The Roaring Season

Steve Holmes wrote:I'm not completely sure what I'm looking at here. Is it a ShellSport field?

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Its, 1975, Leckie, Cook, Philips Not sure who the #6 Mini I would be guessing, maybe Robert Lee?? is then Hancock.

Steve Holmes wrote:I'm not completely sure what I'm looking at here. Is it a ShellSport field?

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I reckon it's this race from the December 29 1974 meeting and the drivers are Leckie, Cook, Phillips, Lee and Hancock.



Leckie won from Phillips. Cook stopped when the Sunny bent a valve.

[quote="Milan Fistonic"]I reckon it's this race from the December 29 1974 meeting and the drivers are Leckie, Cook, Phillips, Lee and Hancock.

Correct Milan - my negatives confirm that date. Its the same meeting where this happened .....

1973-Noel Goodwin used to run a similar sign on his XUI- Goodie wants a sponsor

BMCBOY wrote:

Milan Fistonic wrote:I reckon it's this race from the December 29 1974 meeting and the drivers are Leckie, Cook, Phillips, Lee and Hancock.

Correct Milan - my negatives confirm that date. Its the same meeting where this happened .....


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Hard to figure out how it went from your photo to this from Dennis Green.

This is how Robin Curtis saw the incident.

[Hard to figure out it went from your photo to this from Dennis Green.] - I agree!

Looks as if he has found a sponsor too Milan - perhaps this was a different incident?

Great stuff guys, this is awesome. So essentially the photo in Post #14 isn't from a ShellSport race, rather a class battle. It was the gaggle of Minis that had me confused. I don't recall too many of those in the ShellSport series.

OK, a couple of SCANZ Sports Car pics. First up is, I believe, Rhubarb 2. Can anyone confirm this? And who is driving? Tino Korzelius?

This, I believe, is Morrie Hogan. Underneath the one-off bodywork is a Mallock U2.

We know for certain that the Dennis Green photo of Cook and Phillips off the track is from the December 29 1974 because it is published in the Motoraction report of that meeting.


The COOKY WANTS A SPONSOR shot in post 23 shows a different car to that in post 14. It has a white front spoiler whereas the car behind Leckie in post 14 is black below the bumper line. It also has a non-white front left corner of the bonnet

Found it! The COOKY WANTS A SPONSOR CAR was run at the November 27 1974 Bay Park meeting in the 0-1300cc BNSW races. The spin happened at the first corner of heat one.

Thanks folks for identifying Bill Leckie in the Imp in the earlier post. You've created a nice segue into this post, which is Bill's next car, his V8 Ford Capri. This was the Capri in its early guise, before it was fitted with the aggressive box-flares and painted white with Sleepyhead sponsorship.

Bill used a bunch of Formula 5000 parts when building the Capri, including the motor which was then reduced to fit the 4.2 litre engine size for his class.

This car appeared on our Lost Race Cars thread. I did once phone Bill about the car, to try and find out what happened to it. It would seem it almost certainly is gone.

Chasing Bill is Bryan Blackberry in the neat Frist Escort. Can anyone remember drinking Frist?

Does the Escort still exist?

I believe this is early 1980 (or December 1979), someone here can confirm or deny? This is the Holden Dealer Team Torana A9X raced by Peter Brock in 1979. Is this the car that won Bathurst by 6 laps?

Anyway, in New Zealand it raced as a Sports Sedan, as did the similar car of Garry Rogers. I believe both cars ran Bay Park, Pukekohe, and Manfeild, but that Brock ran once or twice before Jim Richards stepped in.

Chasing the Torana is Wayne Huxford's Capri, in its early guise, which is still my favourite. Maybe I'm getting confused, but didn't Wayne power the Capri with the Morand Chevy F5000 powerplant from David Oxton's old Begg FM5?

From the same event, and now the A9X is being pursued by Graeme Whincup's Chevy Monza Sports Sedan. Graeme is the Uncle of Jamie Whincup.

I can't recall why, but for some reason Jim Richards drove the Monza at a couple of the NZ events. I assume Whincup did too. Maybe someone here with the event programs can confirm who drove what and where?

Does the Monza still exist in some form? This would have to be one of the first Australian built Monza Sports Sedans.

Peter Brock drove the Torana at Bay Park and then Jim Richards drove it at Pukekohe and Manfeild. Whincup drove his Monza in the first race, then Richards took over for the other two. Garry Rogers was also competing in a Torana.

Brock must have gone home after Bay Park as Jim Richards took over the MHDT Torana for Pukekohe and Manfeild.

The MHDT car was the actual 1979 Bathurst car that I saw winning by six laps.

Three races were run at Bay Park - the first two as Handicaps and the third as a reverse grid.

Race 1 - John Haszard RX3, Huxford, Platt, Brock. Rogers 8th, Whincup 9th.

Race 2 - Richards, Brock, Huxford, Rogers

Race 3 - Richards, Brock, Huxford, Rogers.

Two races at Pukekohe - both handicaps.

Race 1 - Richards, Rogers, Trevor McLean, John Dymand, Whincup

Race 2 - Richards. Rogers, Whincup.

Two handicap races at Manfeild with very small number of staters.

Race 1 - Whincup, Richards, Haszard, Rogers.

Race 2- Huxford, Richards, Haszard. Whicup spun and was unable to restart.

Bay Park was on 30 December 1979 and Pukekohe and Manfeild followed on the next two weklends.

The Bill Leckie Capri would be the one he was badly burnt in at Manfield. I think Jim Richards raced it at one point after that.

Allan wrote:The Bill Leckie Capri would be the one he was badly burnt in at Manfield. I think Jim Richards raced it at one point after that.

Yes he did.

Milan Fistonic wrote:Peter Brock drove the Torana at Bay Park and then Jim Richards drove it at Pukekohe and Manfeild. Whincup drove his Monza in the first race, then Richards took over for the other two. Garry Rogers was also competing in a Torana.

Brock must have gone home after Bay Park as Jim Richards took over the MHDT Torana for Pukekohe and Manfeild.

The MHDT car was the actual 1979 Bathurst car that I saw winning by six laps.

Three races were run at Bay Park - the first two as Handicaps and the third as a reverse grid.

Race 1 - John Haszard RX3, Huxford, Platt, Brock. Rogers 8th, Whincup 9th.

Race 2 - Richards, Brock, Huxford, Rogers

Race 3 - Richards, Brock, Huxford, Rogers.

Two races at Pukekohe - both handicaps.

Race 1 - Richards, Rogers, Trevor McLean, John Dymand, Whincup

Race 2 - Richards. Rogers, Whincup.

Two handicap races at Manfeild with very small number of staters.

Race 1 - Whincup, Richards, Haszard, Rogers.

Race 2- Huxford, Richards, Haszard. Whicup spun and was unable to restart.

Bay Park was on 30 December 1979 and Pukekohe and Manfeild followed on the next two weklends.

Great stuff Milan, thanks you.

Allan wrote:The Bill Leckie Capri would be the one he was badly burnt in at Manfield. I think Jim Richards raced it at one point after that.

Yes thats correct Allan. Bill did race the car again once he'd recovered, but MSNZ changed the rules at the end o the 1977 season, by outlawing all the big engined cars and introducing a 2 litre maximum engine size. So the Capri, like so many other cars, was suddenly worthless.

Some, such as PDL, Jack Nazer etc just mothballed their cars, but Bill elected to strip the Capri of its F5000 parts and traded the remains on a Bedford van.