Northern Sports Car Club - the early years.

[Roger Dowding]

Graeme Staples who is writing a book on Motorcycle Circuits and Racing in New Zealand has sent me an artcile on Seagrove in 1949 - Had already posted page one back in April 2020 on this thread.
There were two pages that were published in a booklet called Motor Sport Nostalgia - published in 1989 by Graham Vercoe. There were several events at Seagrove and there is mention of the " Competitors Car Club " and Northern Sports Car Club " [ NSCC ]. What the CCC was I do not know and hadn't heard of it before the article I saw in April 2020.

Cover of the booklet
1949



Here is the full article [ repeating the first page - page 21 ] - the magazine covers many events from 1949, and there was a 1950 edition too -also published by Graham Vercoe in 1989.





Cover of the 1950 edition

[Roger Dowding]

The following picture was posted by O J McLean on the Facebook page " NZ Car related street scenes 1950-1980's "
- with the comment ;
" 18-year-old Jim Richards of Manurewa in his "extremely rapid" Ford Anglia at a northern sports car club meeting in Pukekohe on Saturday December 9th 1967 he was placed first, second and fourth respectively in the three races he entered. "
Would have been there, probably on crowd control with one of those " white coats " was 20 at the time- always Jim was a tad older..** see post #354 regarding the event.

NSCC meeting Dec 1967.
O J McLean archives. Photographer not stated - could be own photo.

[Roger Dowding]

Previous post - the extract " quoted above " said that the Jim Richards photo of the Anglia was from an NSCC meeting in December 1967.

It would seem it was either the incorrect date or was an Auckland Car Club meeting, as NSCC's National Meeting near the end of the year would be this one.
The first of the Gold Star meetings for the season.
NZ Herald advertisement from 30th October 1967 for the NSCC meeting " Next Saturday ".



a straightened version of the photo. Entry 80 cents

[Roger Dowding]

Thanks to Milan Fistonic for this interesting magazine article - the Auckland Car Club 24 Hour " Hepolite " Trial from 1954.
Run 24th and 25th July 1954.
Article appeared in the " The Autocar " 27th August 1954. As noted by Milan.
Some interesting names in the results.
Phil Ornstein was President of NSCC in 1951 - 52
K Orr is Dr Ken Orr who was well known for loaning his cars to others to Race - seems he did the Trials though.
J Boyd - is that Jim Boyd ?, would be an early event for him, I think.
Interesting that a 1929 Studebaker was the oldest car [ at 26 years old ] in the event driven by Phil Neil

[Roger Dowding]

NSCC Hill Climb Events and venues
Re - writing and amending the list from earlier posts ;

The list so far - a bit more added - 1962 event.

1940's
- late in the decade. First Hill Climb appears to be in 1945
1945 - 47.

" Taylors Bay, Hillsborough " - unsure which road was used.
1945 - Date 20th May 1945 - as confirmed in the Arthur Siddall Album with pictures

" Pokeno " - again no details on which road was used.
1946

" Ostrich Farm Road, Pukekohe " - late 1940's - an NSCC venue and later used in the 1960's

" Whitford " - un-named road
1948 near Whitford - report appears on the thread

1949 Riverhead - road not stated ; 20th March 1949 -report in Post #358

1950's

" Don Buck Road, Massey "
24/09/1950 Hill Climb, Don Buck Road, Massey
**
" Wairamarama Onewhero Road, Onewhero "

described as Wairamarama Road, Glen Murray in some details about an early Hill Climb - near Ron Roycrofts place - used definitely in 1956.
Thanks to Trevor for the correction of spelling - makes it easier to find on a map !!
The Hill was used on the following dates

[ information from Trevor Sheffields book about Ralph Watson - thanks again Trevor ]
23/03/1953 - information from Milan Fistonic and cover of programme - Post #339
29/09/1953

16/01/1954 as noted in Don Tilsley photos
19/09/1954

15/01/1955 - copy of the cover - Programme for this event now added Post #339
later in 1955 - exact date not detailed

later in 1956 **- exact date not detailed " ----/1956 NSCC Hill Climb - Ron Roycroft ran the Bugatti - Jaguar
**presume this is still using Wairamarama Road

1960's

" Ostrich Farm Road, Pukekohe, Franklin County "

11/10/1961 Ostrich Farm Road
November 1961 **
17/12/1961 Ostrich Farm Road, Pukekohe - the NSCC's Gold Star Championship Hill Climb

October 1962 Ostrich Farm Road
As noted ; ** Used in 1961 as have some results from an event there in November 1961 posted in previous thread post #327

" Wharepapa Road, Helensville " - used early 1960's ** maybe 1964 - now seems likely this was after Birdwood Road - see dates now added.

" Birdwood Road, Massey "

14/03/1965 Birdwood Road Massey - results appear in a previous post

Birdwood Road, Massey - area now called Birdwood as Massey is a large area. used 1964 - 65, did they keep using it until Cosseys was first used in March 1967 ?.
Then we have Wharepapa -both roads used in 1965.

" Wharepapa Road, Helensville "

-/12/1965 Wharepapa Road

" Kiwitahi Road, Helensville " near Tom Grace farm Woodhill, near Helensville - noted by Bob Homewood.
" Wright Road, Brookby " - 1966
In use after Wharepapa Road - have a report from an event in 1966 - this is a new location / event in the timeline. with Wharepapa Road used in December 1965

By March 1967 NSCC had " built " " Cosseys Farm Road " into a Hill Climb venue - cowpats and all.

June 2025 - minor correction to dates - 20th May 1945 Taylors Bay, Hillsborough confirmed

A recently unearthed advert for Ostrich Farm Road HillClimb in 1962 - the event was in October as in the same paper was an advert for a Motor Cycle race meeting in Te Aroha.

The NSCC advert ; thanks to Graham Woods again for this archive item.

.

[Roger Dowding]

Photo of Cars at Mount Eden for the Kidston Cup Hill Climb has been posted before but now more information has been gathered ' Cars in the photo - notes by Graham Woods;
" Des Herrick in Hudson midget. (239.185) Bill Massey in a Rugby midget behind Des. Ron Roycroft beside Des in the Austin 7 and Laurie Powell in the V8 roadster."

The photo again -enhanced - a small version


Extract of the results


Not known if the event was organised by NSCC, but both Ron Roycroft and Laurie Powell were NSCC members and feature in many early NSCC events - as posted on this thread.

The Austin 7 is " Rubber Duck " which had been in New Zealand since before WW2.

bigger copy of the photo from Graham Vercoe book " Historic Racing Cars of New Zealand.
Also details the cars and drivers.

[Roger Dowding]

1949 Events, racing at Seagrove and a Hillclimb at Riverhead.

Amongst the cars competing were Gordon Brown in his Ford 10 Special;
Here is a comment about Gordon and his cars.
Note the description of the Axle as a Ruxley - I understand the correct name was Ruxtall and the axle / differential was a dual ratio one - giving the Three speed gearbox and effective Six speeds.



Another car mentioned is the Laurie Powell Ford B4 V8 Roadster.



A Hillclimb at Riverhead on 20th March 1946, featuring both the above cars and others;
Of interest to me is the name Wyn Bristow who was a great mate and in the 1950's a neighbour of my Uncle Eddie Dowding. Winton Bristow [ correct spelling ] was a club member and was also the artist who did a series of sketches of cars at Ardmore in the mid 1950's [ 1956 ].
Gordon Brown, Laurie Powell and Ralph Watson feature, as do others mentioned in the Seagrove report.



Thanks to Graham Woods for these little snippets of NSCC History which were posted on Old New Zealand Motor racing following the piece on the 1948 Kidston Cup which features Laurie Powell in the previous post.

[Roger Dowding]

Photos from Barry Sexton archives - think the event was a stage in a Rally as in one photo they are going down the Hill.
Event was a " Rallysprint " as noted by Milan Fistonic in post #360

- That photo is of Barry Sexton, and note 1984-ish.
Maurice Wright


Rodney Dixon


Bruce Farley ?


All at the same corner - through the gate.

A view of the service area full of trailers and service vans and cars.



Barry Sexton heading downhill at Cosseys in his BDA.

[Milan Fistonic]

"- think the event was a stage in a Rally as in one photo they are going down the Hill"

It would have been a Rallysprint like this one in 1983.

Neil Allport going up the hill...




...and going down the hill

[Roger Dowding]

Thanks Milan, for the information and the photos too !!
" Rallysprint " would explain - No Navigator in the cars also

Will alter the text to the photos !!

Cheers
Roger

[Milan Fistonic]

Thanks Milan, for the information and the photos too !!
" Rallysprint " would explain - No Navigator in the cars also

Will alter the text to the photos !!

Cheers
Roger

All my photos from the Rallysprint show co-drivers in all the cars as does Barry's shot of a car going downhill. Perhaps Barry's shots showing cars with just the driver going up the hill are from another Hillclimb event.

[Roger Dowding]

Photo from Roger Herrick [ Des Herrick's relation he [ RogerH ] states " my father and Des were first cousins "
- Des was an early competitor at NSCC events and also competed in a Midget style racer in the 1940's _ he was at the 1948 Hill Climb at Mount Eden, organised by the NZ Racing Drivers Club - now Auckland Car Club ].
Western Springs meeting 8th May 1965
- previous photos were in a post 12 months ago - photos from John Larry Lawton - including the clubs magazine " Club Torque " report on the event. [ posted again as previous post is back several pages ].



The report

[RogerH]

Roger - I'm not Des' son but my father and Des were first cousins - so related but a generation apart. I'm fortunate to have his #66 midget which evolved into the A40 Special.

[Roger Dowding]

Roger - I'm not Des' son but my father and Des were first cousins - so related but a generation apart. I'm fortunate to have his #66 midget which evolved into the A40 Special.

Roger [ another one ] thanks for the clarification - will correct.
Cheers

Roger.

PS any early NSCC stuff you may have would like to see it on here, If you would like to.

[Trevor Sheffield]

R.I.P. Collin Waite, a venerable long standing member of the NSSC, he passed the chequered flag for the last time onSaturday 26/06/21, aged 92 yrs. He was at the forefront of club activity for many years and will be well remembered.

[Roger Dowding]

R.I.P. Collin Waite, a venerable long standing member of the NSSC, he passed the chequered flag for the last time onSaturday 26/06/21, aged 92 yrs. He was at the forefront of club activity for many years and will be well remembered.

Thank you Trevor, I had found out through the NZ Rallying History Facebook Page.
Was about to put a Post up.
Cheers;

Paul Francis Smith from NZ Rallying History advises as follows ;

" just been notified
On a sad note, Colin Waite has died ?
Funeral 10am Friday at Purewa ".

As Trevor notes - he was a very long standing member of the Club.
I first met him, Laurie Evans, his good mate and others in early 1967 when I became a member - His other great Mates were my ex neighbour Allan Woolf [ and Colleen Woolf ] , and also Rob Williams, whom I met while still at High School.
Last saw Colin, Allan and Rob [ with their wives at "The Gables Tavern, Herne Bay back around 2004

Colin was running a Cortina GT back in 1967 well before being involved with the Skoda Team for the " Heatway Rally " and later in life with his Stanguellini Formula Junior.

Colin in the Cortina GT at Cosseys Farm - the first meeting March 1967 - from " Club Torque " - he was quick too, coming 3rd overall.

[Roger Dowding]

NSCC Hill Climb 1959 * - the photo had the caption 1959 approx. posted on a Facebook page by Evan James.
NSCC did use the hill until 1962/63.

The driver I don't know, in the 1959 Championship event there was an XK150 driven by R Gibbons.

This is an XK120 - as described in the photo notes - and would have only been a 7 to 10 year old car - relatively new in NZ standards.



Car is on 1956 -61 plates as far as I can make out.

Definitely Ostrich Farm as have another photo from the same spot, but a different year.

[Trevor Sheffield]

Bob Gibbons came up from Wellington for the event. He was prominent in hilll-cimbs and chased the championship around the country.

Ralph Watson chose him to drive the Lycoming in circuit racing events. He was a very steady, safe and "scientific" type of driver and I recall watching him timing competitors starting distances with a stopwatch, relative to wheel-spin and traction. Coincidently this was probably at the event depicted here, when I would have set up the timing and communications gear I had specially built for the club.

Bob Gibbons later acquired a genuine 1,100cc twin Cooper 500 type car, specifically to extend his hillclimb endeavours with some success.

[Trevor Sheffield]

In view of my distant past I have been asked to contribute comment and in order to comply I have compiled these notes:-

The necessity of accurately timing speed events has proven a constant chore for the stalwart volunteers lending a hand. I became involved very shortly after joining the Northern sports car club due to my technical interests.

At that point the club was using a set up kindly developed by the brother of Ron Roycroft, who although not directly interested, helped out due to his background in electronics. This was prior to the availability of solid state components and of necessity used valves rather than transistors and as a result it required several car batteries as a power source. A quite massive fixed length of multi cable combining several separate elements was wound on a large drum to be played out down the hill and this did not provide for marshal point telephones. The length of necessity, was hugely excessive for most of the courses being used and there were constant breakages. Overall the gear had become unduly cumbersome practically overnight, particularly with the advent of transistors, and although their application was at that stage limited, I set about providing something more up to date.

I had just become self employed and held an agency for a UK cable manufacturer. I leaned on them and was successful in obtaining, free of charge, a run of four conductor relay cable. Thus on paying the freight, more than enough excellent material ideal for the job, became available.

Solid state measuring devices were but a dream at the time and although excellent specialised mechanical devices existed, it was deemed best to utilise standard stop watches. Particular as the club was willing to invest in two one-hundredth second watches, which would then have multiple uses. I was club secretary at the time. These watches were operated using solenoids taken from old mechanical dipping headlights.

The cable was wound on drums of portable length fitted with plug connectors and this provided for telephones at intermediate points. At the time there was no possibility of using CB radio or even ham frequencies. Wifi and Bluetooth were over the horizon.

N. Z. Railways had just modernised their telephone network and their old magneto phones, importantly with modernised handsets, became available at Five shillings each, or two and six to amateur clubs. I modified a bunch to make them more portable. There was a lot of war assets stuff available and signal lamps on tripods were valuable for the brake-beam finishing set up. The only just then available light dependent transistors were a godsend and the paint could be removed from a normal glass enclosed transistor by way of economy. LOL

I hockey stick style start switch was employed, rather than a light beam for good reason and both micro switch and pneumatic switches were tried. In this respect it is worth noting just how long it takes for a car to travel the first inch or two. I fitted a stop just ahead of the switch to be placed directly against the car tyre, as a means of insuring repetitive accuracy across all competitors. Obviously a place within a speed event can often be decided by less than a second

On the funny side; I recall an incidents involving a championship hillclimb held on Ostrich Farm Road. The committee was hell bent on making sure of an early start and the club caravan and all equipment was on site the evening before, with me sleeping on the floor in the caravan.

The gear was transported on a trailer behind my Ford V8 engined AC sports car, which was later to become part of the coming event. Another member of the work party joked that he had never before seen a car towing a trailer crossed up while negotiating a corner. “Just trying out the surface ready for tomorrow” was the reply. LOL

The cable had been laid out down the course mostly on the farm fences and everything was tested and OK for an early start. On wakening and for good measure, or was it goo luck, I checked the cable and found it open circuit. Bugger! Inspection disclosed that sheep love to chew nice malleable NSCC cable and there were many munchings. However through good management, there was time to effect repairs.

At this point I think that enough comment, is enough. However I could report the running over of the nice guy whop took over the timing gear !!!!?????

[Kevin Hirst]

Bob Gibbons came up from Wellington for the event. He was prominent in hilll-cimbs and chased the championship around the country.

Ralph Watson chose him to drive the Lycoming in circuit racing events. He was a very steady, safe and "scientific" type of driver and I recall watching him timing competitors starting distances with a stopwatch, relative to wheel-spin and traction. Coincidently this was probably at the event depicted here, when I would have set up the timing and communications gear I had specially built for the club.

Bob Gibbons later acquired a genuine 1,100cc twin Cooper 500 type car, specifically to extend his hillclimb endeavours with some success.

Trevor, is this the same Bob Gibbons as part of the Hope gibbons company from wellington, If so he retired to Puketona between paihia & kerikeri, He had model A at that time, I only found out about his extensive motor racing life after he had passed on, he used to come over to our workshotp all the time for a chat, neet guy to spend time with, May was his wifes name, interested to know if this is the same person