The Roaring Season

My guess is that the Cooper photo is on the approach to the hill turn on to the front straight at Puke, and the Brabaham photo is coming onto the front straight at Levin.

TonyG wrote:I see (via Google is my friend) that Dale can give plenty of details of the ex Frank Bryan Mustang so that is a good start and at least it still exists.

Also found this from 67. I thought my memory as a 6 yr old may have been playing tricks on me but he and Dennis Marwood did race single seaters. I remembered Dennis raced a Sports Car...

http://www.sergent.com.au/motor/other1967.html

I can confirm that the "Red Dawson" ex bryan Trans Am 67 Mustang is now owned by Nigel MacDonald of Hawera, we prized it way from the Bowdens a few years ago because they didn't see the world wide value in but for NZ it has huge Historic Race value, Nigel plans to restore it back its blue colour and race it with HMC. The good thing about this car is it still retains alot of its correct Trans Am parts and sheet metal as when Red was finished with it he sold it from his lot as a road car, had several owners who probably didn't even know what it was? until John Chapman bought it in the early 80's and piece the original motor back with the car!! Lots of stories and History with this Mustang, more than i can write.

Dale Mathers

Frank Bryan had a bit of an off at his first appearance at Timaru Motor Raceway with the Mustang on the Saturday and damaged the front suspension somewhat. The car was taken to Timaru Motors where it was decided that it could not be repaired due to a lack of time and spare parts, that is until a few of us youngsters arrived on the scene and decided that Falcon parts would do the job so a quick phone call to the sales manager and a new car was slipped into the workshop. Frank raced the next day and we returned the new car back into the showroom on the Sunday night ready for it's new owner.

The Dawson Cooper pic is at Pukekohe, heading towards the hill at what was then Rothmans. The interesting thing about this shot is the driver of the Rothmans Cooper behind him - one P B Fahey

The Brabham looks like coming into the main straight at Levin

Steve Holmes wrote:I think he ran the '67 Mustang for three seasons before building the Camaro.

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A couple of good cover pics : the Coppins Camaro leading Fahey's FVA Escort, Grady Thompson's Monaro and Jack Nazer in the Cossack Escort into the dreaded Levin hairpin, and the shot of Red looks like the turn from the front straight at Puke onto the long circuit loop : what about the thieving buggers at Motorman asking 35 cents for the mag !!

Murray, I think the Mustangs beneath the trees shot from Puke is 1970, as I have a similar pic. Norm Beechey flogged them that day.

Heres an oldie, from Baypark
taken by a then keen young fella with his own little camera. I actually bumped into him at Hampton Festival and he said he had some old photos. he sent them to me and I will post them on threads and may even start a thread for them and any similar shots taken by amatuers with ordinary gear. It is all good.

Thread dredge, but, only discovered this site recently----

This is Red Dawson, Pukekohe, 4.11.67 - according to the photo. Its the Riley Lotus in the foreground.

That's Johnny Riley clambering out of Red's Brabham, too.

Levin 64

My father in law Barry Pointon was friends with Red from their teenage years through to Reds passing, and the yarns abound.
A lot of people knew Red as a car dealer in his later years, but the family also owned a large pig farm on the Great South Road in Wiri, just south of where Rainbows End is now, and Red worked bloody hard working all hours of the day and night. In their early 20s Barry would often go with Red on his pig food collection run through Newmarket and the inner city where Red would exchange an empty 44 gallon drum for one full of food waste from many restaurants on his rounds . His truck at the time was a near new late 50s Bedford flatdeck which would carry about twenty drums. Over a period of time Red developed a technique whereby he could bearhug a full drum of pig food, get it up on to his bent knee, then up on to the deck of the truck. Needless to say, Red Dawson was a very strong, tough person who didn`t suffer fools at all.
In later years when Red had his car sales yard in Otahuhu, just down the road from Barrys and John Rileys car sales yards, on a Thursday the three of them would have a `victim' competition, whereby with Thursday being the local freezing works payday. Red always rearranged his yard putting a row of cheapies along the front by the footpath. When any of these `victims' turned up with their pay packets, Red was straight to the point: `How much money have you got, don`t go looking past this row here because you can`t afford any of these others' etc.
When it came to motor racing, many people thought Red was brutal on his gear. His reasoning was that he could afford it and that is why he had the sort of equipment that is part of his legacy.

Not the best photo of the Camaro but it was a great car on track and Red used to wring its neck.

GD66 wrote:That's Johnny Riley clambering out of Red's Brabham, too.

Thought it was.....

fullnoise68 wrote:My father in law Barry Pointon was friends with Red from their teenage years through to Reds passing, and the yarns abound.
A lot of people knew Red as a car dealer in his later years, but the family also owned a large pig farm on the Great South Road in Wiri, just south of where Rainbows End is now, and Red worked bloody hard working all hours of the day and night. In their early 20s Barry would often go with Red on his pig food collection run through Newmarket and the inner city where Red would exchange an empty 44 gallon drum for one full of food waste from many restaurants on his rounds . His truck at the time was a near new late 50s Bedford flatdeck which would carry about twenty drums. Over a period of time Red developed a technique whereby he could bearhug a full drum of pig food, get it up on to his bent knee, then up on to the deck of the truck. Needless to say, Red Dawson was a very strong, tough person who didn`t suffer fools at all.
In later years when Red had his car sales yard in Otahuhu, just down the road from Barrys and John Rileys car sales yards, on a Thursday the three of them would have a `victim' competition, whereby with Thursday being the local freezing works payday. Red always rearranged his yard putting a row of cheapies along the front by the footpath. When any of these `victims' turned up with their pay packets, Red was straight to the point: `How much money have you got, don`t go looking past this row here because you can`t afford any of these others' etc.
When it came to motor racing, many people thought Red was brutal on his gear. His reasoning was that he could afford it and that is why he had the sort of equipment that is part of his legacy.

Thats an awesome story Steve!

Allan wrote:Levin 64[ATTACH=CONFIG]15991[/ATTACH]

I really love this photo.

Steve Holmes wrote:I really love this photo.

And I bet that smoke is not from the tyre rubbing, he went HARD in every thing he got his hands on.

Must be Kerry Grant in The Southwood Cortina following Red!

Although much of his career was in saloon cars, Dawson did try single seaters briefly. I believe Dawsons' Brabham is ex-Frank Matich? This photo is from an upcoming chapter in the Ian Peak Collection.

Dunno about briefly, Red galloped the Repco Brabham for over three years.

Car history here...

http://www.oldracingcars.com/f1/car.php?CarID=BT7A/1-63

Motorman said that Beechey told him that he was " bloody beaut in a teeeen top" and not waste time in a single seater.Results show he was at the pointy end in saloons, tail end in the open wheeler.Easy to decide which championship could be won .
Love his cool suit he is wearing in the pic.

John McKechnie wrote:Motorman said that Beechey told him that he was " bloody beaut in a teeeen top" and not waste time in a single seater.Results show he was at the pointy end in saloons, tail end in the open wheeler.Easy to decide which championship could be won .
Love his cool suit he is wearing in the pic.

I think you and Steve are doing Red Dawson's single-seater efforts a bit of an injustice. He raced single seaters for 5 seasons, from 1964-65 in the ex-Palmer-ex-Hyslop Cooper 2.5 and then the ex-Matich Brabham from 1965-66 to 1968-69 season. He scored points in the Tasman Series at least one season, won the Waimate race in 1966, and had podium finishes in other National races over the years. The Climax-engined cars were getting older and slower by comparison, and Red didn't run single seaters after the Formula 5000's arrived.

Stu