by Steve Holmes » Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:30 am
Time to bump this thread back to the top. At the end of the 1977 season, Motorsport NZ chose to place a 2 litre maximum engine capacity on the NZ Saloon Car Championship, in an effort to revive the fields. Car numbers had slumped, and the cars themselves had become too expensive to build. ShellSport had been sponsoring the NZ Saloon Car Championship during the 1976 and '77 seasons, and they retained their support for the new 2 litre series, which simply became known and recognised as the ShellSport series.
However, with several large capacity cars having sat around redundant, plans were put in to place to create an Open Saloon series, in January 1979, in which there were essentially no rules. The series was held at Bay Park, Pukekohe, and Manfeild, with each circuit having two races, each of which was a handicap start based on qualifying times. Aussie racer John Briggs put up a strong performance in the opening round at Bay Park in the ex-Red Dawson Chevy Monza, and took the fight to Jim Richards in his Falcon XC hardtop. But from there onwards, there were really only two cars in the running, Richards' Falcon and Leo Leonards PDL Mustang II. the PDL II struck problems at Bay Park, but really took the fight to Richards at Pukekohe, although the Falcon was slightly more stable on the bumps. But by Manfeild, Leonard was the fastest, if only just, and these two destroyed all existing saloon car lap records.
Here are Leonard and Richards charging hard at Pukekohe. Note the size of the crowd in the background!
Time to bump this thread back to the top. At the end of the 1977 season, Motorsport NZ chose to place a 2 litre maximum engine capacity on the NZ Saloon Car Championship, in an effort to revive the fields. Car numbers had slumped, and the cars themselves had become too expensive to build. ShellSport had been sponsoring the NZ Saloon Car Championship during the 1976 and '77 seasons, and they retained their support for the new 2 litre series, which simply became known and recognised as the ShellSport series.
However, with several large capacity cars having sat around redundant, plans were put in to place to create an Open Saloon series, in January 1979, in which there were essentially no rules. The series was held at Bay Park, Pukekohe, and Manfeild, with each circuit having two races, each of which was a handicap start based on qualifying times. Aussie racer John Briggs put up a strong performance in the opening round at Bay Park in the ex-Red Dawson Chevy Monza, and took the fight to Jim Richards in his Falcon XC hardtop. But from there onwards, there were really only two cars in the running, Richards' Falcon and Leo Leonards PDL Mustang II. the PDL II struck problems at Bay Park, but really took the fight to Richards at Pukekohe, although the Falcon was slightly more stable on the bumps. But by Manfeild, Leonard was the fastest, if only just, and these two destroyed all existing saloon car lap records.
Here are Leonard and Richards charging hard at Pukekohe. Note the size of the crowd in the background!
[attachment=0]6.LEONARD.terry-marshall.jpg[/attachment]