Police clocked a motorbike rider speeding at 193 km/hr on the Ida Valley Road on Sunday morning, but have yet to track them down.

The rider failed to stop for Omakau Police Constable Henry Caccia-Birch, and overtook a convoy of motorcyclists assumed to be leaving the Vincent County Rally in Omakau.

The incident follows a serious crash between a female rider in her 60s and car near St Bathans late Friday morning, and it was understood the motorcyclist is still in hospital with serious injuries.

Constable Caccia said there were no issues reported at the rally and it appeared everybody had an awesome weekend.

Police have put the word out on social media looking for footage of the speeding rider from those on the convoy, as they have yet to identify them.

Const Caccia said the rider was on a sports bike “and at that speed all I saw was a blip.” After activating sirens and lights, he abandoned the pursuit when he realised the rider wasn’t going to slow down.

He said sports bikes had the capacity to reach speeds up to 300km/hr.

Organisers of the Vincent Rally BRONZ president Colin Gillespie said it was "pretty sad news" at the start of the rally to hear about the Friday afternoon accident with the female motorbike rider.

Rally organisers were also doing their bit to help police find the speeding rider on Sunday morning, but Colin said it wasn't known if either riders were connected to the event.

Road users are asked to take extra care on busy South Island state highways leading into the long holiday weekend, which will be swelled by thousands travelling for an event billed as the largest motorcycle event in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Burt Munro Challenge from February 4-8 in Southland will be a hot destination for motorcyclists and enthusiasts, adding to traffic for other events and the usual holiday travel for Waitangi Day weekend around the South Island. 

New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) and its contractors will be monitoring and ready to respond to any incidents.

“Long holiday weekends always mean more traffic on the state highways and greater potential for crashes,” NZTA journey manager for Otago and Southland Nicole Felts said.

“Having a much larger than usual number of motorcyclists travelling adds another dimension of risk, given they are amongst the most vulnerable road users.” 

More on the Vincent rally in tomorrow's news.

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