The Roaring Season

Not Shellsport, but another photo of your old Modus not long after rebuild Steve. Couple of young looking fellas there. Spent a little bit of time on it.
2nd is next season with side pods and RT1 wing fitted

Good photos Rod, I quite like it with the Ralt stuff on it.
Just before the crash, we had put a fresh motor in it and found some problems which we sorted out. The meeting before I got 3rd with the balance bar wound to full rears by mistake .( No wonder it wouldn't stop.) At Timaru as soon as I got in it I just knew we were going to be ultra competitive. I remember doing the one lap and it was flying and it suddenly had brakes! I actually said to myself, we are going to kick arse this weekend, when it was all over..............

The really weird thing about that day, was I was so off my face in hospital that night, that I thought I had the BDA engine in bed with me. I was trying to fix it or something, and the nurses we so concerned about me that they stayed up with me all night, as I was having conversations with people who weren't there. that proved to be a long day. The next day when my crew came up to see me, i asked them if the car would be OK for the race! Ha, geez that was wishful thinking! Neville just quietly told me the car was a write off. Amazing what drugs do to you.

Steve Emson wrote:[ATTACH=CONFIG]17887[/ATTACH]
Talking about people in the Shellsport era, I wonder if this photo jogs any memories. From the right hand side,
Peter Richardson;
Clever guy and good friend who could make anything out of metal. He even designed and built my Formula Pacific trailer in his spare time.
Neville Bailey;
Fantastic driver in his own right, talented engine man. Also gave me some sound council, and advice on many things. He built the Eastern Tool Co Shellsport car, My GTX B110 coupe, and also my Rally Datsun 1600.
Stewart Coutts:
Very clever guy who designed and built the suspension on my Shellsport car. He completed that work for its 2nd ever meeting at Baypark. New lap record, pole position and the race win. The car never looked back. Stewart also built the Pacific from scratch after my Timaru crash. This was a big feat, as the tub was completely destroyed, as you might expect with the throttles jammed wide open.
Yvonne;
My extremely supportive girlfriend at the time, absolute genius at timing- always exact with official timekeeping and kept my cars clean and polished. The mother of my children, and best wife in the world.
Dad:
Well, everyone who knows Dad will know what a wonderful decent person he is. Widely liked by many people. A very supportive Dad who never really placed any pressure on me, except I think he believed I could win without needing the same equipment of my competitors. Amazing father to have.
John Terry:
My long term sponsor. At times he placed a few demands on me, however his heart and intentions were always correct. He certainly was a big fan of motor racing, and enjoyed the results that we achieved. I think he really enjoyed himself.

Well there you have some of my old team members, there are other important people of course, but are not in the photo that day.

Steve, this is such a fantastic photo! I didn't realise you ran both the Atlantic car and ShellSport car all in the same season. I assumed you went from one to the other. Must have been a busy season for you!

I think this should be on this thread. it certainly is a great looking logo.

"Steve, this is such a fantastic photo! I didn't realise you ran both the Atlantic car and ShellSport car all in the same season. I assumed you went from one to the other. Must have been a busy season for you!"

Hi Steve, Yes that is correct, I was jumping from one to the other. The year before when the Shellsport car was Blue and white,and I was racing Reg Cook & Robbie Francevic for the championship, I was also racing Dennis Marwood in the GTX series in the other white Datsun 1200 coupe. I started late in that championship and we didn,t have a LSD in the first races.
The Shellsport car had a down left 5 speed close ratio box, and the GTX car had a 4 speed close ratio unit. ( Dennis's had a 5 speed- the bugger)
One had 10inch wide slicks and the other formula ford slicks. The lap time difference was Baypark 1m o3 for the Shellsport, 1m 10 for the GTX, Puke 1m 18.0 with the chicanes, GTX 1m 25, Manfield 1m 17 Shellsport, 1m 25 GTX.
Sometimes I would come in from one race and the other car was on the dummy grid. So there you go racing some of the countries top competitors in two different classes,.....good fun.
The very best exponent of this was Jimmy Richards. I don't think many people can do what he did successfully. I have only really raced Jimmy once in similar cars. It was in a long distance race, and our battle went on and on, in what seemed like forever. I was 16 years old and I was racing the best driver in NZ. Geez he made me work for it. That was the only time I was sweating so hard, my sunglasses slid down my nose!!

Ahh, the joy of being young! How many seasons did you run the Atlantic and the ShellSport car side by side Steve? Were you getting good sponsorship money to run both cars?

Steve this was a great read what you got up to in between gaps, might have been short re what you did but you did very well , I often think of those times so much fun & excitement , Thinking of shellsport never went there ,was keen to see Europe etc , [shell sport ]the SI guys I remember about when we did GTX were Allen Farr [Escort ] a good friend he also did GTX in fiat 124 ], Wayne Murdock [Nissan like yours] Grant Aiken [Nissan ] ummmm......who else oh yep Kevin Ryan [escort] I sent him pistons & Rods from UK for his bda,, that's an other story on its own . .You remember your lap times as we do means you still have the fire in yr belly.. .& that is very healthy...........Oh and one more thing you speak highly of yr old team , yr wife & yr Dad........... that says it all you are blessed & have humility .......Talk soon Grant

Steve Holmes wrote:Ahh, the joy of being young! How many seasons did you run the Atlantic and the ShellSport car side by side Steve? Were you getting good sponsorship money to run both cars?

Steve, only the one year with both the Shellsport and the Pacific. I think , back then in 1976 with the Shellsport car only, I had a contract with Shell Oil NZ for all my fuel, oil etc etc and about $5,000 in sponsorship. I think I had it structured were I only got paid if I placed; so much for 1st, so much for 2nd etc.
I was lucky enough to win both Shellsport championships I competed in back to back, so with the following;

1. Shell contract
2. Sponsorship
3. prize money (Fortunately this did add up nicely)

you only LOST a smaller amount of money! Ha Ha, the joys of motor racing.

With the Pacific in 1977, I think I had about the same, $5,000 from The Eastern Tool Co plus another $2000 from Fletcher Brownbuilt and of course my contract with Shell. Lots of people did things for me for love. Without those people you wouldn't be able to do it. The pacific was a wrong move for lots of reasons and I had everything financed to get into it. It took years to pay everything off after I could not afford to continue.
The physical injuries were not the reason I stopped, it was just money. When i was released from hospital I couldn't walk and had crutches and special inserts in my shoes to control my shattered heels. ( What was the side of my right foot is now the bottom) However the biggest thing was i could not put any pressure on the brake pedal. I was using both feet in the braking area..................was as weak as a kitten and in no state to be driving a Pacific. I was also taking some very big risks out of sheer determination.
It was a good thing to park the car at that time.

Grant, Thanks for your kind words. Dad and me met up with Alan Farr at the Waimate 50 last year. Dad had a big battle with him at Baypark in the 124 coupes for the GTX championship. I think we were wondering what was going to be said, (that old NI vrs SI thing) however everybody was just wonderful as Dad had been especially invited to be reunited with one of his old racing XU1's. He got the royal treatment, including parade laps and television and newspaper interviews. Now that is a great event!

I have just had a friend ring me and say that John Gobbe passed away yesterday. John was the person behind trying to get Shell Sport restarted. He also owned several old Shell Sport cars. I hope the class continues.

spinner32 wrote:I have just had a friend ring me and say that John Gobbe passed away yesterday. John was the person behind trying to get Shell Sport restarted. He also owned several old Shell Sport cars. I hope the class continues.

That is very sad news. Yea he was trying to get Shell Sport back in classics. As you say lets hope it continues to develop.
RIP John

Hi Spinner that is a blow. I new John well and it was only a few months ago that that I was talking to him.
R I P John old mate,
Jamie A

Hope this is on topic..just sharing a trademe find...any pics of these being used

jamie wrote:Hi Spinner that is a blow. I new John well and it was only a few months ago that that I was talking to him.
R I P John old mate,
Jamie A

Slideshow of photos from John's funeral https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1jsS_IXXM

PM for you Grimme

noiseyrs wrote:Hope this is on topic..just sharing a trademe find[ATTACH=CONFIG]26543[/ATTACH]...any pics of these being used

They used them at Cricket matches as well....think it was the one day comp...for about 5 years. I remember vividly in my youth a nubile young lady draped in nothing but one of these running across the Basin Reserve, with the gentle Wellington breeze not only blowing int behind her like Batmans cape, but also enhancing other areas of anatomy....

Rod Grimwood wrote:That is very sad news. Yea he was trying to get Shell Sport back in classics. As you say lets hope it continues to develop.
RIP John

Hi All; after the very sad news of John's departure; does anyone have a progress report on the resurrection of the Shellsport class, and where John's collection of cars went?

I hope (will be) at HD next weekend and catch up with people on this.

I have had a bit of a shake up over the last 4 months with 2 major modifications 1 major rebuild and have just this day got home from another 3 days in the tune up centre and hopefully this is the last major tune up. I now have to run in the gear slowly and once settled will be back at full rev's.
See you then.

Take care Rod. Slow run in is best.

Hi All! I'm jay and new to the roaring season. I have been given the chance along with Mike Bamber to help keep the Resurection of the shellsport class going after Johns passing. Although you may not hear much from us we would gladly add you too our Email list if you want to be informed of whats happening. send your interests to mailto:?subject=&body=
We have just had a really fun weekend at the Enzed Classic in Timaru over the 13th - 15th of feb with a few well known shellsport cars. One off the ex cook/Aitken 120ys, an ex stuart lush 1200 coupe, the ex Cook "big bertha" and Noddys old Avenger. The Avenger actually set the fastest lap of the weekend in the class but had Gearbox issues as half the field did. (Bloody fast Avenger!) We had 12 entrys in total so numbers were up and down all weekend due to the weak gearbox issues. But it was still a heap of fun. I'll leave a link here to a youtube video for a bit of footage taken from the bank by Lyn hattons wife Sharon. This race was set up as a rolling start and run in memory of John Gobbe. A trophy was given to the winning shellsport car and driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3cJtnr9x1s&feature=youtu.be

Although you don't see much off the genuine shellsport cars in this race they are actually a force to be rekond with when theyre going well. Another car that was there for the weekend was the allan farr escort but in this race he had a bent steering arm which he hurridly fixed for the final race....and then beat me :-)

Jay, whats happened to john gobbes stash of cars?

paul lancaster wrote:Jay, whats happened to john gobbes stash of cars?

Paul

Most of them were sold prior to him falling off his perch. The ex warren steel bluebird went to Steve Keene in Ashburton who is hoping to have it driving before Christmas this year. The Aitken 120y was sold to Lyn hatton (Ran at timaru in the weekend just been.) The ex Bill Leckie Lancer was probably scrapped unfortunately. It was in a bit of a sad state but some bits were there and it definitely had the number plate. We tried to get in touch with his family regarding these sorts of things and memorabilia but had no joy. The only other car I know of is the escort he was building himself and that is now listed on trade me for a rather large sum of money for not a lot of car. This was to be a replica of the later Rutherford car. It was sold very cheap to a local automotive shop who are now selling it on. The Marina was sold on trade me shortly after he died.