The Roaring Season

I chanced upon this site after googling 'Bandag Bandit' yesterday. For a start Howard wondered if the car coming over the hill in post 35 was a Ralt. I am 98% certain it is the Tullen sponsored Ralt RT4 which if correct would mean 1982.

The reason for my interest in the Bandag Bandit was because I was relaying the story of that potentially explosive incident to some friends and as I wrote the words, I started to doubt my memory given that the whole thing sounded so absurd when I put it down on paper. I began to wonder if my memory was playing tricks but then on discovering this old thread I see Rod's excellent summation of the situation is consistent with what I thought had happened.

I was watching it all unfold from about that point where the cars exited the pits and made a left onto the track. Rod's description of 'it seemed to go on forever' is spot on. I wonder when it was - if I think of who I was 'helping' at the time it was probably more likely to have been Phil Hellebrekers than Ian Algie, so my guess would be early 90s.

I hope Hanna and Pierce bought Denny dinner that night!

Tony, it was a girl who had won a competion to go for a ride, and 2 guys turned it off the main one being Denny Hulme who got to the Diesel pump wiring.
That was a real scary moment,(it seemed to go on forever).
Even the Fridge Club boys were getting ready to move. (well they moved a chilly bin)

[quote="AMCO72"]I cannot believe that there isn't some-one out there that remembers either the incident at Baypark or the Drag truck called 'Waltzing Matilda'. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that there was something fishy with the whole enterprise, especially after the Baypark balls-up. Unfortunately there are none of the Paramount tyres boys around now, so I cant ask them. OSH wasn't around in those days either, so they certainly didn't step in as I'm sure they would today. Maybe it was just packed up and sent back home to Australia. I dunno, one of lifes mysteries. Greg, your a bit of a Hot-Rod guru, do you know anything?[/quote]

Isn't it amazing that this incident was seen by a few people and the have described it totally different to what actually happened. I too was standing by pit wall watching what unfolded. The guy driving the Bandag Truck had his 14 year old daughter with him. He had started to do a few spins for the crowd. The cab was actually clamped down but when the truck spun the chassis twisted and rocked the cab undone. The flat front just just fell forward onto it's nose. This "pulled" all the cables tight. The cables being the accelerator cable and gear shift cable. When the cab went forward the gearshift cable was pulled into reverse and the accelerator was pulled to full acceleration. The angle of the truck was so it was trying to climb into the grandstand opposite the pits but for the bank it was running up against. With a diesel you have to shut off the diesel supply. A bloke from the crowd in the stands jumped on to the back of the trucks engines and killed it...he was the sole hero. Me I was crapping myself because in the pits I had my Mazda Sports Sedan as well as my Toyota Group A car as this was the three hour Simpson Series weekend. Always wanted to run two separate cars at a meeting....you know something that haunted me for months after that truck incident...was the fact that when he first spun it and the front tilted down to the ground....only the Good Lord himself will know how lucky everyone was that the back was aiming at the bank. There would have been a very very major problem if it in fact had of been pointing in any other direction....(imagine full acceleration aiming at the pits in reverse. With all the Group A cars with petrol...oh shit !) Regards, Tony Rutherford.

[quote="Steve Holmes"]Thats probably this one.

[ATTACH]1763[/ATTACH][/quote]

This was built by Tordoffs in Hamilton. It was for sale on Trade me last year.

[i][b]Knowing that Carl has a very quick wit & is renowned in the S.I. at least for his sense of humour, I am not going to comment on your remarks above.. :) [/b][/i]

The gentleman I was having a bit of humour about as navi was Carl Rabbidge as I am sure he was with John a couple of years back.

[quote="David McKinney"]It's the XU1 I remember him for. I'm sure I knew his co-driver - was it John Reid?[/quote]

[i][b]John Reid was Co-Driver in the Escort TC, think the XU-1 was after that so quite likely as Ian Dickson was no longer in Gore or 'down south' in that period, XU-1 came to grief on a sprint around 'old SH-1' around lake waihola IIRC[/b][/i]

Copies from the 2nd issue of NZ Speedsport, which did the preview
to the 21st Fern Rally in 1990.
Photo is from the Hanmer Spring Stage.

It's the XU1 I remember him for. I'm sure I knew his co-driver - was it John Reid?

[quote="Rod Grimwood"]John Metherell. Is that the same bloke who runs an Avenger in classic rallies now, he is pretty quick. Mind you if it is the same bloke, he had a suspect rooster in the navi seat a couple of years back. He must have scared him a bit as the navi is now peddling a Escort (pretty qiuck too).[/quote]

[i][b]Dont know what he runs these days, still farms just nth of Balclutha I think, also ran XU-1 & a TC Mk1 Escort amongst other vehicles, sorry, rally stuff isnt high on my radar these days, lost interest big time after I built & service crewed for Rob Gerrard in an Anglia in the early NI Shell silver fern, between dropping cigarette ash in the fuel churn while we were refueling, & parking the thing over a puddle late at night somewhere near Waiouru ( that doesnt look right?) @ below zero temps & asking me to check the clutch slave cyl adjustment I couldnt work out whether the CFW was trying to send me to hell or freeze me to death...[/b][/i]

I always thought the Fiat 125T was a great looking car and they seemed to do very well in their time. Are there any of these cars still racing in NZ ? I haven't seen one on track for years.

John Metherell. Is that the same bloke who runs an Avenger in classic rallies now, he is pretty quick. Mind you if it is the same bloke, he had a suspect rooster in the navi seat a couple of years back. He must have scared him a bit as the navi is now peddling a Escort (pretty qiuck too).

[i][b]John Metherell ran one in one of the early Heatway or Shell Silver Fern rallys as well IIRC[/b][/i]

Bob, they were quite a car. From the storey by Wayne Harris in Classic Driver. Rod Collingwood traded his Cooper in on a brand new Riley 1300 from Moller Motors. In Collingwoods opinion this was a vastly underated car....NZ assembled and only 72 built. Similar to the Fiat 125T...a NZ model only. A 5th outright in the Glenvale 100 at Baypark and 2nd in class to Frank Radisch's Escort 1300GT, certainly raised a few eyebrows. Things were to get better when Alan Boyle of Cocoa-Cola Viva fame, teamed up with Rod at Levin. Alan drove the first stint and worked his way through the Valiants and the Victors, and anyone who thought Baypark was a fluke was witnessing a remarkable little car. While in the outright lead, Boyle had a moment and spun at cabbage-tree, losing a full minute. The Riley came second outright behind Gary Sprague and Barry Cottle in the 125T. The last production race of the season saw a star entry at Pukekohe....the first 3 placings went to 125T's of Emson, Fahey, and Marwood, with Don Davies Victor in 4th and Collingwood in 5th ahead of Rick Rimmer in the Valiant V8!!!!!!! How good was that little car.....wonder where it is today. Let us know if you find any photos Bob.....I would be interested.

[quote="AMCO72"]Actually neither of them were Kestrals........but.... KESTRELS... Afraid my spelling is not improving with age. After we had finished having fun with the old girl at rallycross, we removed the engine, and what was left GAVE to Glen Horn, the BMC wrecker that I talked about in Yards and Yarns. He didn't get much out of it. As you know...' Rust never Sleeps'. We were lucky to be able to tow it down to his yard without it collapsing into a pile of dust on the Queens Highway!!![/quote]

Gerald ,out of interest ,amongst the research I am doing on photographs etc of the Levin Rothmans 4 Hour race ,I was reminded that Rod Collingwood and Alan Boyle raced a Riley Kestrel Mk2 in the event,and finished second overall

I don't know what happened to that particular Bandag Bullet in the long term but only a week or so after the Baypark incident it had been repaired in Tauranga and did a lunchtime burnout demo in the carpark of the Otumoetai Trust Hotel. I'm pretty sure it was Shape and Spray which repaired the truck and then it continued on its NZ tour. I think there is a much more modern Bandag Bullet still doing burnout demos in Australia.

Thanks for that Steve. If I had used my eyes I could have found it myself. But it explains one thing ,that they were 2 different machines. The Baypark truck was the Bandag truck. I was ALMOST sure they were different. They were both blue, but I think the Bandag truck was forward control, whereas 'Waltzing Matilda' had a bonnet. I think the Bandag truck just 'disappeared' after the 'incident'.

Amco:- that Bandag Truck at Bay Park was bad enough but could have been a major if it was not for the qiuck thinking of Denny Hulme who found and turned off the diesel. We were right were it happenend, there was a young girl in the cab who had won a contest and the truck was doing big dognuts and lighting up the rears on the front straight when the cab shot forward of it catch's and smashed face first onto the track. This of course pulled the throttle on full and with the driver and girl looking straight at the track it bounded into the bank after useing the cab as a grader and filling the cab with dirt just sat there digging a big hole. We leapt over the fence and tried to grab the accelerater cable but couldn't move when Mr Hulme leapt in and cut of the diesel and stopped it. We grabbed the girl out and then jumped back over fence and went to the toilet. I think some one in the group got photos so will do some research.

Gerald, posts #46 and 47 of this thread have the background and fate of Waltzing Matilda.

I cannot believe that there isn't some-one out there that remembers either the incident at Baypark or the Drag truck called 'Waltzing Matilda'. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that there was something fishy with the whole enterprise, especially after the Baypark balls-up. Unfortunately there are none of the Paramount tyres boys around now, so I cant ask them. OSH wasn't around in those days either, so they certainly didn't step in as I'm sure they would today. Maybe it was just packed up and sent back home to Australia. I dunno, one of lifes mysteries. Greg, your a bit of a Hot-Rod guru, do you know anything?