Quote Originally Posted by Roger Dowding View Post
Not Dunedin City, not even Otago but perhaps the first racing in the South Island regions after the Second World War.
- Ohakea held events in 1949 1950 and Seagrove, and Muriwai Beach were being used for big meetings, not just Club events..

Te Pirita Airstrip, near Dunsandel, in Otago. 6th June 1949 - Was it " Kings " birthday weekend ?..

Big oops on my part Te Pirita is near Dunsandel, near the Rakaia River and close to Christchurch as noted by " Allan ", " jellywrestler " and " Greg T " !!
[ my apologies gentlemen - now suitably corrected.
I should have remembered I had commented on the place when "jellywrestler " was seeking information for his book on Motor Cycle Racing venues back in 2020.

Have also edited the photo titles in my archive to relate to Motor Racing in Canterbury - by attaching them to my " Wigram " file,
- not " Dunedin "

Advert in a magazine for the event - Graeme Staples archives.

Name: Dunedin 1949 #011 Motor Racing Te Pirita Airfield -nr Dunsandel,Dunedin Advert Graeme Staples .jpg Views: 328 Size: 46.5 KB

Results from the event from Milan Fistonic vast archives.

Some well known names in there Hec Green in his Wolseley, Don Ransley in a Riley. Pat Hoare in a Singer and Geoff Mardon on an A J S motorcycle - would be before he went to England. Les Moore in a 500cc Triumph motorcycle.
Les also went to the UK for motorcycle racing
Event was a combined Car and Motorcycle event.

part one
Name: Dunedin 1949 #012 Motor Racing Te Pirita Airfield -1949 Results Part one Milan Fistonic .jpg Views: 334 Size: 182.1 KB

part two
Name: Dunedin 1949 #013 Motor Racing Te Pirita Airfield -1949 Results Part two Milan Fistonic .jpg Views: 326 Size: 135.9 KB

Does anyone have any more information on this early Post War event?.
There was Beach Racing in Otago Southland at the time, I understand.
that's actually the original programme fo the event, damn lucky to find that, it was in the Vintage Car Clubs archives. They have a lot of old programmes and initially had brushed this aside as a drag race type of event untill I googled the venue and found at the time it was new zealands biggest airfield. I returned the next week to the VCC archives and found the events were listed including laps so a proper race meeting as such. Andy Anderson the last surviving founder of the VCC went to the meeting, I need to track him down and see what his memories are of it. The brick structure that stored aviation fuel for this is still in the ground at bankside very close to SH1 and has been deemed of historical interest