there is a shot of the rear of a commodore ,with "IL CASINO" on the guard. This car has me a little stumped, any ideas as to who it is?
My first thoughts were the ex bowkett car but im not sure?
there is a shot of the rear of a commodore ,with "IL CASINO" on the guard. This car has me a little stumped, any ideas as to who it is?
My first thoughts were the ex bowkett car but im not sure?
I always enjoy your stories Tony! You've certainly enjoyed a lot of racing over the years. When you say you and Brian Friend raced the #44 Corolla which changed to the Pinepac Mustang, did you and Brian race the second Pinepac Mustang at Wellington? Would this have been one of the two 1987 races?Originally Posted by Jizim
Huh, yeah that one has me stumped too! My first thought would that it be John Billington. Billington is from Wellington, as is Il Casino. But it wouldn't be the Bowkett car as that was also competing in the Wellington and Puke races those same two weekends, still in Sleepyhead colours. But Billington did buy the Bowket Commodore later that year, so maybe this was an earlier Commodore he raced?
I have some from Puke that may be of interest that appear to be the same year.
Who it is I don't know, but it would appear to an earlier '308' VK Commodore without the bootlid spoiler as opposed to the later '304' VK's otherwise pictured. Also noted the lack of roll cage support struts visible through rear door windows, perhaps an older 'NZ Touring Car' having a run in Group A?
Looking again its on centrelock BBS wheels so unless its an Australian car it can only be Billington in the ex bowket car
However i dont recall it in that livery.
As bigbanger said, its an earlier '85 Commodore with no rear spoiler. The Bowkett car was in the same race at Wellington and Puke with its '86 upgrades. You can just make out the white Commodore about 2/3rds down the field at the first corner traffic jam here, next to the Alfa that nearly stalls. The centre lock BBS wheels were common on the '85 Group A Commodores also. Bowkett is in the same race and hits the bridge on lap one.
the missing cage bars are hard to understand, i agree Hmmmm
Tony, those are great photos!I have some from Puke that may be of interest that appear to be the same year.
In the video above, just after the 10 minute mark the car appears. Looks like the number on the door is #25 or #26. There are some race results somewhere on the www for this race, I'll try and find them and see who is racing this car.
The wheel is fairly blurry, you might be correct about them being centrelocks, I'm unsure myself.
I suspect the rollcage supports are there, but perhaps following the internal rear roof line then down to the rear parcel shelf.
Often used to be done on more production type cars with rear seats still fitted, in order to avoid putting holes through the upholstery.
These are great photos Tony. Looks like they're from the January 1987 Puke races following the Wellington street race. I'm trying to figure out that Sierra XR4i. Is that the Eggenberger car Neville Crichton raced briefly in the early rounds of the '87 Australian Touring Car Championship? 1987 was the first year of the Sierra Cosworth (and RS500), so that car was super-ceded pretty much on its Australasian debut.
I wonder what happened to all the early Nissan Skylines that were built. As well as the two Peter Jackson works cars, there was the Baigent/Bowkett car above, and Kieran Wills had one built as well.
Tony Boyden from Dannevirke owns an old Trevor McLean Group A Commodore. I wonder if this is the same car as in the last post.
Hi Steve. To the best of my knowledge and memory, yes it was the car that Neville Crichton drove over here early on. I had a VHS tape here somewhere before I moved house recently with the early rounds on. I will see if I can find it.
I will see what I can find out this weekend at Lakeside as there are apparently 2 R31 Skylines entered in the Combined GpA/GpC events as well as 2 R32s. One of the R32s is Godzilla that was declared the winner of the rain effected Bathurst race, the other has red listed as its colour as well but I suspect it is the GIO car. The R31s are Furys car in the early Red/White/Blue and the other unknown as it is not in the list I have so far.
I will ask if they know what happened to the others as Baigent/Bowkett had 1 each racing over here as well as the Keiran Wills car at a couple of events.
Glenn Seton is driving one of the Pinepac Mustangs too so that will be good to see.
Last edited by TonyG; 08-12-2011 at 12:23 AM. Reason: Bad Spelling mistake
Thanks Tony. I'm not too knowledgable on the Skylines, but I think the cars pictured above are pre-R31 (R30?). These are the turbo 4 cylinder models that raced in 1986 and '87. Then in '88 the turbo 6 R31 arrived. As a race car, these were fantastic just for the noise they made, a real high pitched shreak, as opposed to the dull flat sound of the earlier 4 cylinder versions. There are a couple of R31s that have been racing with historic Group A for some years, and they sound just as good as I remember.
Re the Commodore, that is causing confussion, the Pope boy's had a white Commodore back then, may be them.
Rod, I just went and looked up the results based on the footage above. Car 26, the white Commodore was the Castle/Billington car. Here is a photo of it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/
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