The Roaring Season

Carlo wrote:The Escort did not quite look the same after the Hakataramea stage after George saw a set of lights in front of him and thought that the road followed the power lines and was straight ahead after the crest. Unfortunately the lights were a good kilometre away as the road made a serious sidestep around an old creek bed area.

Yes I can remember thinking it was a fastback Skoda that had gone off when we passed it in our Cooper!

Steve Emson wrote: These were really great rallies, 24 hours non stop. Because you were up early, then drove for 24 hrs, then went to the prize giving that night- it was a test!

And I can recall a couple of very wet nights as well. In 1975 I can also remember driving back from Oamaru after the prize to ChCh, a couple of hrs sleep then off back to Harihari on the West Coast in time for a 7.30 Monday morning start - oh to be young again or maybe not!

tonttu wrote:Yes I can remember thinking it was a fastback Skoda that had gone off when we passed it in our Cooper!

I thought that it was a fastback Skoda too when I first saw it

Long trips home, finish the Hella Lights event in Auckland Sunday morning after a 24hr event. Prizegiving finished by 11.00am then on the road to the ferry driving solo as the crew flew home. Three hours sleep on the boat and arrive into Picton about 1.00am then drive back to Timaru and be back at work by opening time. Sure used to sleep well on the Monday night.

Used to be a similar deal getting home from Rotorua and Tokaroa events too.

Carlo wrote:Used to be a similar deal getting home from Rotorua and Tokaroa events too.

Yes I can remember sleeping on the way home from Rotorua on one occasion and I was driving!!

What crazy people you all were/are. One of life's great pleasures was however, driving through the night, and watching the sun come up the next morning at speed during a special stage. Pretty amazing stuff. You felt like you could just keep driving forever,.......................who needs sleep. My navigator used to get a little concerned when we would see taillights ahead. He knew the red mist was about to descend,.....again. Lots of funny stories.

Dad told me about this 'bugger' who keep catching him up in a stage, but he would manage to draw away again. This went on for hours. Finally he figured out it was just the moon glinting in the chrome strip around his internal rear view mirror!

In one of the Heatways, we both got very late, and were at the back of the field running together with me in front. We passed heaps of cars every stage, and I was driving flat out. There was no way in the world I was going to let my Dad catch me! Every time he caught up to a car, he thought Ah, I have got the little bugger...............but i had caught and passed the next car by then. It was good fun.

Steve Emson wrote: Lots of funny stories............. It was good fun.

Too true.

My driver still tells people about the time on one particular special stage around day break he could hear a repetitive knock every time we went around right hands. After a couple of kilometres without me answering he realised the knock was my helmet against the roll bar - I was fast asleep!

The long touring stages around dawn were always problematic we found. I can recall one such coming into Blenheim and there was a convey of several cars and every time one started to wander off track horns would go and lights would flash in case the driver had gone to sleep!

I have been doing some scanning of old rally negatives lately so thought these may be of interest showing the variety of cars used in the seventies.

Cool, keep those photos coming. That's not my Skoda, but I will keep looking!

Wow! Stunning! Keep 'em coming Ross, these are fantastic.

Oldfart wrote:Cool, keep those photos coming. That's not my Skoda, but I will keep looking!

Can you give me the rego number of your Skoda and I should be able to find something from those days. Cheers.

Now you are asking a lot! I don't have any photos at all!

Ah! Memories

I'm really enjoying these Ross.

For the Aucklanders wanting to see the real thing, the epay Silver Fern Rally starts at the Botany Mall shopping complex next Saturday with the cars on display from 1.00pm and the official start at 3.00pm. Amongst the entries are 22 BDA Escorts many of which are ex works cars with real history plus Porsches, Fiats, Mazdas, Skodas etc so come and enjoy the cars and the company of many of the good old boys from the days shown in Ross's photos

I was talking to Fred Gallagher a week or so ago and he raised the subject of the Silver Fern
(Thought you'd like to know that, Carlo )

David McKinney wrote:I was talking to Fred Gallagher a week or so ago and he raised the subject of the Silver Fern
(Thought you'd like to know that, Carlo )

Fred, now theres a man with some real history in the sport. I trust you referred him to the silver fern website so he could follow the results and stories as they unfold David.