The death not so long ago of an amazing Kiwi hero Sir Edmund Hillary has brought to mind another of New Zealands sons whom has amazed the world in virtually single handed unprecedented feats.
In 1953 when Hillary and his Sherpa climbing partner Tenzing Norgay were conquering the worlds highest peak Mt. Everest, John Britten of Christchurch, New Zealand was a mere three year old destined to astound the world from that South Island city in a feat almost as great but certainly as exciting.
As an alumnus of that cities University he has become today following his all too-short life, an icon of what exemplifies New Zealand zeal and innovation that is also a product of its second-to-none tertiary education.
Britten was born with a severe learning handicap that made reading and writing extraordinarily difficult. Unable to learn in conventional schools, he attended night school earning an engineering degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Technology.
He had a driving determination to attain that degree for his quest was always the same at its core throughout all of his remarkable life – that of knowledge and how it unlocks the secrets of this technological world. This was a quest that pushed the boundaries in no uncertain terms – so much so that it would eventually encompass and consume all his prodigious energies.
Although he was modest and quiet spoken, he possessed a focused and ferocious, obsessive drive such as few men have ever matched.
What had started out as simply building a futuristic racing motorcycle in his garage with the stated goal of winning the world famous Battle of the Twins race at Daytona Beach, Florida, mushroomed and continued to expand beyond expectation.
The resulting revolutionary bike that Britten designed – and hand-built most of the 6000 parts – was made by himself and a select group of close friends and helpers.
With the sole and remarkable exception of the engine – which he also designed and hand cast in aluminium – the entire machine was made from carbon fiber and Kevlar. At that time, these approaches even in materials was unprecedented in either the motorcycle racing fraternity or industry.
While holding down their respective day jobs, Britten and his friends pushed the limits of endurance hard, routinely working through the nights.
To this day the cost aspect alone is a stunning achievement: that this group of dedicated workers yielded a machine that in the end cost in the hundreds as against the huge corporate sponsorships that competitors enjoyed with access to budgets sometimes in the millions of dollars. That alone speaks for itself and is again emblematic of how New Zealanders approach obstacles.
Burning the midnight oil unto all limits of human endurance became a regular trade mark with Britten and his associates. With only 11 months to go till the Daytona race, building a machine from scratch would have been unthinkable for anyone but Britten and company.
Yet in a feat that will forever register as one of the great achievements in engineering history they did it with barely three months to go. As befitting the finest tradition in dramatic tension, the bike crashed when tested – certain parts having broken under stress. Locating the problem, designing a solution , building the parts and retesting was a monumental challenge given that there was almost no time left.
Yet the crew did it again. They thoroughly tested the new regime and flew out to Daytona Florida arriving barely in time to qualify.
Incredibly during the actual qualifying run where the bike succeeded in placing, another dire surprise showed up. Although the Britten bike showed itself to be very fast, it lost speed and it was revealed that a hairline crack had developed in one of the cylinders – ironically one of the few parts that Britten didn’t make himself. If they gave up now, it would mean saying good-bye that year in a bid for the unofficial world title for twin cylinder motorcycles. Without missing a beat the entire New Zealand crew – again just his handful of friends – set about working all night to weld up the cylinder since no replacement could be found on such short notice. With no prior experience at welding cylinders Britten gave it a shot– he had nothing to lose– they would be out of the race anyway if he didn’t at least try something.
At the starting line in the morning with no rest apart from the rider, they witnessed a miracle.
The Britten led the pack and for the first time the crew and the international world witnessed the unprecedented and ferocious power of the Britten. However as though in a scene from a bad movie, although the Britten could have won the event that day, leading the pack one lap from the finish line the race was stopped due to rain.
When the race was restarted the Britten easily led the pack and was headed for victory — yet again disaster finally struck putting the incredible Britten bike out of the race. A faulty rectifier had drained the bike of electrical energy not allowing the bike to finish the race and thus halting its bid for the title. But what had been achieved was a truly stunning shock to the world racing community– they had never seen such overwhelming power and speed. So although he came home sans the trophy, John Britten nonetheless had captured the worlds admiration.
True to form, Britten and his crew didn’t waste a moment when they returned home to New Zealand. They steadfastly threw themselves into building an even better machine embodying all they had learned from their foray into the Battle of the Twins competition. He and his crew finally were able to hand build the ultimate world class winning machine that took them to the world championship the very next year at Daytona. Finally John Brittens creation had won the Battle of the Twins championship – a feat which had cost only a couple hundred dollars for the original model.
As a wonderful epilogue, the commercial version of the bike they produced sold for a record $140,000. That is sterling testimony compared to the paltry cost of the materials alone.
The poignant strains in this story are that despite handicaps and lousy chances, if breaks in life don’t include life-altering injury, life threatening illness or death, they are no equal to human imposition and perseverance. To quote Benjamin Disraeli, 19th century British Prime Minister, “ Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creature of man. We are free agents and man is more powerful than matter.”
When we grapple with nebulous entities that can vex and tax us such as sustained, riveted attention, activating ones drive, resoluteness to see all things through at all cost, one can appreciate the stature of John Britten whom possessed these blessings as a surfeit of abundance. These heavily affect all one does and can realistically achieve. Bad breaks can often relegate the most determined to a broken mental state – yet this was the opposite in the event as has been shown in Brittens life story.
It is the height of irony then that after the victories had began to flow forth on the international stage that John Britten encountered the only thing he could not win against — this, at the prime of his remarkable life and empirically the peak of his powers. After having witnessed the winning Daytona race, at the age of only forty-four, and just beginning work on a revolutionary airplane he was diagnosed with melanoma. He succumbed quickly.
It reminds one that the various vagaries of life are essentially unimportant and that they are all of the lesser “cares of daily minutia in life” — afflicting circumstances that simply bolster Murphy’s law: “ anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”
Yet it is comforting to know that these minor irritations that can beset one, “can” be overcome when an individual is transcendently focused and has an inspiring goal fully captured in the envisioning of its success.
