TURNING BACK TIME | Bikesportnz

We here at BikesportNZ.com take literally thousands of photos at the dozens of events we travel to, but, the shame is, most never see the light of day.

So we have decided to trawl through our archives and dig out some of those shots that either have never been seen before or simply that rate among our favourites and deserve a second viewing … we are calling it our “weekend wind-back”.

Our aim is not to embarrass anyone, but we are sure you’ll all appreciate seeing these old snaps.

Among the riders featured here include ‘Scary’ Mary Perkins, back when she was a Crusty Demon (and, if you look closely, you can see one of the Demons performing a trick in the background, hidden behind the headline on the photo); the fearless Haki Waller at Woodville in 2007; The ‘Goat’ (greatest of all time), American motocross legend Ricky Carmichael, in action at the final major event of his career, the 2007 Motocross of Nations at Budd’s Creek (that was the event at which his team-mate Ryan Villopoto won both his MX3-MX2 and MX1-MX2 races, beating Carmichael in the process); MX GP legend Antonio Cairoli, when he still raced for Yamaha and still raced the MX2 class, pictured here at the British GP; Australian Robbie Bugden leads Kiwi Andrew Stroud and there are a lot of New Zealand superbike championships that those two riders share (unequally) between them. Stroud won nine times and Bugden won five; Do you remember the 2006 International Six Days Enduro, when it was raced in New Zealand? Then we bet you’ll also remember international superstars Samuli Aro and Mika Ahola. Finnish enduro rider Ahola was a five-time world champion. He was also a seven-time winner of the International Six Days Enduro World Trophy with Team Finland, and was the fastest overall in the competition in 1999, 2001 and 2002. He crashed in a training accident in Spain in January 2012 and later died in hospital.

See if you can identify and match-up the individuals pictured and visit us on Facebook to post your comments.

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