97-year-old Leslie Harris earns Guinness record as 'world's oldest motorcycle racer'

The Guinness Book of World Records finally has a name to fill the slot for "world's oldest competitive motorcycle racer": Leslie Harris. In February of this year, New Zealand native Harris was three weeks shy of his 98th birthday when he took part in the The Pukekohe 43rd Classic Motorcycle Festival in Auckland, New Zealand. The then-97-year-old rode in the Regularity Parade, a competition to see who among the field can ride the most consistent lap times. The NZ Motorcycle Racing Register doesn't consider the Regularity event as a race, but it is a competitive event that requires a qualification race, meeting Guinness' standards. Harris — Les to his friends — rode with his 64-year-old son Rod and 21-year-old daughter Olivia also in the field, and finished fourth.

His sons Rod and Tim might have been the catalyst to make this all happen. The Guinness website maintains pages for records that haven't been filled yet, such as world's oldest female ice hockey player and oldest motocross racer. Anyone can nominate a person for a slot by filling out the application form, which his sons did before the Pukekohe event. Of course, it took Les to make the field and do the work.