The Roaring Season

Yes remember him so well , lovely man ........................ part of the action for many many year was always about also Allen Dick..

Yes , I'm sure Bob is correct , the front looks so similar to the car Ernie got off Frank & ended up racing for many years in the south island with brother Gary doing most of the driving sharing with Dad ..

Good to have you here Grant, a couple of stories to tell no doubt from your sheltered up bringing.
cheers

Jac Mac wrote:That would have been me, car was crushed with a bulldozer & buried along with a lot of other stuff in the Charlton Auto Yard Gore, area in Question is now part of southland Tractors display yard, if your travelling south for SFOS today and want to shed a tear or two in memory! Believe me it was stuffed before it was crushed, the heat had buckled/lowered the roof & everything was heat treated, I managed to salvage the front 4pot calipers after making up some special jigs to pull the pistons out & PDL got most of the top loader bits when they were racing PDL1 &2. On strip down we found the needle rollers in the layshaft had been replaced with bronze bush's, obviously a 'quick' fix between meets that never got addressed. that said it was a car I would have liked to replicate, but never managed to talk anyone into doing so, would have been a lot more interesting than some of the other stuff Ive had to fix recently...

Thanks Jac, yes I thought it might have been you. Damn, what a shame, such a cool car!

From the monstrous Francevic Fairlane, to the opposite end of the spectrum. I had to do a bit of digging to gather info on these two cars, but from what I've been able to figure out, this is the 3-Hour Gold Leaf Challenge race, held prior to the 1965 Wills 6-Hour race. The leading Cooper S is that of Frank Hamlin/Murray Charles, chased by Andrew Buchanan/Hamish Buchanan. The Hamlin/Charles car finished 2nd. The Buchanan car had brake problems which delayed it.

But reading the rego number on the Buchanan car, this car was also raced in 1965 by Dr Dick Langley. So did the Buchanan's own the car and sell it to Langley, or did he already own it and they leased it from him?

My thanks to Andrew Buchanan for getting back to me regarding the Cooper S pictured above. See Andrews email below:

"Hi Steve

Sorry to have been so slow but have been away.

The car behind is indeed my brother Hamishs car and he and I did that race together. I think we started the race with half worn brake pads and after keeping up with Franks car (with new brake pads) I handed Hamish back his car without any brakes left !!

Hamish did buy the car from Dr Dick

Must catch up sometime

kind regards
Andy"

Here is Kerry Grants rapid little A40, complete with slippery nose. I assume the hole in the headlight is to let air into the engine bay?

Could be for the Carbs Steves, direct cold air in.

Thanks Rod, yeah I figured that might have been the case.

Superb shot here of Ivan Segedin in NZ's first racing Mustang. This appears to be from the 1967 season, the second season Segedin raced the car. By now the front wheel openings had been radiused out to fit larger tyres. Segedin ran the car this season as an Allcomer, rather than a Group 2 car as he had done the previous season. I'd guess this was early in the season, as it gradually got uglier as the season progressed, with the exhausts eventually sprouting up through the hood, and a funny looking droop-snoot type extension on the nose, that looked like the hull off a boat.

I allways wondered where this shot was taken but thought maybe what was known then as railway corner at Puke?

hilstwist wrote:I allways wondered where this shot was taken but thought maybe what was known then as railway corner at Puke?

Definitely not Puke. Looking at the kerb it must be a street circuit (plus the haybales are usually street circuit). Just before my time but the only high profile street meet I recall that year would have been Waimate but that doesn't ring bells visually.

Here is Pete Geoghegan gunning the Mustang at the 1966 New Zealand Grand Prix event where he was imported to take on the local Allcomer cars in the GP support races. Despite the local cars being pretty radical, and the two Lotus twin-cam powered Anglia's of Dave Simpson and Paul Fahey having dominated NZ saloon car racing throughout the 1966 season, Geoghegan blew everyone away. Could this have been the catalyst for Fahey buying his Mustang a few months later?

Ford muscle line-up, as Paul Fahey leads Red Dawson in the ex-Ivan Segedin Mustang, Robbie Francevic in the big block 427 Fairlane, and Frank Bryan in the '67 Shelby that Red would take over the next season.

More battling Mustangs. Rod Coppins in the ex-Pete Geoghegan car leads a crossed-up Paul Fahey. What a neat shot!

Bout time I resurrected this thread. This is Paul Fahey in his fabulous Lotus Cortina, during the 1965 season. Where is this car now?

Murray Maunder wrote:Definitely not Puke. Looking at the kerb it must be a street circuit (plus the haybales are usually street circuit). Just before my time but the only high profile street meet I recall that year would have been Waimate but that doesn't ring bells visually.

Think it is Railway corner at Puke, it had curbs on inside for a while before they put the short cut in. Remember good inside curbs on the club curcuit part.

Steve Holmes wrote:Bout time I resurrected this thread. This is Paul Fahey in his fabulous Lotus Cortina, during the 1965 season. Where is this car now?

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There was a big debate about who was driving an Anglia at Puke awhile back, looking at that helmet it could reignite.

Steve Holmes wrote:Superb shot here of Ivan Segedin in NZ's first racing Mustang. This appears to be from the 1967 season, the second season Segedin raced the car. By now the front wheel openings had been radiused out to fit larger tyres. Segedin ran the car this season as an Allcomer, rather than a Group 2 car as he had done the previous season. I'd guess this was early in the season, as it gradually got uglier as the season progressed, with the exhausts eventually sprouting up through the hood, and a funny looking droop-snoot type extension on the nose, that looked like the hull off a boat.

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Hilstwist
I allways wondered where this shot was taken but thought maybe what was known then as railway corner at Puke?


Murray Maunder
Definitely not Puke. Looking at the kerb it must be a street circuit (plus the haybales are usually street circuit). Just before my time but the only high profile street meet I recall that year would have been Waimate but that doesn't ring bells visually.


Definitely Railway Corner. This is an Inwood shot from the 1966 B & H that shows the same kerb, same fence and hay bales.

Rod Coppins in the former Pete Geoghegan Mustang, in typical nose-up fashion.