Old Race Tracks

[Neville Milne]

Grass-tracks seemed to come and go with some regularity. ISTR an 'auto-cross' type venue at the Aitkenhead Sawmill location on the Pokeno-Thames Rd. and another venue over the Waikato, from Tuakau----in the Pukekawa/Onewhero area. This was basically circular where 'races' were held..a sort of 'red-neck....run what you brung" type activity.

[stubuchanan]

Well, I couldn't find the Onehunga clipping, probably from the "Star" as Bob Homewood suggests. It was only 50 years ago, but I think it went down or up Norman's Hill Road.

However, I did find another circuit which never happened :



This must have mid 1980's I guess, but never came to anything except ruffled feathers among the locals. Manukau City must have had a fixation about this area, as they had a grand pland in 2006 for a "Colin Dale Motorsport Park" at the left of the plan where "CD" is marked. This would have had kart track, blokarts, offroaders' tracks, 550 metre speedway, etc etc and heaven knows what else. It is marked on the now Auckland Council maps /aerials, but otherwise vanished without trace, apart from in the minds of the anti-Western Springs lot.

Also found a RNZAF map of Seagrove aerodrome (in a local history named "The Mystery of the History of Waiau Pa")
as follows :


Disregard the North arrow, it seems to be pointing about NE instead.

Stu

[bob homewood]

Stu,yes glad you remember the article as well ,at least I know my memory is still ok ,Normans Hill road that rings a bell now,and I have a feeling the date was mentioned as possibly for late February

[pallmall]

The Colin Dale Park thing is still on the table and very much favoured by Auckland's current Mayor as a site for a speedway track. I hope that he learnt something on Saturday at the FIM Speedway GP at Western Springs and perhaps can grasp the idea that Western Springs should be left alone for Speedway and that it has a valuble role to play for Auckland and Tourism. 23,500 people at the event must have had some impact on the Council.
Anyway that is modern stuff even if we are trying to protect something that started in 1929.

The Onehunga Track, it would have been up Normans Hill Rd, left into Arthur St and left (after a 3 point turn!) into Beachcroft Ave and back along for another left into Normans Hill Rd.

[pallmall]

Newspaper advertising for the first car Seagrove meeting held on Sunday 13th April 1947. The Stock Cars are of course ordinary road cars, not the speedway type. There were probably more bike meetings held at Seagrove than car meetings including the 1951 TT on a 4 mile course around the complex.

[stubuchanan]

The Colin Dale Park thing is still on the table and very much favoured by Auckland's current Mayor as a site for a speedway track. I hope that he learnt something on Saturday at the FIM Speedway GP at Western Springs and perhaps can grasp the idea that Western Springs should be left alone for Speedway and that it has a valuble role to play for Auckland and Tourism. 23,500 people at the event must have had some impact on the Council.
Anyway that is modern stuff even if we are trying to protect something that started in 1929.

The Onehunga Track, it would have been up Normans Hill Rd, left into Arthur St and left (after a 3 point turn!) into Beachcroft Ave and back along for another left into Normans Hill Rd.

What's wrong with a 3-point-turn hairpin? The ridiculous hairpin at the 1.5 mile Symmons Plains track is obviously satisfactory for the ever-so-picky Oz V8 promoters who don't think Hampton Downs is long enough. Who needs them!

Stu

[pallmall]

Well, we were looking forward to this meeting and did many practice laps after the circuit and meeting was announced. The hairpin was certainly where we would have watched from. Will take some photos of what the road is like next time I go past.

Not sure who wants the Oz V8s here, somebody must, but I am yet to meet them.

[David McKinney]

Newspaper advertising for the first car Seagrove meeting held on Sunday 13th April 1947

As far as I can discover, the first Seagrove meeting was on 10/11/46, and cars also raced at a motorbike meeting there two weeks later

[pallmall]

As far as I can discover, the first Seagrove meeting was on 10/11/46, and cars also raced at a motorbike meeting there two weeks later

Could be, there is a fair bit of contradictory info out there.
David, do you want a copy of the DVD?

[thunder427]

.......Aranui Speedway/Christchurch,now there is a 'Great' bit of history...Ronnie Moore/Barry Briggs/Ivan 'even bigger collection of trophies'Mauger,there is a site covering the 'Glory Days'...then what about that fantastic Annual Motorcycle Meeting each year at Cust,north of Christchurch.........don't argue!!!,Motorcycles count,Moore ran 'single seaters'....Crosby /Bathurst, etcetcetcetc!!!!!!!!.....regards thunder427/MJ

[SPman]

Thread Dredge (working my way through from the earliest - there is some interesting stuff in these earlier posts), to answer the original question, these are all horse training tracks for pacers or trotters, as originally surmised. The only auto style track I can recall was a go cart track in Bush Rd in the mid 60's - not visible on this 1963 Google overlay.

These 2 horse tracks were off Oteha Valley Rd - the top one was Ben Davies - in use until about 1970, I think and the other one was on our farm towards North Cross - hadn't been used since the 50's and was being obliterated by strawberry patches......

[George Sheweiry]

My Dad (yes another George) wasnt really that keen on me racing--- "Cars are for driving from A to B son!!" So I was astounded to find out not long after he passed away that he had raced a ford 10 at Seagrove!! I wonder if there is a race program with him listed on it. You never Know.

[Jeff]

Hi Guys , I have read in the past that Seagrove was an "emergency airfield" in case anything happened to Ardmore during WW2.
Like Cambria Park , it was an American operated base.
Never paved, ( though the airfield roads may have been ) the grass airfield needed to be big enough for bombers to land on.
I'ts big alright , and you can only see a small amount from the road without tresspassing.
2 runways in the shape of an " L " made their way around the point at the end of Seagrove road.
I know speed trials were held there in the 50's - Bruce and Les McLaren made the long trip there a few times and a speedway midget in the hands of American Frank " Satan "Brewer clocked close to 100mph.

[Trevor Sheffield]

Seagrove airstrip was certainly paved with US forces introducing the first paving machines to NZ.

I watched cars racing there more than sixty years ago. I recall Laurie Powell driving both his V8 engined Ford B4 roadster against an immaculate pre war Auburn Speedster, and also running his speedway midget. Ron Roycroft ran a Riley engined midget, as well as whatever he had on hand. I think George Smith was there with the first edition of his GeeCeeEss. Racing was simply up and down the runway around 44 gallon drums, and mostly constituted handicap events. I think the public were given the opportunity to have a run, but not as part of the competition. The surface soon became quickly broken up by farm animals as it had no real foundations and became unusable.

I also remember competing at a club meeting run on another disused air strip in South Auckland and organised by the by the Northern Sports Car club around the mid 1950's. The club captain and president had fun in Nippy Austin Sevens. The venue must have had a name but can't recall it. I do remember that stock were grazed there and at one point we had to negotiate a gateway complete with solid strainer posts and am sure that few protective hay bales were on hand. Can any other old timer remember this venue?

I ran an AC sports car fitted with a flat head Ford V8, as well as a Standard Vanguard saloon. I wish I could find the AC as my son would very much like to have it as a restoration project. It was last seen in Hamilton and the Waikato some fifty years ago, at one time I was told with a calf in the back. LOL. Any news regarding this very worthy car, would be sincerely appreciated.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the correction Trevor !
Just goes to show that no matter what you read - there's no substitute for actually being there at the time.
As much as I would love to have a wander around the place I have always respected the owners " no trespassing" signs.

[Jeff]

Can anybody tell me ( or have photo's of ) the Queenstown road hillclimb in Auckland ?
Queenstown road is now a main motorway feeder to the S.E motorway at Hillsborough / Onehunga and I just cannot imagine it once being a motorsport event road - unless the event included adjoining streets such as Frederick Street and Carlton Road in Hillsborough.
I know Sir Tom Clark raced there a few times and held the hill record for a while in the 50's.
Any maps of the course or photo's ??

[stubuchanan]

Trevor - would your Northern SCC track have been Cambria Park? Not an airstrip but a US army camp from World War 2, at Puhinui, just south of Papatoetoe. See the aerial photo on page 1 (?) of this thread where there could have been a gate halfway round the curve at the southern end of the track.

Re Seagrove, at present I have (by coincidence) an Auckland Library copy of the book by Max Poole "Seagrove - Where's That" . The late 'Pallmall' mentioned this book earlier in this thread too. Poole's father was caretaker of the place after the war when it was used as a race circuit, and Max used to help the bikers set up the track for racing. As well as aircraft shots, the book has some interesting car and motorcycle photos and memorabilia and is well worth a look.

Stu

[Milan Fistonic]

Here's Frank Brewer in his midget at Seagrove in 1947.


[ATTACH]22893[/ATTACH]

[Milan Fistonic]

As far as I can discover, the first Seagrove meeting was on 10/11/46, and cars also raced at a motorbike meeting there two weeks later

I have a report on the first meeting at Seagrove and it starts with this paragraph.

On Sunday, November 10th [1946], Seagrove Aerodrome, about 30 miles from Auckland, was the scene of the first motor racing meeting in New Zealand to be held on a sealed course. The meeting was staged by the New Zealand Motor Racing Drivers' Association [soon to become the Auckland Car Club], who secured special permission to use the site from the Air Department. Events for midget, stock and sports cars, and also for motorcycles, were watched by almost 7000 spectators.

It's interesting that they were able to run such an event on a Sunday. Was there a law change to keep Sundays free of sporting events because I'm sure when I started going to motor races most if not all were on Saturdays? I recall the trouble the clubs had to get Sunday meetings at Pukekohe.

[Trevor Sheffield]

Trevor - would your Northern SCC track have been Cambria Park? Not an airstrip but a US army camp from World War 2, at Puhinui, just south of Papatoetoe. See the aerial photo on page 1 (?) of this thread where there could have been a gate halfway round the curve at the southern end of the track.

Re Seagrove, at present I have (by coincidence) an Auckland Library copy of the book by Max Poole "Seagrove - Where's That" . The late 'Pallmall' mentioned this book earlier in this thread too. Poole's father was caretaker of the place after the war when it was used as a race circuit, and Max used to help the bikers set up the track for racing. As well as aircraft shots, the book has some interesting car and motorcycle photos and memorabilia and is well worth a look.

Stu

Thanks Stu,

You have triggered my memory and I think that we used to refer to it as simply “Puhinui”. After I posted, I had second thoughts about it being an airfield, as I then recalled getting the Vanguard very much sideways at a tight right hand corner preceded by a short slightly down hill piece, and there were trees and leaves on the ground. Whatever, it was a lot of fun and the limits were certainly tested. It was standard practice to well and truly overdo things during practice runs, in order to establish those limits.

I also remember another interesting gate which was negotiated at a hill climb venue South Auckland. We called it the up and down hillclimb and it was fast. A farm gate was at the crest of a short uphill stretch after a short downhill and corner. It was made specially interesting as at the entry was an iron rail surfaced cattle stop and on the other side an immediate tight right hander. Both the crossing and gate were best negotiated in a power slide so as to be set up for the corner. Ouch!

Cheers, Trevor.