The Roaring Season

Steve Holmes wrote:Not sure if the Donovan machine (bottom pic) ran with SCANZ? Someone here will know.

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Looking through programmes and reports Steve, yes. he did

Going back to the Amco sponsored Escort.

I'm not saying it isn't Peter Sunberg but my recollection is that he typically raced with #130 and Spears sponsorship.

I associate Amco Jeans with Rod Collingwood - I may have even purchased Amco jeans because of their motor racing sponsorship. And somewhere in the deep recesses in the idea that the ex Fahey Escort ended up with Grant Aitken. Over to the saloon car experts!

Michael Clark wrote:Going back to the Amco sponsored Escort.

I'm not saying it isn't Peter Sunberg but my recollection is that he typically raced with #130 and Spears sponsorship.

I associate Amco Jeans with Rod Collingwood - I may have even purchased Amco jeans because of their motor racing sponsorship. And somewhere in the deep recesses in the idea that the ex Fahey Escort ended up with Grant Aitken. Over to the saloon car experts!

Sundberg did race with number 40 in the 1973/74 season.

[quote="Milan Fistonic"]Sundberg did race with number 40 in the 1973/74 season though according to this report from the Labour Day meeting at Bay Park it did still have Amco sponsorship. Perhaps the photo was from a later date after the deal with Amco ended.

OK, this is the Graeme Whincup Chevy Monza at Bay Park. Graeme is, of course, Jamie's uncle. The Monza would have been one of the very fastest sedans in Australasia when it raced in NZ during the 1979/80 season. Whincup drove the car himself, as did Jim Richards.

One of my absolute favorite race cars from when I was a kid; the Brett Willis Commodore Chev. This car just had such a great look to it. Everything about it was just right. I was actually kind of disappointed when the Willis team replaced it with the Mazda.

This is its early guise before it sprouted a subtle rear spoiler. Note too the Australian made Mawer wheels which it wore for a time. I recall approx 10 years ago Paul Urquhart built an XA Falcon for the Central Muscle Cars class. He found an old Mawer wheel at the Windleburn's workshop, and had a set of four 17 inch Mawers built for his Falcon. I always wondered if the Mawer had come from the Willis Commodore. All those families are pretty close-knit.

Steve-He found an old Mawer wheel at the Windleburn's workshop

Mawer wheels were off Bunces Monaro from 1975- he got them from Aus himself.
Check the pix of the Monaro at the time.
And thats why they were sitting at Wendleburns workshop....just like the original wheel from the Monaro when Jim Carlyle had it.
NZ is a small close knit country - easy to find and trace things.

J

Thanks John, great info. So were the Mawer wheels from the Monaro the same ones used on the Willis Commodore?

Of course you are correct John. Funnily enough we borrowed those same wheels when building our car in 1985-86. Brett would still been using his at that time. Im guessing the Willis wheels may have gone onto the Mack workman commodore they they built it.

Roger- and as Dennis Running owned that car,......then he will know were they went.
We can sit around at Taupo at the F5000 GP event between races and work it out.
So you borrowed these from the Wendleburns to set up your car?

Steve Holmes wrote:Thanks John, great info. So were the Mawer wheels from the Monaro the same ones used on the Willis Commodore?

Different set...unless info emerges to prove me wrong.
George got these new in 1975.
When did Willis car emerge?
Grimmie may know.

definitely a different set

John McKechnie wrote:Roger- and as Dennis Running owned that car,......then he will know were they went.
We can sit around at Taupo at the F5000 GP event between races and work it out.
So you borrowed these from the Wendleburns to set up your car?

Yip, remember the ass end of our car is out of their pontiac. Now if i recall, I have seen photo somewhere and i think the Pontiac had mawers on the front and big centerlines on the rear

Need to trawl back through Sports Sedan pages for that shot

this one, stolen from facebook sport sedans.
mawers on the front

yip, same pic as I remember.
Was this the day the roof exited stage upwards on the back straight ?
BTW...still in their workshop.
Bruce 302 asked me if this was the same Pontiac that was at the drags running against his Firebird....dont think so

nope, roof came off many years later. at this stage it still has a 9" rear. Ended up with an indycar trans in the back
A very cool car

John McKechnie wrote:Different set...unless info emerges to prove me wrong.
George got these new in 1975.
When did Willis car emerge?
Grimmie may know.

Thanks John. There can't have been more than a few sets of these wheels in NZ at the time. The Ian Munt OSCA Capri had a set, but thats the car originally built by Bruce Carey. Munt purchased the car when he was living in Sydney.

Just winding this one down towards the finish line. George Bunce Camaro, ex-Neville Crichton/Jim Richards.