Father and son share love of speed

He is expected to reach speeds of more than 150kmh on the race track, but Dunedin rider Josh Goddard (15) is still too young to get his driver’s licence.

The Year 11 King’s High School pupil, who started riding off-road motorcycles at the age of 5, is spending his holidays racing a Kawasaki 250cc motorcycle in the development class attached to the 2015 NZ Superbike Championship.

”It’s my first year at the national level and it’s a lot of fun,” Josh said. He had an ”off” in the first round of the four-round championship held at Ruapuna the week before.

”He impressed me, because he slid off, got up and dusted off his leathers then got right back on the bike again,” Josh’s father Kevin Goddard said.

Goddard is racing a similar machine in the national 250cc production class.

At last weekend’s Levels meeting at Timaru, Josh stayed upright and reeled off solid performances, to hold sixth place overall in the championship.

The Superbike Championship is a family affair for Josh and Kevin (47), who used to race motorcycles in the 1980s and ’90s and has returned to the sport.

”[It is] a bit of fun and a chance to spend some quality father-son time with Josh,” Goddard said.

He works full-time for an engineering company and in his spare time runs a motorcycle parts company he started years ago to help young local motorcycle racers get the go-fast parts they needed.

”I was surprised to see a few old familiar faces racing out there in our class as well. In the 250 production class you have the young, emerging riders looking for careers in superbikes, and a few wrinkly old men who should know better,” Goddard said.

”And to add to that, Mum seems to be more worried about me falling off than Josh.”

The older Goddard’s weekend at Levels drew a mixed bag of results. After an off-track excursion in his first race, he scored a couple of thirds and a second to emerge third overall in the Alan Ramage Memorial series and maintain a solid fourth overall in the national series, just behind his old foe, Grant Ramage, of Timaru.

The national series comprises four rounds: Ruapuna and Levels in the South Island in January and later in March the series moves to Taupo and Hampton Downs in the North Island.

- by John Cosgrove 

Father and son share love of speed