The Highway 61 MC was formed in
Auckland in 1967 or 1968, and have since expanded across New Zealand and
Australia. The Highway 61 patch consists of a skeleton holding onto ape hangers (handlebars) with the road, or highway, seen below the skull. One of the earliest documented violent clashes involving the Highway 61 Motorcycle Club occurred on 29 December 1975, in Auckland's Mount Eden suburb, where 19-year-old club member Bradley Earl Haora was beaten and then fatally shot in the head with a sawn-off shotgun during a confrontation with Hells Angels members at a Highway 61 property. Three other Highway 61 members were injured in the attack, which stemmed from a dispute over a woman and escalated into a broader rivalry between the clubs. At the 1979 Nelson Mardi Gras event the
Lost Breed clashed with members of Highway 61 from Wellington. 4 were injured and 21 Lost Breed members and associates were arrested. They expanded into Australia in the 1980s, later setting up a chapter in Brisbane in 1998. In 1997, Highway 61 members were convicted of murdering a member of the
New Zealand Nomads. In 1993, Highway 61 members were convicted of theft, receiving cars valued at nearly $1,000,000. and later convicted of murder, and is serving a life
prison sentence. In 2003, club president Kevin Weavers was accidentally killed by ex-Highway 61 member Kelly Robertson. ==See also==