Ruapuna to host a garage full of Legends

The Legends Garage will be full of them at the opening round of the 2026 Star Insure New Zealand Superbike Championship at Ruapuna on January 30,31-February 1.

Fittingly, it is also the New Zealand Grand Prix meeting. Between them, Legends Stu Avant, Mike Sinclair, Paul McLachlan, Owen Galbraith and Mike Pero have won buckets full of GP titles.

There's some debate about who has won the most but the final numbers should be confirmed by the end of the meeting.

The five represent a golden era in Canterbury and New Zealand motorcycling.

Galbraith set the standard back in the early 1970s, firstly on an Ariel Arrow and later on fearsome Kawasaki 750 production bikes.

He was, quite simply, the man to beat.

Teenagers Avant, Sinclair and McLachlan took up the challenge, but all admit Galbraith was the master when it came to production bike racing.

Perhaps that's why they soon gravitated to GP-type machinery; Suzuki T250s, TR500s, RG500s, Yamaha TZ250/350s and TZ750s.

Another invitee John Boote holds a unique position in world motorcycling – he was the rider gave the four-cylinder TZ750 its world debut, and then followed up by doing similar with the RG500.

McLachlan won three New Zealand Championships in one year. He has also been an NZ champion in three different sports – speed skating, motorcycling and cycling.

All four were also lured to international competition, initially in Australia and Asia for some, but then further afield.

Avant and Sinclair hit the World 500 Championship trail in 1976 as rider and mechanic; Avant beating the great Giacomo Agostini in an early GP.

Avant went on to ply his trade as a privateer, scoring a couple of factory Suzuki rides, while Sinclair graduated into factory Suzuki and Yamaha teams and became one of the most respected race engineers of his day.

Boote and McLachlan opted to follow a different international route, taking their TZ750s to the United States into what was then a lucrative hotbed of big bore two-stroke racing. They also made some forays into Europe.

Not that they didn't have to count their pennies. Boote famously followed the example set by fellow Christchurch rider the late Dale Wylie. His Yamaha travelled to and from the US mostly as hand luggage. A different era.

The exploits of this quartet also played a part in enticing a young Christchurch tearaway to try his luck at a Ruapuna club day.

Mike Pero went on to establish his own NZ championship success path on production and GP machinery.

But how will his tally of 15 NZGP titles – including four in one day – stack up in the Legends Garage?

Get along to Ruapuna where all will may be revealed.

Also on show in the Legends Garage – and on track during the weekend – is a Britten, the brainchild of brilliant Christchurch man the late John Britten.

Pero is looking forward to seeing the bike, it will form a part of promotion leading to the opening in February of the Britten Museum in downtown Christchurch.

Bike whisperer and restorer Paul Treacy is bringing a couple of special world championship Yamaha race bikes – the Simon Crafar and Garry McCoy Red Bull YZR500s. One will be ridden by New Zealand’s most successful international star, Aaron Slight.

Another bike being featured in the Legends Garage is the race-ready Yamaha R6, being raffled as part of a fundraiser for New Zealand's latest young world championship star. Moto3 racer Cormac Buchanan.

Captions:

Image One: Three Legends right there: (from left) John Woodley, Owen Galbraith and John Boote. (Brian Hopping pic)

Image Two: John Boote gives the Yamaha TZ750 its world debut. (Andrew Lawrence pic)

Image Three: Stu Avant on the back wheel, a familiar pose back in the day. (Andrew Lawrence pic)

Image Four: All the way to the USA: Paul McLachlan went down the Stateside route. (Photographer unknown)

Image Five: Tech guru to the stars: Mike Sinclair and multi world champion Wayne Rainey. (Henny Ray Abrams pic)

Image Six: Can we recreate at Ruapuna this iconic image from the 1970s? Mike Sinclair, Stu Avant and John Boote. (Brian Hopping pic)