hakarimata

BILL BUCKLEY – abridged interview. Without this bloke in the faded overalls, who runs a nondescript factory in an Auckland industrial estate, you wouldn't have an iPhone, iPod, LCD television or DVD player. Bill Buckley, engineering genius, rather likes that you haven't heard of him. Buckley Systems Ltd, which has made Bill Buckley a rather rich man, does no business in New Zealand. Most people wouldn't know it existed. But in Silicon Valley, they know that Buckley machines work, and they are used to prepare 90 per cent of the world's silicon chips, the key component of almost every piece of modern technology on the planet. FIRST the science bit. Buckley Systems makes machines containing powerful magnets, which fire lasers at silicon wafers (which don't conduct electricity) to turn them into semi-conductive computer chips – an extremely precise process calculated to within a millionth of a centimetre. Buckley Systems is also part of an emerging market for new, non-invasive cancer treatments, particularly proton therapy, where a laser beam is fired through the skin to attack tumours. Buckley Systems was established in 1986, but not until last month did Buckley reluctantly pull on the penguin suit and gain recognition as New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year. In February, he goes to Monte Carlo with a chance to win the world version. I point out that he must have known this would attract attention, but, he says, he didn't do it to drum up business, only to nudge the cause of his lifelong passion, speedway racing. Buckley is also the promoter at the Western Springs speedway track in Auckland, and because the council backed the awards, it seems he figured if he won, it would give him some heft when it comes to persuading them to renew his promoter's licence when it expires in 2014. He finds the council a cumbersome, irritating beast, perpetually thwarting his motorsport ambitions by limiting his event days (to a maximum of 26 a year). "I don't know what's going to happen after 2014. "There is so much red tape and bullrubbish You can't pin anyone down there. I would've had 10 or 15 people I had to report into at the council since I've been there. They all think they know what's going on down there, but they've never been to speedway. They haven't a clue what it's about." Buckley is an awkward bugger, typified by his $1.5 million investment into funding a chair at Auckland University to research global warming, principally because: "I just don't like being told bullrubbish I want to find out for myself. I would rather believe a scientist than a greenie that just loves hugging trees." He has also sunk another seven-figure sum into securing a round of the 2013 motorbike speedway world championships, a big deal in Europe where it draws huge crowds, but which has garnered minimal attention here, in keeping with the strange absence of media coverage for a sport which no longer attracts the big attendances of its heyday, but still draws well over 10,000 spectators to a regular meet. "We don't get any help from the press, we don't get any help from government, we don't get any help from council, we just get rubbish on all the time," he says. Buckley, incidentally, is trying to secure council funding for the event, on which he at least hopes to break even. "It would be nice to make a little bit, though," he says.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that collapsible chairs aren't allowed............lapsus memorae.

Haere Mae (hello) If your seat is on the terraces, endeavour to take a cushion, the concrete is mighty taxing on the Gluteus Maximus.