Motor Racing pics - my early years, 1964-71 ; Pukekohe Racetrack ;by - Roger Dowdingl

[Roger Dowding]

The New Zealand International Grand Prix meeting

The Auckland Star Trophy Race - and the Ken Wharton Memorial Trophy Race .. Event 9.

The Entry List - probably seen before but has notes on it for late entries and whar would appear top be placings down the side ..

Roger Smith was there in his Austin Healey, by the end of the year he had moved on the the Daimler " Dart " SP250.

[Roger Dowding]

In 1960 Lou Kingsley with his modified Holden FE.

Standard Engine size - the original Holden motor
" Engine: 2.2L GMH '132' I6
Production: July 1956 – April 1958 ". actually 2171 cc

The engine was at 2,440cc [ 149 ci ] same capacity as later Holden's had - but presume a modified 132 ci,the next engine size in 1960's was the 138 ci = 2260 cc.

Lou and the Holden did the New Zealand " Season " from Ardmore to Teretonga, including Levin and the two W's - - -Wigram and finally Waimate,
according to Allan Dick.

A newspaper article on Lou Kingsley from Naomi Tait archives, followed by a photo of the family archives at Ardmore.

The Saloon Car Race at 9.30 was the under 1500cc - event

Entry List for the Event.
The Saloons got one race that day as did most other classes, except the Grand Prix entrants and the competitors who could enter but did not qualify for the Grand Prix itself.
Three Holden engines in the event with another Saloon 2171 cc and the Holden powered 2171 cc De Joux Coupe of Ferris De Joux.

Copy of Programme from Allan on TRS, now in my archives.

Entry Lists from the two " W " events,
The Lady Wigram Trophy Races at Wigram, Christchurch ...
- and the Waimate " 50 " event at ... Waimate, Canterbury.

Wigram.

from the archives of John Windelburn - a typed list and not from the Official Programme

Waimate.

The Waimate event was for cars over 1550 cc - unlike Ardmore where the cut off was 1500cc - but a similar class structure applied at Wigram 0 - 1100 and 1101 to 1550 cc, the 1551 to 2300 cc [ no entries ?] and the over 2300 class

Lou Kingsley had signwriting on his car as the Worlds Oldest Racing Driver and the mention of New Zealand when he visited.
.. I am sure Cyril Hyde would later beat that and a few others since here in New Zealand.

[Roger Dowding]

The NZ Grand Prix meeting and in the small Saloon class a big spin at the top of Rothmans.
Cyril Hyde in his Anglia hit a patch of oil - a sequence of John Larry Lawton photos.

Appears to have caused an issue for Roy Harrington in his Imp - did they hit ?

Cyril and the spin -close to a Marshalls Post.

The Harrington Imp is close - did they hit ?? Looks like it !! First photo no damage to the rear

The Anglia getting loaded up and the Imp on a rope tow.

Cyril Hyde also entered the Larger capacity Saloon Car Race at the meeting
Here the Entry list for that race - Event 8 at 2.20 pm

Colour photo of the start - archives B Marshall.

The Entry List for the 0 - 1000 cc Race Event 2. at 10.55 am

*** See Milan's post #482 - Article from Motorman about the race.

[Oldfart]

From post #379 I see Cliff Knight winning class in his Standard 10, road driven from Kaitaia and di the whole lot of meetings, then drove home. He told me they camped everywhere, canvas tent in the car too.

[Milan Fistonic]

The NZ Grand Prix meeting and in the small Saloon class a big spin at the top of Rothmans.
Cyril Hyde in his Anglia hit a patch of oil - a sequence of John Larry Lawton photos.

Appears to have caused an issue for Roy Harrington in his Imp - did they hit ?

Cyril and the spin -close to a Marshalls Post.

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The Harrington Imp is close - did they hit ?? Looks like it !! First photo no damage to the rear

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The Anglia getting loaded up and the Imp on a rope tow.

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The Motorman report of the incident.

[Roger Dowding]

Milan, The story is complete,
Thank you for the article from Motorman.

[Roger Dowding]

A short story about a Track that lasted 50 years ..

Worth reading again !!.

A photo from 1968
Barry Keen The BEGG CHEV 4.7 ..

Photo from the first time I went and took photos - 1965 Wills Six Hour Meeting in October.

First Time that car was at the track too !!.

The Book published in 1983 about Ardmore and Pukekohe - the track was 20 years old

2004 Did a Track Day with the MX5 Club and had competed in Sprints in the 1970's and finally a Le Mans Relay Race in 1983.
Last time I went to the Track was 2019..as a Spectator for the V8 Supercars - September 2019.

All memories are welcome, of Motor Racing around Auckland,- Ardmore, Pukekohe and other Tracks or events.

[Milan Fistonic]

This is from the August 1990 Auckland Car Club Bulletin

[Roger Dowding]

Series of photos of the Fleetwood Mustang of Ivan Segedin.. from its first Race - the Gold Leaf 3 Hour Challenge Race for Modified Cars..

On " The " Trailer - Rhys Nolan photo
The car is standard compared with later events. Race Number 22

With Bonnet Scoop - Straps and the Grille in place.
[ Photographer /Archive not known - seen recently ]
November or December 1965 probably. Race Number 194
The Fleetwood had #194 at the Auckland Car Club December 1965 meeting

April 1966 now with Stack pipes and no grille - my own photo - Race Number 82

Steve Twist photo with Stack Pipes and the Grille fitted - Race Number 82
Believed to be the January 1966 Grand Prix meeting - the car had the number #82, and the crowd looks big.

Another Steve Twist photo - same meeting

Note ; some photos posted before - some time ago

[Roger Dowding]

1964 - A photo page the New Zealand International Grand Prix ..
Bruce McLaren Cooper - Climax - the winner.
Bruce won and Wigram and Teretonga that season, was second at Warwick Farm and Longford, Australia
Two 3rd placings at Levin NZ and Lakeside QLD ..

The year before 1963 Bruce had also raced this Mini Cooper

[Roger Dowding]

Comments on the image -

Have the Programme for this meeting and the cars entered in the event seem different - Rod Coppins in a Chevrolet and no Spinner Black ..Was this the first event for the Zephyr Corvette ? and Spinner was a late entry - Thanks John Hatton for the Programme.

Jack Nazer in the 1300 - 2000 class.

The 2001cc and Over Entry

[Milan Fistonic]

Comments on the image -

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Have the Programme for this meeting and the cars entered in the event seem different - Rod Coppins in a Chevrolet and no Spinner Black ..Was this the first event for the Zephyr Corvette ? and Spinner was a late entry - Thanks John Hatton for the Programme

That's not the April 4, 1964 meeting. Coppins was definitely driving the Chev Coupe at that meeting - photo in Motorman of him leading the field into The Elbow.

I reckon it's the December 12, 1964 meeting. Nazer with number 105 and Coppins in the Zephyr were close throughout their race.

Black was not on the entry list but could have been a late entry. Or the black Mark 1 could be Ivan Cranch's Consul-Jaguar.

[Roger Dowding]

Milan, thanks,

I initially thought the date was wrong - The December 1964 meeting must have been on of the first events for the Zephyr Corvette in the White and Blue colour scheme - the Motordrome Team .

[Roger Dowding]

Those Le Mans Relay Races - run originally by Jaguar Drivers Club and later the Porsche Club - in 1983 at least both Clubs ran their events. Think the first Jaguar Drivers event was in 1981.

This from later on - in 1986.

" Porsche Le Mans Pukekohe 1986.
Paul Walbran passing the garter to Steve Whitren for his stint in the MG Magnette for the MG Car club.
Tony Sturm getting into his MGB in the background, able assisted by Ed Vaughn.
Those were the days.... full grandstands too.
Great photo by Donn White, full of the occasion. "

Notes and photo Steve Whitren.

Photos from the Jaguar Drivers 1983 event in February that year appear on the Austin Healey thread..

[Roger Dowding]

The Typed Results from the Wills Six Hour Race in October 1963.

The " Confirmed Results " are dated 26th October 1963.

The event started that year with only the Six Hour Race and the same in 1964, by 1965 however it was joined by the
" Gold Leaf 3 Hour Challenge Race " for modified production cars - and in the first event featured Sports Cars and Saloons in 1965.

Unsure of the actual date of the Race, but the Programmes I have from 1964 to 1967 were all early in the months.

These from the archives of Mark Joblin, which I was given some time ago but had forgotten about.

Shows the result for Allan Woolf and J Hayes in a Triumph Herald of 1147 cc .

Raced on this track ... image from the Rothmans Book of Motor Racing - published in 1963.

[Desard]

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Here is the car, described as the Lotus-Ford Mini, or any variation of the three names, only ever saw it once at this quickfire Televised club circuit meeting in 1968, same meeting as the single seater photos, Ted Thomson was an Engineer of some note, and I believe was deaf [ others may be able to confirm ], grafting a Lotus Twincam onto a Mini gearbox final drive was some feat.

The club circuit part of Pukekohe was deceptive as I found out in the 1978 NSCC Motorsport Day, a five event motoring day, in a Triumph GT6 Coupe
[ Gymkhana, Trial part 1, Club Circuit Sprint, Trial part 2, and Hillclimb at Cosseys Farm ], got wide at the top of the loop off the track and on the grass which was cambered, kept going 'til I got back on the seal again. No pictures though sigh !!! .

Yes you are correct as I saw Ted machining the crankshaft at the start then half way through machining and then the next time he had just got it from having oil ways drilled he built it with the clutch extention on shaft the carbs faced forward he was a very smart cookie I had quite a bit to do with him. He built a reasonably hot ford 1500cc gt motor for Mike Miers Standard 8 that I used to own.

[Desard]

Yes you are correct I was at Ted's workshop when he was starting to machine the crankshaft then half way through and next time he had just got it back from getting oil ways drilled he built a great ford 1500cc gt motor for Mike Miers Standard 8 that I owned and I help Mike to fit motor. Ted Thompson was a great engineer and motor tuner and yes he was hard of hearing but tuning was done on vibration. We had many trips to Kumeu from Hamilton.

[Oldfart]

Ted was the balancing wizard for a very long time. He only sold on that business in the early 90s.

[Trevor Sheffield]

Ted wound up becoming an expert on go-cart motors and worked on one for my grand daughter..

[Roger Dowding]

Bruce Dyer put some photos on the Historic Vintage Racing Assn, NZ page of Glen McIntyre's Fist 124 Coupe.

3 photos from Pukekohe in the 1970's.

On the grid - in colour..

On the track in Monochrome ..

On the trailer - to go with post #486 ..

The Team Odlin Sticker - sponsors of the car.

The car in recent times with Andy Greenslade - it is fully restored.