The Roaring Season

who had it before that Duncan? ie do you have a list of its previous owners?
thanks

JAFA wrote:On to the late '90's at Pukekohe:

Formula Libre grid:
Ken Smith? - Lola T430
Roger Williams - McRae GM1
?? - Reynard Formula Holden??
Ian Clements - Lola T332
Tony Roberts - McLaren M12 Canam
?? - Ralt RT4?
?? - Ralt RT4?
?? - Begg FM??
Paul Christie - Lola T190
Frank Karl - RFX5000
?? - Saker SV1
?? - Ralt RT4?
?? - Formula Holden?
?? - ??
?? - McRae GM1
Stuart Lush? - Begg FM2

149 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Around the time this photo was taken, Ken Smith appeared a few times in a black March centre seat Can-Am car. What happened to this car?

duncan fox wrote:Ken , yes that's the 73 McLaren that Tony and I ran, it was the Rutherford short track car early in the season and then Revsons primary car after Indy, won the two other 500 milers. The engine came from the
Kerion Wills RX8 I carefully grafted it in so as not to destroy any of the factory parts. Took it to Wigram one year ran in excess 200mph on the back straight. Tony loved that car stable and fast, would clip off 55's at Puke no sweat. Now with Aaron Lewis has an Offy back in it nearly complete for Indy 2017.

Thought it looked like an M16C, then, saw the V8 and thought...naaah...why would someone do that.

JAFA wrote:2 photos of the ex Sefton Gibb Cobra replica ( built by Graham Berry Race Cars ). These are at a Capri or Escort Car Club day at Pukekohe, during Keith Lane's ownership. At one of these club days I was spectating at, Keith had an unfortunate accident at the end of the front straight and hit the horse racing fence on the inside of the track just after the pit exit. It was wet and I think he hit a deep puddle and aquaplaned. Keith was out of action for a while, but recovered faily well I think, but I've never seen the car again.

163 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Jim Dodunski from Taranaki has had Sefton's Cobra for a few years now. He sometimes brings it to the MG Classic at Manfeild in November (IIRC it's painted purple now).

SPman wrote:Thought it looked like an M16C, then, saw the V8 and thought...naaah...why would someone do that.

We bought it from a guy Ron Rickard in SanDiego it had a 302 chevy in it then, bad installation looked like it had been done with a knife and fork. So why not? we had formula Libre and the engine was available..........The combo was fantastic solid, heavy, stable car and fast. Aaron Lewis ran it at Indy in this format and said he'd never driven anything like it or with anywhere near the power.
Rickard got it from Chuck Haines at CanAm Cars who bought it and another from Jerry Karl who qualified our car at Indy in 81 with a Chevy. JerryKarl bought it from Salt Walther who had purchased it from the team.

Has Bruce Manon ever not started from the front row?
168 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Tony Roberts 1970 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 454, with spanner work by Duncan Fox
169 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Tony Gordon's similar car, but small block 350. Not as fast, but always immaculately presented
170 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Have a look at the cars in the background - 2 Group A Nissan Skylines, which are apparently languishing in a shed and haven't been seen for years - a real shame.

Now a couple from the glory days of Wings and Wheels at Whenuapai Air Force Base, an event sorely missed by many.

#48 - Mercedes BB
#230 - Lotus 23 ( real or replica? )
#232 - Ford Cortina MK2
171 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

172 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Tony Roberts again, accelerating hard
179 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Back to Pukekohe

Pinepac racing, and the Anderson brothers, before both cars got butchered in the search of outright speed.
173 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Owen Evans, winner of the Nissan Mobil 500 Wellington Street Race in 1993 - not sure if this photo is before of after
174 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

175 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Owen Evans - Porsche 964
Carl Hansen - Triumph TR8
Tony Roberts - 1970 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 454
John Warring - Porsche 911
Bill Fulford - Porsche 964
Derek Atkinson - Morgan +8
Ray Williams - 1983 Porsche 930 Turbo
Stuart McCondach? - Ferrari 308
Dean Fulford - Porsche 911
Chris Watson - Triumph TR8
?? - Datsun 260 Z
Don Kay? - Porsche 911
176 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Robin Chadwick - 1962 Riley 1.5 Robin used to drive the car up from Hawera, race, and drive back home again.
177 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Colin Waite - 1958 Stanguellini Formula Junior 1100cc
178 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Now a couple from the glory days of Wings and Wheels at Whenuapai Air Force Base, an event sorely missed by many.

So many thanks to TACCOC and Jim Barclay who gave us this opportunity
At the time it seemed as if it would always happen every year, then , no more airfield racing.
Great looking at this, Andrew,keep posting these pix please.

duncan fox wrote:We bought it from a guy Ron Rickard in SanDiego it had a 302 chevy in it then, bad installation looked like it had been done with a knife and fork. So why not? we had formula Libre and the engine was available..........The combo was fantastic solid, heavy, stable car and fast. Aaron Lewis ran it at Indy in this format and said he'd never driven anything like it or with anywhere near the power.
Rickard got it from Chuck Haines at CanAm Cars who bought it and another from Jerry Karl who qualified our car at Indy in 81 with a Chevy. JerryKarl bought it from Salt Walther who had purchased it from the team.

Thanks Duncan, I heard a rumour that there was an M16 in Christchurch and wondered if this was it.

928 wrote:Thanks Duncan, I heard a rumour that there was an M16 in Christchurch and wondered if this was it.

you heard correctly 928, it is 16-4 an ex Penske car, the tub was refurbished and the project came to a halt. I believe it is either going or already gone to Walter Goodwin in Indy for completion. its been here for probably 15 years

Photo 169 and 176 are very familiar and memory envoking, The Corvette is how Tony Roberts and myself got to know each other. Tony arrived down my driveway in Bucklands Beach driving the ugliest custom corvette I had ever seen . He wanted to find out how to make it go fast and handle for under a 100 dollars. Mate, I said you don't have the money to do what I want to do to it, so we joined forces and have been scheming together ever since. The cars construction actually began with a bit of friendly banter with Alan Cattle , who helped me occasionally with my fibre glass 308 GTB Ferrari. I was in his shop one day and he and several other fine persons were working on fitting some huge brakes on Stu McCondachs 308. I stupidly asked how much they were worth and to my horror was advised that they were close on $40K. To which I replied I could build a Corvette for that , that would blow its doors off. Alan years later confided in me that he agreed with me but couldn't at the time. And so the Corvette became a reality. Built on a shoestring Tony even sold his birthday present barbeque to buy the Holley carb we needed. The car was a winner from the word go. The first American sportscar to break into the TACCOC scene. We beat the Porkers up on a regular basis. Every race was filmed from almost the same spot in the stands that the photo was taken. We studied the tapes to find our strengths and weaknesses and worked only on minor mods. 10K per year budget resulted in 2 T&C Championships 42 wins from 56 or so starts only a couple of dnf's. Owen and Bill threw a fortune at their Lighting Direct program and still we kept in front. Only when racing Ray put the big turbos on did we realise the end was near The Corvette started out doing 1.14's and we developed it to down to 1.05 dead just with gear ratio changes aero and other minor work. Didn't touch the engine for 3 seasons.
Of course Tonys a bloody good driver as well ...that helped. My wife called it the FRC.

To continue the above, once the Hotline Sports/GT Series folded, as Tony had no other class in which he could compete with the Corvette, we allowed him to run in the ERC Series, even though it was supposedly for European cars only.

This was because:

a) The rules when first written, back in 1996/97, gave the committee the right to allow a car into the series where they thought that there was no other reasonable series for that car. The same applied to Datsun Z's. (Since then, there have been classes more appropriate.) The ERC Series has always adopted an inclusive policy rather than an exclusive one, as having classic cars, even if not 100% pure, banished to sheds, seems a somewhat short sighted policy, especially when the sport needs decent sized grids to survive.

b) I had known Tony since he was in ladies underwear, in 1983, briefly...

Duncan,
Is this the M 16 C that you worked with ?
http://mathewscollection.com/gallery/1973-mclaren-m16-c/

The Salt Walther life is a sad story as was the complete 1973 Indy 500 debacle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Walther


(Ken H)

thanks duncan, so rumours do come true. i don't suppose you know who had it and where they based. TIA

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/717/32925908262_16b3bdd920_h.jpg

Amazing what this site chucks up - that's my, soon to be replaced, trailer!

Michael Clark wrote:https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/717/32925908262_16b3bdd920_h.jpg

Amazing what this site chucks up - that's my, soon to be replaced, trailer!

Your Lotus 23? Genuine? Running a TwinCam and Hewland? Not being nosy, just trying to get the photos labelled correctly, so understand if you don't wish to say.

Dad loved your Kenny Smith book by the way - I got it for him for him after the NZFMR as I couldn't find it at the McLaren tent?

2 different era's of Le Mans races at Pukekohe, although they may have used the same fire truck both times. Kind of a shame they don't run these anymore, some of the driver / car swaps in the pits were pretty comical and gave us a good laugh!!

180 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

199 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

198 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Steve Holmes wrote:Around the time this photo was taken, Ken Smith appeared a few times in a black March centre seat Can-Am car. What happened to this car?

In post #50, photo 162 you can see that single seat black March in pole position at the rolling start. Unfortunately most of the car is obscured by the bouncy castle.

Robert Brown in the Blue Mustang I think - he used to run The Carburettor Centre in Otahuhu from memory. Car was 289 I think, so didn't have the outright pace of the bigger capacity cars, but he used to drive to the track, take out the spare wheel and tool box, do a days' racing, load back up and drive home. The second car is possibly a Chevron, maybe Evan Fray's son??
181 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Vern Reeve - Holden Torana GTR XU1 3300cc
182 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Gray Mathias - 1972 Porsche 911 RS Spec 2900cc, followed by Neil Fraser in his very fast and well sorted 1993 Fraser Clubman
183 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

Buckler
184 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

The always immaculately presented Barkers Escorts of Ray and Dean Barker.
185 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr

186 by Andrew Metford, on Flickr