Old Race Tracks

[Grant Sprague]

Woooow , John......... I looked into the face , Bill was very young there , Bill was a cripple always on crutches......a strange little man , so there you go , he use to hang about in the work shop also nick name was Souz short for [Southby].. well done thanks

[digbyp]

Godfrey Paape from Dunedin with the A90 Atlantic?

Bill Southby (Ernie's mate) with the Model A roadster?

That's Godfrey in the hat. Might be me by the Opel Kadett with my hands in my pockets! We stayed with Matthew Will's who had a fabulous estate nearby. We raced back there in the A90 behind his supercharged Mercedes (500) which was flinging off tread! I remember we were doing over 90 mph. I'd be in the back seat loving every minute of it

[Grant Sprague]

Digbyp...... there are some beautiful /English buildings & Estates around South Canterbury..one springs to mind just north of where this grass track was ..on the left past Temuka heading north is this the one ..gee so much history there .. just a wild card guess...

[Jeff]

Crystal Palace track in the U.K is now pretty much a "lost" old racetrack now...
I just love the last part of this film from the 1971 British saloon car champs with Mike Crabtree in the Willment RS1600 Escort as he rounds up the larger engined opposition.
This is brilliant racing[video=youtube;kDAK4jBKmow]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDAK4jBKmow[/video]

[Grant Ellwood]

Fantastic racing by all the front runners but really great car control by Martin Thomas in the Camaro, tossing it around like the Escort.
Perhaps we can see that sort of action in HMC? (I'm not being serious....).

[Roger Dowding]

[quote="Milan Fistonic"]Thanks pallmall.

This event must have taken place as the programme I have has results written in for two of the four races scheduled.

The names are a bit hard to read but the circuit used the roads around Mount Atkinson. The intersection at the left of the circuit is where Woodlands Park Road joins the Senic Drive by the Filter Station. The road across the bottom is the Senic Drive but is called Exhibition now Senic Drive on the map. The junction on the right is where Atkinson Road joins the Senic Drive, Titirangi Road and what was View Road (now Kohu Road).

I lived just a couple of miles down Titirangi Road at that time but don't recall anything about the event. I was only 10 in 1952 and it wasn't until I was taken to the 1955 NZIGP that I got bitten by the motor racing bug.


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Remember that Motorcycles also raced around New Lynn, the brickworks circuit that included part of Clark St [ anticlockwise then Rankin Margan Astley and back to Clark.
A sidecar complete with crew went right through a fence panel at the lefthander Margan to Astley. how they missed the post and got the panel was good luck.
ran for a couple of years in the late 70's [ memory vague - but my brother lived in Islington and there was a walkway beside his house and the Anglican Church through to Margan Ave.
Also as I had lived in New Lynn, mid 50's to 1970, went to New Lynn primary school [ the old building on the corner of Rankin Margan, Hutchinson.

Seagrove, my Uncle Eddie Dowding who was Club Captain NSCC back in the 1940's and my Dad " Mac used to talk about it, once took the Austin Healey Club to entrance as part of a drive to " old and new tracks of South Auckland " back in 1990.

[Skypilot]

I rode a motorbike around a dirt track somewhere in that locality off Target or Wairau Rd. Could have been around 1955. It was on Cox's farm and it was quite popular for many of us who enjoyed a thrill.

Hi Guys.

I was wondering if anyone can help me? I was looking at some old aerial shots of Auckland's North Shore (on google earth) and I noticed 2 race tracks, one in Glenfield and one in Albany. I don't know if these are car, motorbike or carting tracks, but I was hoping someone could shed some light into what they were used for. These shots are circa 1963.

The Albany one was located right next to the Albany pub, on state highway one. The Glenfield one was next to Target Rd, but accessed via Wairau Rd. Possibly owned by a car club?

Any info would be appreciated.

Cheers
Rik

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[SPman]

There were a lot of horse trotting training tracks around Albany - a couple up Oteha Valley Road...Ben Davies and the remains of one on our farm. This could also be a horse track maybe the Wellsfords or the Stevensons.....if you go up the hill from the pub, there was Ned Neville's car wreckers - a treasure trove for us young'uns if you could get in and avoid the dogs...... (I assume this is off Google Earth - 1963 ECBBC views)

[Allan]

There was motorcycle racing around the streets in Whakatane back in the 1950s. The course ran somewhere around the high school.

[Rod Grimwood]

There was a go kart track in the old Bush Rd, and another semi oval popped up on the University site when it was first cleared, was good test ground for Waikaraka saloons and other cars.

[seaqnmac27]

Not a New Zealand circuit but certainly related and in this, its original configuration, certainly a lost Race track.

[video=youtube;pvIDfqP8pIU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvIDfqP8pIU[/video]

[Roger Dowding]

Just scrolling old threads and came across this one ..

My father Mac Dowding [ 1917 - 1999 ] and his brother Ed Dowding [ 1919 - 2018 ] -my Uncle of NSCC fame talked about Seagrove which was used in the late 1940's - early 1950's
The site can be still be seen on Google Maps - off Seagrove Road on the Peninsula near Clarks Creek, Waiau Pa and is part of a farm - but no indication of the track which was a simple shape;

This is a rendition of the track ; courtesy of Bob Homewood, NSCC member for many years, and serious car driver.

and an article on racing there - also from Bob Homewood

A further report " Around the Clubs "- posted by Milan Fistonic on the Northern Sports car Club thread some time ago.

There are many lost tracks in New Zealand- Baypark and Levin probably the best known with others thta were popular in their day.

Mairehau, Christchurch
Matamata - Waikato
Napier - Hawkes Bay
Paritutu, New Plymouth
Ryal Bush, Invercargill
Waimate - Canterbury

and many more ;

The if we look at Speedways and Hill Climbs the list is large.

[Oldfart]

Add in all the Grass track venues and it's huge!
Waharoa, Raglan,..

[nigel watts]

I can remember my dad taking me to a motor bike race which was held, I think, on the road at Te Puna in Tauranga. This would have been in the 1950's.

[stubuchanan]

Go back to pages 4 & 5 of this thread and you will find more about Seagrove. Back in the 1990's we had a beach place on the far side of the Manukau Harbour. A neighbour there who had a fishing cabin, farmed part of Seagrove and confirmed that even after 50 years the remains of the runways were still visible. Also mentioned bulldozers being bogged down in the mudflats during construction.

Stu

[Ray Bell]

Is anyone able to tell what famous circuit these photos are from?









They are in order, taken in the past six years.

[Grant Ellwood]

Is anyone able to tell what famous circuit these photos are from?









They are in order, taken in the past six years.

Oran Park?

[bry3500]

Is anyone able to tell what famous circuit these photos are from?









They are in order, taken in the past six years.

Catalina Park?

[Ray Bell]

No, neither of those...

It's a public road circuit which predated both of those by a number of decades.

[Roger Dowding]

Go back to pages 4 & 5 of this thread and you will find more about Seagrove. Back in the 1990's we had a beach place on the far side of the Manukau Harbour. A neighbour there who had a fishing cabin, farmed part of Seagrove and confirmed that even after 50 years the remains of the runways were still visible. Also mentioned bulldozers being bogged down in the mudflats during construction.

Stu

Stu, Thanks, have had a re-read and Bob Homewood's post was from the article that was later scanned and posted. Cheers