We have been running a “Who Is That?” contest since May this year.

We are sure that has contributed, no doubt, to seven months of inter-office bickering, heated household debates, a few side bets and, hopefully, just a little bit of enlightenment when the answers have finally been revealed.

And while the photo archive remains a treasure trove of classic old snaps, we have decided to put it on ice over the busy summer months as racing here in New Zealand gets a little more heated.

We will most likely resurrect the competition early next season.

Crown Kiwi – EVS – Alpinestars – 100%

We pass on thanks to our sponsor too, so thank you Crown Kiwi, EVS, Alpinestars and 100% apparel and accessories, who have given us prizes to offer our winners each week.

We did receive plenty of correct answers to our contest last week but congratulations to Brian Roberts for being the first with the correct answers.

We received correct answers, too, from contestants who had previously been winners, so we would like to mention that we do tend to favour contestants who have not won in the past, just to spread the prizes around.

Last week’s characters revealed:

The main photo shown last week was of a couple of very fast Suzuki riders from the 1980s.

They were pictured doing a little bit of maintenance on their bike during the iconic Castrol Six-Hour endurance race.

They were Dave Hiscock and Robert Holden.

The Hiscock brothers, Dave and Neville Hiscock, raced against each other or worked together as a team over the year, with the pair sharing a team win in the New Zealand Castrol Six Hour Race in 1982 on a Suzuki GSX1100 Katana.

In all, Dave Hiscock won the New Zealand Castrol Six Hour race five times in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982 and 1985.

He also achieved placings in the Australian Castrol Six Hour Race five times. In 1977 he was second in the 750 class on a GS750, finishing fifth overall with fellow Kiwi Peter Fleming.

Dave Hiscock also competed in the Isle of Man TT Classic gaining several place holdings, and also the British and World F1 TT Championships, finishing third in both the Isle of Man TT formula 1 and World Road Race Championship in 1982, and finishing 2nd in the British Street Bike Series in 1981.

Sadly, Neville Hiscock was killed in February 1983 while racing at Killarney near Cape Town in South Africa. Dave Hiscock retired from competitive racing shortly afterwards, and lived in South Africa for a number of years. He now lives in Australia.

On Boxing Day 2009, Dave Hiscock returned to New Zealand and rode a demonstration lap around the Wanganui Cemetery Circuit on one of his old bikes.

Holden was also an icon of the sport.

In 1994, Holden placed second in the Isle of Man TT, then returned to the 1995 Isle of Man TT to win the singles title. Holden also won in Ireland’s North West 200 Supermono class in 1995. Holden died the following year in practice at the Isle of Man TT, while riding a Ducati 916.

Holden would ride up to four different machines at this event, stepping off his Superbike and onto a 250 Production machine, then straight onto a 600 sports production bike, followed by 15 laps and his Rotax 250 GP bike.

It seemed at the time that Holden’s only rest was when the sidecar races were being run.

He was helped early on in his career by Steve Dundon from the Wellington Motorcycle Centre. The combination of Dundon’s experience and technical skills and Holden’s hard riding led to many NZ titles.

One of Holden’s more famous exploits was known as “The Holden Sign” incident. This happened at the Manfeild Autocourse in Feilding. While leading the Open Production Race on his 1135 GSX Suzuki, he crashed at 200 km/h, the bike slid and cart-wheeled through a large sign advertising “Holden” cars. The whole incident was televised and was shown on the television news that night. Holden was unhurt and walked back to the pits to the applause of the crowd.

Later on in his career, Holden teamed up with retired Ducati racer turned team manager Dallas Rankine. The BMS team supplied Holden with eight-valve Ducati 916 motorcycles and a Ducati Supermono. Some of New Zealand’s best racing was seen during the early nineties between Holden on the Ducati and multi-time New Zealand superbike champion Andrew Stroud on the famous Britten V1000.

Holden’s death at the Isle of Man in 1996 was a devastating loss for New Zealand racing. Rankine withdrew from all professional involvement in racing after losing his rider and close friend.

The Robert Holden Memorial feature race at the famous Cemetery Circuit meeting in Wanganui, New Zealand is named in his honour.

The second photo shown last week featured a popular Wanganui racer, piloting a Suzuki around Manfeild.

He is also well known for his work as a superbike team manager and rider coach.

Of course he is now more closely associated with Yamaha – it is none other than Brian Bernard – the eight-times New Zealand national champion who was responsible for bringing so many wonderful international superstar racers to this country.

He was responsible for brining to New Zealand such talented riders as Scott Charlton, Gareth Jones, Damian Cudlin, Chris Seaton, Matt and Dave Sadowski, Dave Johnson, Andrew Nelson and Dan Stauffer.

Check out the BERNARD RACING web site.

In the meantime, check back with us early next year, when we plan to reignite friendly debate and again run our “Who’s That?” competition.

Any enquiries, please email us at contest@bikesportnz.com

© Photos by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com