The Roaring Season

Really loving all these pics guys, keep them coming!

I always thought Barry Thomlinson's cars looked fantastic, especially the one pictured above.

Does anyone have any photos or info on the 2 cars brought out from the USA around 1984, ran in New Zealand Line shipping colours?
Was the first memory I have as a kid going to a Motorsport meeting at Manfeild

crunch wrote:Richard Lester's RT4 and probably Rob Lester's Ford? Might even be the Bruce Turnbull designed Tull

I think you will find that it was sister Debbie driving the Ford.

I have no excuses for the length of the mens shorts in the following photos!

Wow - thank you so much for posting BMCBOY - fantastic shots

Back in the day when there was a sharp right turn, on the front straight / curve,careful of the Stables at Pukekohe,very sharp,i know as lost it there myself in the TR4A in a full circuit Sprint

No wonder : it's a left !

Thanks for posting again BMCBOY - so many images never seen before and they're fantastic!
Such a shame the club circuit part of the track can no longer be used - I guess as a kid I was very fortunate to be at these meetings

Roger, I am not surprised if you lost on the sharp "right". Must be like a guy I co-drove with, not that right, the other f@#$%ing right!!!

Habu wrote:Thanks for posting again BMCBOY - so many images never seen before and they're fantastic!
Such a shame the club circuit part of the track can no longer be used - I guess as a kid I was very fortunate to be at these meetings

Thanks again Habu. Yes the "stables corner" was brilliant for photography as the marshalls would let us get up on the roof or top of the stairs etc.
The long circuit wasn't often used other than for B&H, but great value when it was - also the sweeper part of the club circuit was quite tricky.
You're right about never seeing these images before - I have never printed them before as I went overseas for a period soon after they were taken. I've been enjoying rediscovering them myself - I don't recall the Cuda being that colour with Steve Cameron driving it.

Roger Dowding wrote:Back in the day when there was a sharp right turn, on the front straight / curve,careful of the Stables at Pukekohe,very sharp,i know as lost it there myself in the TR4A in a full circuit Sprint

Didn't you turn left at front straight and then pass stables, or are you talking about club circuit.

I am looking for history on our RT4. It is chassis # RT4/81/262. It was originally bought by Bob Jane for the Aussie GP at Calder. It was driven by Brabham in 81 and Laffite in 82. Ken Smith bought it after this and it became the Apple Car Company car. After this it passed to Peter Haskett I think and was also raced by Charlie Thomason. Other than this I have nothing until I got the car off Garry Devin in2002. Can anyone help fill in the blanks. It was badly damaged at some time as it had some awful repairs on the tub. Thanks Barry Leitch.

Great photos . up close stuff
.... thank you ...

Barry wrote:I am looking for history on our RT4. It is chassis # RT4/81/262. It was originally bought by Bob Jane for the Aussie GP at Calder. It was driven by Brabham in 81 and Laffite in 82. Ken Smith bought it after this and it became the Apple Car Company car. After this it passed to Peter Haskett I think and was also raced by Charlie Thomason. Other than this I have nothing until I got the car off Garry Devin in2002. Can anyone help fill in the blanks. It was badly damaged at some time as it had some awful repairs on the tub. Thanks Barry Leitch.

Hi Barry, I cant speak for your cars early life, but Charlie Thomasen was my next door neighbour. As I far as I can remember he purchased your car directly from Ken Smith in about 1988. Charlie did race a couple of other cars owned by Peter Haskett, most notably the black Chevron B49 and B34? Perhaps Peter Haskett owned your car before Charlie as you mention - he appears to have run an RT4 in 1987, but so was Ken Smith at the same time? Or maybe Peter Haskett owned your chassis after Ken Smith and then the car ended up back in Smiths hands before being on sold to Charlie?

I may have previously mentioned that the car was damaged in practice at Pukekohe prior to the start of the 1989 NZGP, this would account for the repairs on the tub. As far as I can remember the car had already been sold to Gary Devon and he still took possession after the incident at Pukekohe. Gary Devon and the Thomasens (Barry and Charlie) seemed to all be good friends from what I can remember and Gary frequently helped out on Charlies RT4 at race meetings.

Thanks for that, it is all starting to make sense now.

Originally posted by Habu
I'm no expert, but I recall a degree of unreliability stemmed from the total loss electrical system that some of the cars ran, way back when. I'm sure someone more qualified than I can shed some light on the subject.

I remember when Paul England was running the Chevron for Larry Perkins in 1979, they were at the Australian Grand Prix at Wanneroo Park and kept changing the black boxes in the hope that they might find one that enabled the motor to run!

Black box? 'Black art' one might say.

Having looked right through this thread I'm surprised to see no pics of Andrew Miedecke in the Galloway... though there is this fraction of his car being passed by Kenny Smith... does anyone have a complete photo of the car in its last days?

Having looked right through this thread I'm surprised to see no pics of Andrew Miedecke in the Galloway... though there is this fraction of his car being passed by Kenny Smith... does anyone have a complete photo of the car in its last days?

Here's a couple taken on the same event