John Britten

Tim Hanna is the author of three best-selling biographies of notable New Zealand motorcyclists, including John Britten. His biography of Burt Munro, One Good Run: The Legend of Burt Munro, traced Burt’s amazing land-speed records at Bonneville and was the number one best seller in New Zealand when it came out. Burt was the subject of the popular film The World’s Fastest Indian. His third motorcycling biography was the story of Kim Newcombe, a mechanic and Australasian scrambles champion who built his own grand prix motorcycle in Berlin using a German two-stroke outboard marine engine. Kim: The Kiwi On The König records his rookie efforts in Grand Prix racing in the hazardous 1970s when, against all the odds, he achieved second place in the 1973 Grand Prix World Championship in the premiere 500cc class.

Tim and his wife, Janel, live in a hundred-year-old farmhouse on an acre in the country located toward the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand. They share their property with numerous dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks. Although the nearest landmass to the south is Antarctica, the region offers superb roads, spectacular mountains, lakes, and forests, and a generous number of clear days ideal for a sporting motorcyclist. Tim gravitates to old things and is currently completing a decades long restoration of a 120-year-old, forty-five-foot motorsailer.