Dunedin Street Races - revival meeting January 1984

[Roger Dowding]

I knew they'd run a bent sprint and hillclimb prior to the first Lady Wigram over those roads. The hillclimb was on Maffey's road at the back of McCormack's bay. Story in the family is that the old man - Wally Thomas - had a guest drive in Hec Green's Wolseley special.
I'd never heard of this meeting. Pretty sure if you use Google maps what you see now is just as it was then. A childhood spent sailing on the estuary means familiarity with that area
Jack Cropp had his boat yard at the back of McCormacks bay. The 1956 Olympic gold winning Sharpie sailed by Mander and Cropp was built there. Peter Mander lived on the hill just west of McCormacks bay.

Greg T, Thanks for the details.
Understand now that it was the only meeting to use the roads ..had a quick look at Google Maps as had never heard of the event before.
Hope more comes out of the archives ..

Oldfart. thanks for your details too !! More for the History.

[GregT]

I also see Pat Hoare driving a Vauxhall Special. We'd now identify it as RA2 which of course morphed into the 260M Zephyr.

[Roger Dowding]

Another little known meeting to me - had seen one photo of the Sports and Racing car grid on South Island Motorsport
- [ SIM ] facebook page, and recently a photo from Allan Dick archives of the Begg Chev Sports Racing Car #153.

The SIM photo ;

The Classic Autonews Allan Dick photo

Map of the Track - from Graeme Staples Book on Motor Cycle racing Circuits of New Zealand - thanks " jellywrestler ".
Bit of the story in Graeme's notes on the map.

[Roger Dowding]

A couple of photos have emerged of the Race - Event 3
Have the entry list and results - courtesy of Graham Woods.

Looks like the first lap Mini 850 #7 Miles leads the Singer #5 Mills and the field of Minis, and a BMC 1500 Wolseley
At the corner by Waimate Electrical.

The same corner with Miles and Mills again..

The Entry List

The Results

The first photo appeared on the cover of the UK Publication " Autosport " weekly, on 23rd February 1962

Map of the Track.

[Roger Dowding]

Photo for the Austin Healey thread, but, look what else is in the photo..!!!.

Is that the BCM in front of the Lycoming ??

[Milan Fistonic]

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Is that the BCM in front of the Lycoming ??

Yes it is.

[Roger Dowding]

A couple of the " Grand Prix " Cars - well one thinks it is a Sports Car too !!

Len Gilbert in the Cooper Bristol, complete with headlights Mudguards and a wide body at the back.

John(ny) Mansel in the Tec-Mec [ Maserati ].

Entry List for the 1960 " Waimate 50 " the feature race.

The Race was open to Racing and Sports Cars, including some NZ Specials ..
- the Stanton Brothers Corvette,
- the Ralph Watson Lycoming
and one of
- Hec Green RA's with a 2250cc motor.

[Roger Dowding]

1967 The Timaru Street races, exact date not known but must have been early in the year as the Prize Money was in Pounds Shillings and Pence - so pre 10th July.
** Event was 4th February 1967 - see Milan's note and copy of Programme Cover in post #345.
Described as .
" Timaru Trophy Road Race,
" N Z Gold Star Championship Race
" Timaru 4th Feb, 1967
" - Organised by the S. C. [ South Canterbury ] Car Club and held under the International Sporting Code of the F. I. A. and the National Competition Rules of the A. N. Z. C. C. Inc "

The NZ Specials and Racing Cars Start line - with the Begg Chev Sports car of Barry Keen
Others are Alan Rhodes 260M Zephyr, John Armstrong Cooper Bristol and Arthur Smith 120EN with a 1500cc motor.
in the Second row... Allan Dick archives

The Entry List.

Peter Leversedge in #77 which he still has ..


The Begg Chev was in the Sports Car Race too !! Tony Stanton archives - presume a relation of The Stanton Brothers

Note that the Stanton Corvette Motor is now larger than back in 1960 at 5.3 litres.
Had also noted that the Lycoming also grew during these times to over 5 litres as well, as noted at other events.

It was at the George Begg Festival recently .. another story to tell.

[Roger Dowding]

Dunedin 1961 the Grid for the Sports Car race.

Part of a series of photos taken from a Video of the event - archive Adrian Krzyzewski.

More to come of the sequence from Dunedin 1961 plus many other photos from Adrian Krzyzewski.
In - on the Starting lineup are - Josh Tims AH 100S Cliff and Ivan Bennett in Morgans Bob Blackburn in the Lotus 7

Dunedin 1964, The Otago Sports Car Club Prizegiving and a montage of cars racing - Hill Climb at Hoopers Inlet.
Do not know the people.. archive Graham Woods from the OSCC Magazine ..

The cars.
#6 Ralph Harrison - Zephyr Mk1
#7 Ken McVie Mini
#8 John Armstrong Chevrolet

#-- Brian Middlemass Jaguar XK120
#11 Cliff Bennett - Morgan
#12 Jim Bennett - Furi 1
#13 Allan Dick - MG Ford

#-- Paddy Williams MG Midget

Report on the Hoopers Inlet HillClimb - only 9 competitors. from the OSCC Magazine - G Woods archives.

[Roger Dowding]

The Entry List and a series of photos from Graham Woods archives.

The Big Race for Saloons at the Waimate "50 " event in 1964.

Entry List.

Ernie Sprague has a big ...ooops.. in the Mark 3 Zephyr.

a sequence of photos.

[Milan Fistonic]

1967 The Timaru Street races, exact date not known but must have been early in the year as the Prize Money was in Pounds Shillings and Pence - so pre 10th July

[Roger Dowding]

More South Island images to come - Renwick, Waimate, Dunedin, an event at Mosgiel and others.
Plus on a new thread, the story of a Lotus Seven, that was owned by Bob Blackburn, of Mistral fame in 1961 and is still around in 2023. Will be part of a Lotus Seven New Zealand story

This from Mosgiel, one of the Bennett Boys in the Morgan [ Cliff ], Bob Scott from Kaitangata in his Special [centre ] and Rob Christie in another Special

[Roger Dowding]

Dunedin 1960 .. Harold Heasley Humber 80 [ HHH ] ahead of Ernie Sprague in the Mark II Zephyr, predecessor of the more famous Mark III,

Entry List for the Festival Race for Saloons and Sports Cars not entered in the " Main " Race ..
[ Heasley's car must have had only one piston working 390cc or got confused with the Goggomobil of B Blackburn 392cc !! ]

Going further South, the Southernmost track in the World.. - Teretonga.
1962 - The Start of the Feature Race,
Tony Shelley get the jump, literally on Stirling Moss, front wheel of his Cooper over Moss' rear wheel. Both cars continued.
In the picture left to right
Bruce Mclaren [ partly obscured ] #47 Cooper,
Stirling Moss Cooper #7
Tony Shelley Cooper #18
Jack Brabham Cooper #4
Lorenzo Bandini Cooper Maserati.

- images G Woods archives - notes [ edited ] by Allan Dick - who stated he had not seen the photo before.

Must find the entry list !!

[Roger Dowding]

Dunedin - the track using the area around the wharf area including Fryatt St, where the 1/4 mile Sprints were also held.

1957.

Stated to be 1958 - appears to be the same as the 1957 Map - using the same roads.

Graeme Staples in his book has this as the 1958 Circuit, which includes Andersons Bay Road and is away from the wharf area

The Circuit in 1965 ..aligned to have the street names horizontal
It uses roads around the main Railway Lines

[Milan Fistonic]

Quote: Stated to be 1958 - appears to be the same as the 1957 Map - using the same roads.

The left-hand end of the circuit is quite different to the 1957 layout.

[Roger Dowding]

Quote: Stated to be 1958 - appears to be the same as the 1957 Map - using the same roads.

The left-hand end of the circuit is quite different to the 1957 layout.

Milan, yes on having a better look, not helped with street names missing - a few roads not used.

I am now confused as the Graeme Staples Map for 1958 - which I have seen elsewhere actually uses a different part of the Dunedin City roads.

The Graeme Staples version was used in 1960, The Book [ below ] says used 1960 - 1962.

The " Racing Round the Houses " Book published in 1983 has 3 different Circuits on the back cover.

Circuits ;
1954 - 1956
1960 - 1962,
1965.

Next up some Track maps and Entry Lists from Renwick Street Races - 1960 - 1966.

[Trevor Sheffield]

Roger, your PM box is saying "Full" LOL Pleas email me. Cheers Trevor.

[jellywrestler]

Milan, yes on having a better look, not helped with street names missing - a few roads not used.

I am now confused as the Graeme Staples Map for 1958 - which I have seen elsewhere actually uses a different part of the Dunedin City roads.

The Graeme Staples version was used in 1960, The Book [ below ] says used 1960 - 1962.

The " Racing Round the Houses " Book published in 1983 has 3 different Circuits on the back cover.

.

my book covers circuits where motorcycles raced, some like renwick for example had bikes in 1960 with cars then cars only in the other years, ditto with this dunners venue.

[Roger Dowding]

my book covers circuits where motorcycles raced, some like renwick for example had bikes in 1960 with cars then cars only in the other years, ditto with this dunners venue.

" Jw " thanks for clarifying that -would seem the Bikes used a track that was later used for the "Festival " Races which were for Cars and Bikes
- as my 1961 Programme shows that Event 1 was the Dunedin Festival Motorcycle Classic,Grid Start for Bikes up to 500cc.
That event again used the circuit in Graeme Staples " jw " map.

The 1961 Event was only Four events, Event 1 Bikes, Event II [two] for Sports Cars Event III the Festival Championship Road Race of 36 laps and the final Event IV for Saloons.

[Milan Fistonic]

I don't know if this 1992 programme cover and track map have been posted and I don't have time to search through 18 pages to find out.