For yesterday’s final event, the Honda Invercargill Street Races, thousands gathered in the sunshine to watch a range of motorcycles, from those with sidecars, to classics, to the Super Motard and Formula One racers as their riders chicaned their way around Bill Richardson Dr and the surrounding streets.
Yesterday, some friends and staff of businesses around the area took advantage of their upper storeys to watch the racing.
Spectators Aidan Fletcher, of Otautau, and Walter Smith of Hawera, were on a makeshift grandstand made from scaffolding.
The Aitken family of Invercargill have racing in the blood.
Dad Jason, had brought his daughters Holly (10) and Maia (7) to watch the racing.
girls loved racing and his whole family had enjoyed the sport "their whole lives".
However, Maia was not keen on trying it herself, "in case I fell off", she said.
"They go so fast," she said.
Commentator Neil Ritchie, of Palmerston North, who was attending his 15th "Burt", said he loved the five-day event.
Despite a being a staunch North Islander, he had now visited Bluff 17 times but was yet to visit Cape Reinga, he said.
"Because they don’t have a motorcycle race there."
Having commentated at race meetings for 39 years, it meant he was calling races for third generations of family members, he said.
As the day closed, the rumble heard in the city for the past five days quietened as riders left the town — no doubt with new memories and a plan to return again next year.
