Old Speedway Photos

[Merv]

225sloper I owned mustang 31 Merv Nelson sold the car to Ron Omelvena he sold it to Ron Taylor Beachlands Ron put the mustang 2body on it he raffled the car Graham Young won the raffle he raced it for a couple of years don't know what happened to car after that I will contact Graham car 31 had Woods motor,gearbox,diff,and most of the front end out of his mustang. In it as for Woods mustang what was left of it was sold to Ron Winton from Bwachlands then it went to Dave Baird, what happened to it after that some one from the Beachlands track like Wayne Andrews might be able to fill the missing holes but the Peter Woods mustang was a very rare car it was a Shelby KR which he found out a few years after he sold it but that's another story Woods himself can tell you that I know it's true as I had all the running gear out of that car Woods and me have a good laugh about that now or a cry Tony Cardwell might know the story as well

[Merv]

More about mustang 31 Alex Brown Was the guy that built the mustang he done the lot it was at the time the first a grade saloon car(as they were called at that time)to run stagger in the South Island I don't know if any body in the north island was doing it, it wasn't that we wanted to run stagger it was a case if we wanted the car to stop spinning up then we had to do itas there was a slight problem with the car build other than a complete rebuild of the chassis we run the stagger, to find out if it was going to work, I got my mate who said that it would never work to be the first person to drive the car around riverside at speed so Peter Woods Jump in done 15 laps was lapping very very close to the times he put his mustang around riverside came back in and said that the car done what. He wanted and we should tighten the back end a bit and throw away the small steering wheel and put a falcon one on Don Black was the guy that found that the car wasn't quite square Allan Shuttleworth was the guy that came up with the idea of running the stagger and he worked how much was needed as at the time shuts was running a midget and was involved with sprint cars so all in all things work out ok hope this helps sloper

[Merv]

Steve this is Merv Nelson I put my reply to you and sloped on what I thought was this page about my mustang 31 but some how it seems to have gone onto page 12 I'm new to this so must have pushed something I shouldn't have sorry about that but what is there should answer all the questions that is required about this mustang 31 and Peter Woods mustang 21

[Habu]

225sloper I owned mustang 31 Merv Nelson sold the car to Ron Omelvena he sold it to Ron Taylor Beachlands Ron put the mustang 2body on it he raffled the car Graham Young won the raffle he raced it for a couple of years don't know what happened to car after that I will contact Graham car 31 had Woods motor,gearbox,diff,and most of the front end out of his mustang. In it as for Woods mustang what was left of it was sold to Ron Winton from Bwachlands then it went to Dave Baird, what happened to it after that some one from the Beachlands track like Wayne Andrews might be able to fill the missing holes but the Peter Woods mustang was a very rare car it was a Shelby KR which he found out a few years after he sold it but that's another story Woods himself can tell you that I know it's true as I had all the running gear out of that car Woods and me have a good laugh about that now or a cry Tony Cardwell might know the story as well

If the Peter Woods car is the one I am thinking of, wasn't it an early and very desirable Shelby GT350R? If so, I'm pretty sure the remains were tracked down and possibly salvaged.

[seaqnmac27]

Steve this is Merv Nelson I put my reply to you and sloped on what I thought was this page about my mustang 31 but some how it seems to have gone onto page 12 I'm new to this so must have pushed something I shouldn't have sorry about that but what is there should answer all the questions that is required about this mustang 31 and Peter Woods mustang 21

Do not be concerned Merv, the way this site works, you have responded to a thread, that thread being Old Speedway Photos, within that thread there is capacity for 20 posts per thread, like items on a page in a book, so when that page is full, it just goes onto the next page, rest assured the continuity is fine.

[225sloper]

Thanks Merv for letting us know the facts about your Mustang number 31,a great looking car,interesting about Peter Woods car being a Shelby.From what i have heard on a number of times is that the body got cut up and dumped on Boultons farm.

[Merv]

Merv here I'm very glad all you guys are interested in my mustang,I must admit it really looked a nice car, but I had a lot to learn about driving it, I was and never would be a Peter Woods ,but I loved the sport and the people I meet in this sport, and it thought that if you are going to race with these guys then you needed a car that was up there with theirs , hence putting Peter Woods in the car as soon as we finished it, if he could drive it as quick as he could in his own mustang then you had the car, but like I said before, there are drivers and other drivers, I'm the first to admit I'm not a Peter Woods, Tony Cardwell, Skinny Coleson, Don Black,Dennis Bolt, these guys know how to drive a saloon car, and I believe if they came back into the sport today the would be up there with the best of them,as for one of the other questions about Woods mustang when me and Peter were. Talking about his mustang I was told that the car was a Shelby 500 how we found out how rare his car really was (I'm in two minds to say any more but I don't think Peter will mind) was a number of years after the car was sold when a guy phoned Peter from the states wanting to buy shares in his mustang, this guy was speaking on behalf of this group of four guys, Peter being Peter never let on that. He had cut the car up into three cuts in the states and shipped it back to NZ and also didn't tell them he had mad it into a speedway car, they asked him if he knew what his car was, Peter said that he had a Shelby, that was the only badges the car had on it when it was driven into the junk yard that Peter worked out of in Los Angeles, there was no other markings on the car at all so this guy from the states then went on and told Peter what kind of Shelby He had, these guys tracked the car down through the vin numbers.and the last owner of the Shelby, so these guy as I said told Peter what kind of Shelby he had and what the car was worth on the US car market at that time, When Peter found out that he just told the guy that if the car was worth that much he had no intensions of selling the Shelby, so that's how we found out what kind of Shelby it was, it was a Shelby 500kR, and was a very lot of money way into the thousands, any body that follow the car auctions in the states would know around about what it was worth , Peter told me all about his talk with these guys in the states as I was the one that brought all the running gear out of that mustang of Peter Woods we had to have a good laugh over this, so if the Boultons have the remains of Peters car that's some thing I don't know but it would take a lot to even think of getting that car back to what it was,near impossible I would say hope this clears up most of. The questions thank you and keep asking the questions as there is a lot of history out there in NZ speedway thanks Merv nelson

[Jac Mac]

[B][COLOR="#0000CD"]Need tocorrect/clarify a few things here.

Woods Mustang #21 was built from the front half of a locally pranged 65 /66 mustang fastback and the rear half of the aforementioned 65 shelby fastback, the front half of which followed the next year.

1.The car was initially raced with the Hi-Po 289 from the Shelby for a few meetings before a piston pin seized, broke the piston & kicked what was left of pin/rod thru the bore.

2. That HP 289 was replaced with a 351w with 289 heads & offy 360° intake that had spent some time in Kevin Woods super mod. We rebuilt that engine after first season with full floating pins etc. This is the motor sold to Merv for car #31

3. I had begun building a 351w replacement for that earlier motor with aria's pistons, ported 351w heads, GT40 valves etc, This motor remained in the car when Ron Winton bought the car. The block had to have a sleeve fitted during build due to a machine work error, I now have this block and bored it to 0.040" OS.

4. I also bored/honed a spare block for the car during Woods ownership, this was never used in Peters car, but I used it to build a new engine for Ron Omelvena when he bought Mervs #31 car.

The stock car was built on the basis as above from 65/66 fastback parts.
Where Merv & Peter may be getting things crossed up was the Shelby GT500 road car that Peter owned several years prior to this ( 428 CJ ) & then sold to Dr Alastair Reekie of Invercargill.

[Jac Mac]

Man this PC is driving me nuts!!

[Merv]

Well that's cleared up a few things for me as well Jac I thought Woods was talking about his race car forgot about the Shelby that he owned well it's all sorted out now, I must say that the motor that I did end up with was a good one you made a good job of building it,I'm sorry if I lead you astray but what I did say was what I was lead to believe was the truth never mind that was years ago and now we all got the story straight,in the end,

[Steve Holmes]

Fantastic info on the Mustangs Merv, thanks so much for posting. Thanks also Jac for clearing up my confusion regarding that photo posted earlier of Merv's Mustang which I assumed to be the Peter Woods car. Amazing to think there were multiple 65/66 Mustang fastbacks competing in speedway at the time, given how rare and desirable they would have been as road cars. Awesome stories though, keep them coming!

Re the demise of the Woods car, several years ago I created a t-shirt design for the Boulton family (through my custom t-shirt company Monster Race Wear), and through doing a bit of research, I was scouring through their old website, which featured profiles of all the racing Boulton's, and older racing photos of each. For Bruce Boulton, who was the first of the family members to get involved in speedway, there was a photo of a 65/66 Mustang, painted black. Then there was another photo next to it of a newer mid-90s shape Mustang, with a caption saying this was the car pictured earlier, now fitted with a new body.

I asked Josh (I think) Boulton if this was the old Peter Woods car, to which he replied that it was. I asked what happened to the old fastback bodyshell, and he said they buried it in one of their farm paddocks when they replaced it with the new shell. Remember, this was several years ago so my memory may be a little off, but I'm sure he said there had been a few speedway enthusiasts come out to their home and ask if they could dig it up. But I think its still out there.

The Boultons don't seem to have a website anymore, only a Facebook page, but maybe its worth asking about this? Would be interesting to know.

[Merv]

Yeah I for one would love to know if it was Peter Woods car that they put in a hole on there farm,the Boultons would be the only people to ask if it's there, all the talk around Peters mustang is saying that it is in a hole on the Boultons farm,it's a shame if that is true as that mustang was a fantastic car, mind you in saying that I believe the Woods mustang had the very best driver in the country at that time behind the wheel,I doubt if any one would disagree with that statement, we were both members of Riverside Raceway, here in Invercargill, and quite close friends,I also had the pleasure to travel to the states with Peter and his wife Sarah in the mid sixties, they took us to quite a bit of speedway on these trips,and to a number of race car builders shops a very interesting trip, it was here that we got to see the type of new race car that Peter was planing to build,(the firebird) but Peter was held in high regard at Riverside and every one in the club followed his exploits on the race tracks around New Zealand,there was one season that he won every title in New Zealand,the NZChamps, the North Island and South Island champs, the NZ Grand Prix,the South Pacific champs, the Coca Colo 500,the Southland champs, the Otago champs,and I'm not sure about the Canterbury champs,and the A Grade Saloon car teams racing. Between Southland, Otago,Canterbury, my question is has any body else been able to achieve such a winning streak in one season winning so many titles, I can't think of anyone else,and I can't remember what year that he managed to do this,so if any one can enlighten me on this, I would be grateful, Jac Mac you might have some idea as you had to keep the motor fresh,

[Merv]

Merv again I know that it was done in the mustang, but what year I don't know.

[Jac Mac]

Merv, I know that there was at least one very succesful year as you mention, but could only guess at around 76 thru 78 I think.
As for engine refresh that was only each off season and I dont remember any major failures other than the original 289 Hi Po and it was run straight as imported from the Shelby. IIRC the 351, it broke a rocker stud at the NZ Champs in NI as TC got his thumb burnt holding it over the stud hole in the head/water jacket while they searched for a replacement.
Much more time was spent replacing bent suspension & replacing side panels/paint etc. We were always looking to improve suspension/traction etc & PJW was always fitting new rubber, like most motorsport its the whole package rather than just HP, he found that out in hurry with first meets in the Firebird.

[225sloper]

Here is a photo of the Peter Woods Mustang.

[225sloper]

Another nice photo of the Allen Ford Monaro taken the same time as Gene Welch Vega.

[Jac Mac]

Here is a photo of the Peter Woods Mustang.

Found another pic on the thread 'FromShelby Mustang,to Dirt Track Racer,the final death' by Dale M, pic by Pall Mall.
The pic above is an early one of car when red/orange, wouldnt be surprised if it was taken with 289HP in its final seconds by look of all the smoke.

[Kiwiboss]

Everyone thought the Woods 65 Mustang was a very rare one of only 37 made Shelby GT350 R-models, of the 37 R-Models only 4 aren't accounted for in the US register and I was asked by an American person to find out about this car, this was some 6 plus years ago now, but at one Baypark meeting I was introduced to Peter and gently quizzed him on this Mustang, he didn't know me at all but the information he gave me was enough to tell it wasn't and R-model and was probably one of only 562 genuine 65 Shelby street GT350's, still very rare today mind you!!

Dale M

[Jac Mac]

To add to that, the stock car only used the rear half and during developement the extra Shelby brackets that were added for tramp bars, shocks etc all disappeared to make way for other traction aids. As the original chassis numbers would have been attached/stamped to the front half of the body that portion would be more useful, not sure where that went, was it used in the construction of Mervs #31 car?
As Dale mentions it was a basic GT350 version, the motor was a factory 271hp Hi Po, not the 300+hp version of the 350 R model. I gave Peter a magazine article at the time with a road test of the car & we had enough info via Maier racing at the time to realise it was not the R model. Even then it did not sit to well with some of us to see it made into a stock car.... BTW the reason it was bought in in two parts was to get around import restrictions at the time.... whole complete cars were a no no.

[Merv]

Yeah Jac I did get the most of the front suspension from Peters mustang,I tell you what, this conversation about the mustangs is very interesting, I thought that I knew most things about both of these mustangs, I often spoke to Peter about his car as I use to pit crew a lot for him when Bill Brand couldn't make it, and what better way to learn things,do it with the best, and I did learn a hell of a lot from Peter, I found him the type of person that would tell you things that would help you, and working as a pit crew you got to learn all his little tricks for the mustang the rear settings to help make it grip, the two tyre pressures on each rear tyre, that was when I found out that his mustang ran two tubes in each rear tyre, turn the valve to pump up each tube, all these little tricks helped like never run a green tyre,always scuff tahem of first, which we used to do on the practice day before any championship meeting,all these little things helped and showed you how much a professional Peter Woods really was, This is just a few of the things that we had to do before each race meeting, but it really helped me with my own racing program and I really thank Peter for that,But yeah Jac I did get Peters front end, keep it all coming boys this is very interesting..