Friday 6th January 1978

Herbert James “Burt” Munro (68), a New Zealand motorcycle racer, famous for setting an under-1,000 cc world record (183.59 mph), at Bonneville, 26 August 1967, died. This record still stands; Munro was 68 and was riding a 47-year-old machine when he set his last record. Working from his home in Invercargill, he worked for 20 years to highly modify the 1920 Indian motorcycle that he had bought that same year. Munro set his first New Zealand speed record in 1938 and later set seven more. He travelled to compete at the Bonneville Salt Flats, attempting to set world speed records. During his ten visits to the salt flats, he set three speed records, one of which still stands. His efforts, and success, are the basis of the motion picture ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ (2005), starring Anthony Hopkins, and an earlier 1971 short documentary film Burt Munro: Offerings to the God of Speed, directed by Roger Donaldson.