The Roaring Season

Steve Holmes wrote:Now, I assume this is Trevor McLean?

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That`s right Steve, this, and another previous side on photo earlier in the thread, is the Trevor McLean / Alan Kemp `Papakura Wreckers' Commodore. The day Alan Kemp got his competition licence on the club circuit in his V8 Chevette was one of the best out of control saves I have ever seen! Rod Grimwood may have been there, but Kempy was late getting out for his race, and by the time he came around by Railway to head back towards the stables he couldn`t see any of the other cars in his race. So thinking they must be doing another warm up lap, he gives the Chevette a real shoeful..... only to arrive at the corner of the stables to find his opposition lined up in their starting order, right in front of him! What could have been a horrendous crash turned into one of the funniest `chase the steering wheel' demonstrations I have ever seen. The late Noel Goodwin was rolling around on the ground beside me pissing himself with laughter.
Graham Mortenson, in his official capacity, couldn`t see anything funny at all! Definitely a bit of humour!

Yep, remember that, we all looked in the mirror in unisone, and I know I thought 'What the f$^k is Kempy up too'. Steve that Chevette was a hard case thing, and would have been a handfull any way but with Kempy it was never staright. The officials frowned on some of the behaviour back then, like the time I backed out onto the grid and 'Qacker" comes up and asked what was going on and I answered 'you said it was a reverse grid start' another telling off, but Goody loved it (he dared me) Good days then.

Did Kemp take the Chevette down to Ashley Forest?

seaqnmac27 wrote:Did Kemp take the Chevette down to Ashley Forest?

Yes he did and the late Kim Austin drove it. In later years Kim also drove Don Hickmans Donovan V8 powered Starion there as well.

fullnoise68 wrote:That`s right Steve, this, and another previous side on photo earlier in the thread, is the Trevor McLean / Alan Kemp `Papakura Wreckers' Commodore. The day Alan Kemp got his competition licence on the club circuit in his V8 Chevette was one of the best out of control saves I have ever seen! Rod Grimwood may have been there, but Kempy was late getting out for his race, and by the time he came around by Railway to head back towards the stables he couldn`t see any of the other cars in his race. So thinking they must be doing another warm up lap, he gives the Chevette a real shoeful..... only to arrive at the corner of the stables to find his opposition lined up in their starting order, right in front of him! What could have been a horrendous crash turned into one of the funniest `chase the steering wheel' demonstrations I have ever seen. The late Noel Goodwin was rolling around on the ground beside me pissing himself with laughter.
Graham Mortenson, in his official capacity, couldn`t see anything funny at all! Definitely a bit of humour!

Thanks Steve, great story!

Can anyone help ID the owner of this car? This is the 1983 series, so this SS Commodore is quite rare in that it still retains its factory paint scheme.

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Steve, I would say with `Shotover Jet' on the car, Jim Boult from Queenstown would have had something to do with it, or would at least know whose it was. At a guess it may be Rod Collingwood, possibly Trevor Crowe?.

Thanks Steve, thats a good point. There is also another shot of the car from the back showing its licence plate. Maybe the driver can be ID'd from the rego number?

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Last photo in this collection, folks! This is the Robbie Francevic/John Morton Commodore SS during the 1983 season. They finished second in the championship behind the Smith/Hulme SS. Francevic and Morton teamed up for a couple of seasons, moving on to a Falcon XE the next year, before then going their separate ways when Francevic teamed up with Michel Delcourt in the Mark Petch owned Volvo 240T and Morton teamed up with Frank Sytner in the BMW at the 1985 Wellington Street Race. Incidentally, it was these two drivers who fought over the lead during the closing stages of that race.