The Roaring Season

Paul owned the car and McNamarra drove it for him. Sponsored by Union Travel. Somewhere here I have a copy of the ownership papers.
I talked to Paul about it at the Revival and they bought it in as parts and built one car out of it.

OK, now for some Chevy Monzas. First up is the car purchased by Allan Moffat in 1975 with which to tackle the Australian Sports Sedan Championship, which would begin in 1976. This is a DeKon Monza, built by the combination of Lee Dykstra and Horst Kwech, specifically for the All-American GT category created in the IMSA series. Up until the introduction of AAGT, IMSA had been dominated by Porsche and BMW, and IMSA boss John Bishop knew he needed US cars at the pointy end for the series to succeed. I believe this was is chassis 1005, or the fifth car built.

It caused controversy when it first raced in Australia, and Moffat only drove it in 1976 before Ford decided they wanted to support touring car racing once again, and as such, a Ford driver couldn't be seen in a Chevy, so the Monza was mothballed until Ford changed their mind once again about touring car racing at the end of the decade and Moffat began racing it again. Its now back in the US and has been restored, albeit with slightly incorrect bodywork.

This is the car as it raced in New Zealand, at Bay Park, in late 1975, on its way from the US to Australia. Note the wide wheels, as it raced in IMSA. Moffat would have to fit the car with the maximum 10 inch wide wheels in Australia.

The Moffat Monza again. Moffat battled throughout the Bay Park event with Leo Leonard in the PDL Mustang. Leonard won all three heats, although that was mostly down to the incredible skills of Leonard himself, who managed to keep the faster Moffat at bay. The next time the pair faced off was at Wigram a few weeks later, and Moffat trounced the Mustang. The success of the Monza inspired the PDL team to build the PDL Mustang II.

Steve Holmes wrote:OK, now for some Chevy Monzas. First up is the car purchased by Allan Moffat in 1975 with which to tackle the Australian Sports Sedan Championship, which would begin in 1976. This is a DeKon Monza, built by the combination of Lee Dykstra and Horst Kwech, specifically for the All-American GT category created in the IMSA series. Up until the introduction of AAGT, IMSA had been dominated by Porsche and BMW, and IMSA boss John Bishop knew he needed US cars at the pointy end for the series to succeed.

For interest as an aside, Pauline Moffat (Allan Moffat's first wife) is now married to the Lee Dykstra mentioned here.

They have lived in Indianapolis since 2005. For 11 years she has been Executive Director of the IndyFringe Festival.

Another Monza at Bay Park. This time its John Briggs, across from Australia. This is the Bay Park round of the Open Saloon series that took place at Bay Park, Pukekohe and Manfeild during 1978/79. This is another DeKon Monza, chassis 1001, the first DeKon Monza built. It was raced by the DeKon team initially in 1974, and was leading on debut when it collided with a lapped car. It was repaired and sold to Maurice Carter, a long-time Chevy racer, who repainted it from the white with red and blue stripes as raced by DeKon, to red with white stripes.

Carter raced the Monza throughout 1975, and crashed the car a coupe of times before eventually selling it to Kiwi racer Red Dawson. It made its NZ debut at the same Bay Park event as the Moffat Monza.

Following Dawson's violent crash in the car in 1976, it was repaired and sold to Australia. I can't remember if John Briggs was the owner, or just the driver. Either way, it returned to NZ for the 1978/79 Open Saloon series, and can be seen here leading Leo Leonard in PDL II.

The Monza actually returned to NZ many years later, by this stage owned by Jeff Barnes. It was part of a four car squad of Australian Sports Sedans that ran a hugely competitive Trans-Tasman challenge again four top NZ Sports Sedans. The other Aussie cars included Bryan Thomson (Jaguar XJS), as well as Des Wall and Kerry Bailey, both with Chevy powered Toyota Supras.

Briggs again, this time at Pukekohe.

OK, next batch of pics. First up is Ralph Mossman in his Chevy V8 powered Viva. Looks like the windscreen has been busted out. Does this car still exist?

Motorbikes at Pukekohe, 1979.

Steve Holmes wrote:OK, next batch of pics. First up is Ralph Mossman in his Chevy V8 powered Viva. Looks like the windscreen has been busted out. Does this car still exist?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]44329[/ATTACH]

Unfortunately not, Kind of thoughts of another for HSS maybe

Grimmie- did Ralf run this against Aussies-Barnes/Walls/Thomson/Bailey when they were here ?
Or who were the Kiwis ?

John McKechnie wrote:Grimmie- did Ralf run this against Aussies-Barnes/Walls/Thomson/Bailey when they were here ?
Or who were the Kiwis ?

Hi John I think it was a later generation of NZ cars that raced the Aussies. I recall Kieran Wills in the Mazda RX8, Kayne Scott in the turbo Merker, Don Grindley in the Olds Cutlass, and one other, maybe Rodger Freeth in the Nissan 300ZX?

[video=youtube;Z70wUL3FJKA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z70wUL3FJKA&t=32s[/video]

John McKechnie wrote:Grimmie- did Ralf run this against Aussies-Barnes/Walls/Thomson/Bailey when they were here ?
Or who were the Kiwis ?

Great video- I was there up on the hill with my son-didnt think it was 1991, thought more 89?

The NZ v Australia Tranzam Challenge was held in 1992. Two races were run at Manfeild, Bay Park and Pukekohe.

Manfeild


Bay Park


Pukekohe

This Ford Consul Sports Sedan has been featured elsewhere on this site.

John Osborne's Chevy V8 powered Capri OSCA racer at Pukekohe. This is the ex-Halliday car which later burnt to the ground.