How Roger got to go racing

I started studying for a BCom part-time at Auckland University in 1971. I passed Accounting 1 that first year but decided that this was taking too long and so I went full-time in 1972. I failed everything as I spent most of my time in the card-room playing poker or down at the pub.

I re-met Roger Freeth who I had been at high school with at Papakura High and we became friends because we both loved motorbikes. Roger and I used to meet at the end of each day in the student common room, read motorbike magazines until the traffic had died down then we would race each other home along the Southern Motorway.

This is the only time that I can claim to have beaten Roger Freeth in a bike race as I almost always won. This was more due to my having a faster bike than any real skill on my part.

I had a Suzuki 350 two-stroke and Roger rode a 350 Triumph four-stroke.

One night Roger and I were in the University common room chatting and reading bike magazines when he heard a bike start up and jokingly said "that sounds like my bike" then we went back to chatting.

Well.... when we went out to get our bikes, Roger's bike was gone. He was devastated because he didn't have much money and he loved having a bike. He couldn't afford to be without one. I drove him around Auckland on the back of my bike while we looked for his bike but couldn't find it and so eventually I dropped him off at the Central Police station so he could report the theft and I went home while his Mum came in to pick him up.

Interestingly, that was the start of Roger's racing career because (fortunately) Roger had his bike on hire purchase and so it was insured.

With the insurance money he went down to Bob Haldane’s and bought himself a 750 Kawasaki four and I never beat him again in any race, ever!