The Roaring Season

#102 looks like Jim Carney in the Escort he passed on to Jim Richards, #96 Rodger Anderson and #103 Graham Watson.
#77 May well be Dave Simpson in his brief foray as the first pedaller of the new twin-cam Escort, but my memory has him as racing #100, so the #77 car might be Jack Nazer. The #81 Imp might be Peter Levett...
Always good to see those old pics of Red in the Mustang, for many he was the first of the folk heroes in the big saloons, an abrasive personality but hard as nails on the track with LOTS of sideways action, all the while powering through massive amounts of chewing gum, a pack at a time...

Here's a few.

Escort No77 is Dave Simpson in the pre-Lexington colours.

Mini 82 is Colin Roberts.

Escort 105 - Don Halliday - my notes are not clear (and enver that reliable, I was about 12).

Mini 103 - Jim or Mary Carney (she may have been Mary McDonald in them days).

I would really like to know who is driving the Escort thats in a lot of the shots at Puke hounding Coppins in the Mustang!

I allways thought that Dave Simpson dissapeared after racing the Breadvan Anglia.Am I wrong.Is this the same guy? Is that the car that Richards ended up with?

Dave Simpson raced one the first Escorts (as stated above by Shano) and Jim had his own Escort (Lemon & Paeroa) before he drove the Carney(Williment) Escort.

Did Richards ever race the first Carney twin-cam Escort? the white one? Or did he go straight from his own L&P car to the Willment car?

Rod Grimwood wrote:Dave Simpson raced one the first Escorts (as stated above by Shano) and Jim had his own Escort (Lemon & Paeroa) before he drove the Carney(Williment) Escort.

I think I have commented on here before ,Dave Simpson ended up with getting the Escort TC that was coming here for John Ward before his untimely passing at Katoomba,the common connection here was Bill Norrish who was involved with both of them,Bill was a Lotus Twin cam engine man in those times

Bob, didn't Bill have something to do with beach buggies and Rootes Group speed equipment years ago down near Ponsonby. He helped the Millen boy's out years ago and Rod has got his original old V6 buggie back and hopefully it will be rebuilt. Story for another thread.
PS Steve thank you so much for great photos, they bring back the memories.

I am really happy that all these photos that have been hiding away.Some for over 40 years!can be shared. A big thanks to Steve Holmes for putting all this together!My big regret is that I stopped just before Fahey got the Escort and all the other great cars of that time.I really would love to have been able to see pics of the Capris etc at my favourite spot, ie Pit Corner at levin.Lokking back I started taking my girlfriend to Levin and perhaps thought it wouldn't be cool to lug my big camera around.It was the latest Canon SLR at the time and I had both 200 and 400mm lens.

Damn girls ah Steve, they have been known to change some habits over the years.

[quote="Rod Grimwood"]Bob, didn't Bill have something to do with beach buggies and Rootes Group speed equipment years ago down near Ponsonby. He helped the Millen boy's out years ago and Rod has got his original old V6 buggie back and hopefully it will be rebuilt. Story for another thread.

Bill raced a Ford ten in his younger days and was very involved with getting Jack Nazers 1475cc 105E Anglia going ,in my younger days we shared a friendship brought about by our similar interests in the Ford engines and the Lotus Twin cam heads etc
Bill later moved into town and started the Supertune buggie thing off when they were all the rage early seventies ,he also used to build race engines,modify cylinder heads etc,from memory Steve Millen worked there around 1971 ? at that time I nearly went and worked for Bill myself ,but I decided to go back to the South Island and work instead

Steve Holmes wrote:Did Richards ever race the first Carney twin-cam Escort? the white one? Or did he go straight from his own L&P car to the Willment car?

Steve yes he did ,its a coincidence I was given some photos of myself recently I had never seen before by a family who were having a clean out and I will check because I think there is one of Jim in the first Carney Escort amongst them

Steve Holmes wrote:Did Richards ever race the first Carney twin-cam Escort? the white one? Or did he go straight from his own L&P car to the Willment car?

I agree with Bob, he wasn't in the Carney Escort long before the Willment car turned up : about half a season I reckon. But that's Jim in the L and P Escort #105 in the Levin pics on page 1 : recognise the familiar hunch...

From memory JR was given a few laps in the white Carney car in practice at Wigram, and was something like 10sec/lap faster than the owner. Fpr the rest of that season they shared it, then Jim C imported the Willment car for Jim R's use

Bay Park October 69 ? if the writing on this photo is correct ? and also ties up with the program I have,Jim also did the Hunters Road Hillclimb in this car around the same time ,no photo but I have the results

That ties up with my theory, Bob. The Bay Park meeting would have been at the start of the season after they shared the car, and before the Willment car was landed. IIRC the replacement car didn't race till the Christmas meeting

Thanks Bob, yea Supertune i remember now. He supplied a Sandpacer Buggy (orange) for Rod after the first one (yellow) got a bit tweaked at Andersons farm. and I do remember Steve working there for a while. Bill was a nice guy to deal with and very helpful. he helped me with bits and pieces for my Humber 80