The Roaring Season

[quote="Steve Holmes"]I've been inspired to start a new thread, thanks to a batch of cool old New Zealand speedway dirt track photos posted on Facebook by Dale Mathers from the scrapbook he created when he was a young bloke. While The Roaring Season seems to cover many aspects of motorsport history, the glaring omission is speedway.

So, if you have any old speedway pics, be they dirt track, or paved oval, post them up here.

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This is a thread I have not really followed, went to Speedway with my father as a teenager, he was into the Motorcycles and loved it when the English Team came for a series at Western Springs.
The " Springs " as we know has been home to Rally Stages, and competition by other cars, Racing Sports and Saloons.
" Ten Years After " - needs to come to the fore again.

A couple - make it a set - of John Larry Lawton photos of NSCC event(s) at Western Springs from the 1960's

[attachment=4]NSCC 1965 #326 1965 8 May Roger Smith in the Daimler Dart chasing Jamie Aislabie J L Lawton.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=3]NSCC 1965 #325 1965 8 May Western Springs Jim Boyd in I think Cooper Holden J L Lawton.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=2]NSCC 1965 #324 1965 8 May Western Springs sunstrike on start line. Monza Corvette Ken Smith. pr.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1]NSCC 1965 #322 1965 8 May Western Springs Jack Nazer and Frank Radisich waiting for the flag J L.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=0]NSCC 1965 #321 1965 8 May Western Springs -Red Dawson Willys Corvette Jack Nazer Lotus Anglia Ke.jpg[/attachment]

Notes on the photos are J L Lawtons own comments.

These have appeared on the NSCC thread but relate to this Story.

[quote="Go Slideways"]From Ian Easton's personal collection"

Jac Jac: "That is my 1st sprintcar which I purchased off Warren..funny story when he was delivering it he managed to put the car and trailer in the drain at the end of my drive. (Remember that Warren)Pete that is the same car that I put the polished alloy panels on, which you have a photo of.."

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/7s581joixr/EPSON007.jpg[/img][/url]


The Gurney Eagle - from Ian Easton's personal collection - I know the reason why it's number 11, with Jac there's always a reason, or story, to explain everything. lol

Jac Jac: "This is the car when it was finally finished. It has now got the quick change diff, knock on front wheels and drum catcher."

Darian Reridder is restoring the car.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/2e8zpmvwe7/EPSON006.jpg[/img][/url]



"[/quote]

Will it be restored with an alloy body?

Before "Big Bad" Charlie Bernsten took up Stockcar racing he was a pusher of Midgets. He was going to build one for himself before Stockcars came along.

This is outside Jamiesons Garage on Main Street in Palmerston North, just around the corner from my house. The garage is still there, but its just a petrol station now.

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I was privileged to interviewCharlie at his home shortly before he passed away.

Here is the interview.. turn your sound right up. Hope you enjoy it, the original Stockcar Legend:

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3oMmvIB3gM&t=68s[/url]

Harrisville is a pretty cool friendly place, always some cool cars there too.

This one was a fresh import having it's first run, a pretty special car.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/3xl6vdiwq7/IMG_4511.jpg[/img][/url]

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Pretty sure this one is at Whanganui

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/4bpyfr37xb/EPSON012.jpg[/img][/url]

[quote="Go Slideways"]The famous all alloy body Gurney Eagle behind a nice Mercedes Benz........ .....I like Mercs, good strong cars, fortunately.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/7qzhtpuqzz/EPSON016.jpg[/img][/url][/quote]

I remember watching this car at Palmerston North Speedway.

One of, if not the, most iconic Stockcars of all time - the brand new Gurney Eagle.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/7jrd336gbz/EPSON001.jpg[/img][/url]



Harrisville Speedway.

Not sure if this was the old "Sunday News" car or not, bit its exceptionally cool anyway.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/4l2bleyyxb/IMG_3993_1024x728_1024x728.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/7u1fi2mvzj/IMG_3996_1024x725_1024x725.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/56bz7pu2db/IMG_3998_1024x629_2.jpg[/img][/url]

The famous all alloy body Gurney Eagle behind a nice Mercedes Benz........ .....I like Mercs, good strong cars, fortunately.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/7qzhtpuqzz/EPSON016.jpg[/img][/url]

From Ian Easton's personal collection"

Jac Jac: "That is my 1st sprintcar which I purchased off Warren..funny story when he was delivering it he managed to put the car and trailer in the drain at the end of my drive. (Remember that Warren)Pete that is the same car that I put the polished alloy panels on, which you have a photo of.."

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/7s581joixr/EPSON007.jpg[/img][/url]


The Gurney Eagle - from Ian Easton's personal collection - I know the reason why it's number 11, with Jac there's always a reason, or story, to explain everything. lol

Jac Jac: "This is the car when it was finally finished. It has now got the quick change diff, knock on front wheels and drum catcher."

Darian Reridder is restoring the car.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/2e8zpmvwe7/EPSON006.jpg[/img][/url]



"

From Ian Easton's collection.

Gurney Eagle

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/2wx7lrydgf/EPSON002.jpg[/img][/url]


With 88r Neville Stanaway

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/84si8rrl4f/EPSON004.jpg[/img][/url]

Yes Steve, I am good friends with Bruce and he certainly has a good memory. He's made a huge contribution to speedway over the years and it remains his passion, his nickname is "speed".
Here he is racing one of the GTHO Falcons he drove, this one might have been owned by Ian Easton at the time. Despite owning a large Holden dealership now, he is still a Ford man. lol
I've been a bit sidetracked lately, but I'm intending to crank my scanner into life this week.
Cheers.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s26.postimg.org/vrl8knygp/Bruce_Robertson_Falcon_GTHO.jpg[/img][/url]

[quote="Go Slideways"]Bruce Robertsons brand new Tank at Jamiesons with the controversial front wheel guards.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s26.postimg.org/dc2tqjigp/IMG_6319_1024x864.jpg[/img][/url]


Dave Evans, at Whanganui I think.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s26.postimg.org/dhu0gapmh/IMG_6326_1024x683.jpg[/img][/url][/quote]

Neat photos! I interviewed Bruce Robertson a couple of years ago for a book I wrote about people who race in speedway. His memory is so sharp and he recalled all his old cars. He has also done quite a lot of circuit racing.

Bruce has built up a hugely successful business empire and I found it enjoyable listening to his early days starting out with a small panelbeater workshop in Fielding.

Despite being a millionaire many times over and being the agent for a large number of car and truck brands, Bruce can usually be found in the little office of his Regent Motors dealership, which is his first car dealership established back in the 1970s, and which nowadays sells mostly cheap trade-ins from his other dealerships.

I took this photo in 2013

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s26.postimg.org/6alccozp5/IMG_2831_-_Copy.jpg[/img][/url]

Bruce Robertsons brand new Tank at Jamiesons with the controversial front wheel guards.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s26.postimg.org/dc2tqjigp/IMG_6319_1024x864.jpg[/img][/url]


Dave Evans, at Whanganui I think.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s26.postimg.org/dhu0gapmh/IMG_6326_1024x683.jpg[/img][/url]

I was very fortunate to spend an afternoon with the late Bob Jamieson, Howard Lockwood and Brendon Lucas at Bob's place one day shortly before he passed away. Bob showed me many things in his personal collection and shared some fantastic stories with me. I always intended to return with my video camera but sadly I left it too late, but I did take quite a few photo's.

Bob was instrumental in creating the very first Boss Mustang powered Tank for Bruce Roberston. Bob built a lot of cars. Not many people know this but Bob also built a monocoque tarmac race car that was driven by Sterling Moss.

The picture's below are of Bob holding a picture of the car and a signed one of Sterling Moss in the car.

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Bob gave me this photo from his personal collection. It shows Howard Lockwood's car outside Bob's garage in Main Street Palmerston North, where the original Tank was made and many cars were prepared. No booze was allowed in the garage while the guys were working on their cars and everybody had to remain for half an hour after work had finished in case a spark had ignited the wooden floor of the workshop.
The garage is still there, just around the corner from my home, but it's just a petrol station now, although the original workshop is still behind the modern new frontage.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s26.postimg.org/w4a3gdph5/IMG_6341_1024x683.jpg[/img][/url]



This picture is of the original Tank at the "Tanks verses the Rest" meeting that was held at Palmy. Sorry I can't remember the date, maybe 2009..

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Bruce Robertson racing his original 1p Boss Mustand powered Tank at Palmy Teams Champs, sorry forgot which year.. Dutchy is in 24h, not sure about the 62h purple car.

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Cool cars - rest in peace Bob Jamieson.

Wow, that'll be cool. I look forward to seeing it.

I sure will share them Steve, I'm doing quite a big project on Ian's racing and have interviewed him at his home on video, which went for about an hour. I'm just sorting out the many items Ian has loaned me, my scanner will be doing overtime lol. I'm also going to be loaned another box of photo's from Ian's collection when he gets back from Knoxville next week.
It'll take me a while to put it all together and I want the end result to be worthy of such a great contribution to NZ motorsport, but I'll get there.
One fantastic thing about this site and the World Wide Web is that it save guards the material forever. Ian lost a bit due to some water damage and a while ago some bastards burgled his home and stole his whole collection of video tapes.

Here is a just small portion of what I have got so far. I don't really care how long the final You Tube video goes for - I'm going to include all of it, but it'll take me a wee while.

I am also doing some research for a similar project on my good friend Ian Taylor. Ian has very few photo's so I'd be grateful for anything that hasn't already been posted on here.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s23.postimg.org/ysfsjsbkr/IMG_5931.jpg[/img][/url]


Ian's race number used to be 2p. When the governing body, before SNZ came about, decided that he couldn't use #2 he adopted #11 .....because 1 + 1 = 2.

There was a rumor that Ian loaned his number 11 to Steve Kinser to use, but I'm not sure how much truth there is to that one. haha

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s4.postimg.org/vefbbi2bh/EPSON004.jpg[/img][/url]

One of Ian's many Sprintcars.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s18.postimg.org/w22ljozy1/EPSON002.jpg[/img][/url]

[quote="Go Slideways"]I'm doing a project on Ian "Jac Jac" Easton about his racing career covering 45+ years of racing speedway, tarmac, rally cars, sidecars, truck racing, jet boats and more which will eventually go on You Tube.

Ian has kindly loaned me 2 big boxes of his personal collection of many old photo's, programs, plans and other memorabilia. Pretty much all of it has never been on the internet.

One of the photo's is this one of the original Gurney Eagle powered Stockcar. Ian still races a Roush powered 66 Mustang muscle car, which is getting a new very special engine built for it.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/js5crxtrz/EPSON003.jpg[/img][/url][/quote]

This is awesome! His photo collection must be amazing. I hope you'll share more of them?

I'm doing a project on Ian "Jac Jac" Easton about his racing career covering 45+ years of racing speedway, tarmac, rally cars, sidecars, truck racing, jet boats and more which will eventually go on You Tube.

Ian has kindly loaned me 2 big boxes of his personal collection of many old photo's, programs, plans and other memorabilia. Pretty much all of it has never been on the internet.

One of the photo's is this one of the original Gurney Eagle powered Stockcar. Ian still races a Roush powered 66 Mustang muscle car, which is getting a new very special engine built for it.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://s1.postimg.org/js5crxtrz/EPSON003.jpg[/img][/url]

this was 2nd visit and in car more like ours, was Burnt Orange and went.