the first tour of the team headquarters in Hamilton. “When I Kawasaki I saw the ZX-10R for the first time the next day without disguise, I couldn’t believe my eyes, ”he smiles. Cole had given the 10er an additional cooler and dismantled an old refrigerator for it. He had integrated two cooling fins from it into the cooling circuit by means of a hose – not the only hand-made tuning on the 10 series. The Kiwis call this the number 8 wire tradition, based on the legendary willow wire, which they use for pretty much everything due to the seclusion.

Coles’s skepticism towards the overseas racer, which was still noticeable when he was greeted, had vanished at the latest when Saiger pulled his K-Tech chassis out of his backpack while talking shop on the motorcycle. Mechanics among themselves – that builds bridges. After installing the shock absorbers in the motorcycle, the first morning we went to the Hampton Downs racetrack.

Motorcycle racing in New Zealand Horst Saiger

Motorsport


Isle of Man with Horst Saiger

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“New Zealand is racing driver heaven”

“New Zealand is a racing driver’s heaven,” says Saiger enthusiastically. “Course manager Gary Stirling personally drove me around the course, explaining everything to me, every bump, dangerous places. And he gave us the exclusive rounds for free. ”Saiger had time until 10.30, did his rounds and made his new team boss a relapsed ex-non-smoker. “Graeme had imagined my first laps on his bike to be a bit slower.” 

On Friday morning Saiger got a few extra training laps from the track manager, was finally only a tenth away from the track record with used tires and started the races with optimism. Not without good reason: Glatt won both races and actually improved the lap record by 0.6 seconds. “Kawasaki Managing Director Mike Wilkins hugged me so tightly that I thought he was going to adopt me. But the hardship was Jaden Hassan, my worst competitor. He came to me after the races and thanked me that I was there and that he was able to learn a lot from me. It’s crazy – with us everyone would have puked what the foreigner wanted. “

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“There is not long messing about on the starting grid”

Saiger was also amazed at the course of the races. “It doesn’t take long to fool around on the starting grid, screen girls and that kind of fuss. No sooner has a race been waved off when the next ones are already there and have 30 seconds to drive out. Starting line-up, and – bang – off we go. ”There are no awards ceremonies either – they only take place at the end of the series, which consists of three events, after the road race in Wanganui on the Cemetery Circuit.

Before that, however, the second race meeting was scheduled in Manfeild. The locals also call it goat track because of its bumpy route. The World Superbike Championship was held here until 1992, but those days are long behind the slopes. Saiger immediately had problems with the chassis and had to start the race from fifth on the grid. Bad start in the first run, lost positions, catching up. Saiger crossed the line in fifth.

It went better in race two. The start was even worse, but after two laps the Kawa driver was in second place and dared to attack the leading Jaden Hassan. But a gust of wind caused a mighty slide and Saiger was satisfied with second place. He had thus expanded his lead in the series by two points.

The royal route formed the end of the series with the road race. The fastest lap on the Cemetery Circuit is 49 seconds – no misprint. The slope in Wanganui is correspondingly short. “You don’t have much time to break in, all races take place on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas,” says Saiger. “Sixth on the grid was okay.” In the first race, he managed third place, leaving his main competitor Scott Moir one place behind and only had to finish eighth in race two to claim the Series title. In a somewhat rough run, Saiger finished fifth – and won the title. 

Then followed on the same day in Wanganui with the John Holden Memorial, the most prestigious race in New Zealand. The lap times from the superbike races marked the starting grid. Saiger was at three. “I’ll beat the start again,” says the Austrian. 

“When I attacked on the brakes with a lot of risk, I can close the gap to the leading four-man in just one lap. I manage the fastest lap with 49.1 seconds, a tenth below the record. But I am over the limit and feel that this driving style does not go well for long. I almost brush against the barriers a few times and I can barely catch a buckling front wheel. That’s it, I admit defeat, nothing will happen with the sensation in the last race, ”he reports somewhat contrite. “But there is one good thing about it: I know that I can win there, and that’s another reason to come back.”

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