The Peter Hanna Collection - Part 1

[Steve Holmes]

Most New Zealand motor racing enthusiasts will be familiar with the name Peter Hanna. Hanna was the head of a misfit group of characters who promoted the Bay Park motorsport facility, in Tauranga, NZ. Hanna, along with his mate Graham Pierce, thrust an upright middle finger at the New Zealand motorsport hierarchy, and ran their events their way. When New Zealand motorsport was very much biased towards single seaters, Hanna and Pierce pushed saloon car racing.

Bay Park was the first venue in New Zealand to host a race for Formula 5000, but the track was really one in which saloon cars were given top billing. Hanna understood the pulling power of tin-tops, and great effort was put into assembling a quality field of the top NZ machines, at their three big seasonal events; Labour Weekend, Christmas, and Easter.

For the most part, Hanna and Pierce would arrange to have at least one international car and driver present for at least one of these events, most usually the big Christmas event, when the Bay of Plenty was heaving was holiday goers. Often times they'd import up to three cars. But the pay-off would be in the crowd numbers. At their 1970 Christmas event, they had Australians Terry Allan and Bryan Thomson in their big block Camaros, along with American Joe Chamberlain in his Trans-Am Camaro, plus all the top Kiwi cars, and such was the crowd attendance that day, they had to turn people away at the gate, as they had a full-house.

For motorsport photographers wanting to gain the best vantage points at Bay Park, Peter Hanna required they give him half a dozen photos from each event, with which he could do as he pleased. Over the years he assembled a massive collection.

Roaring Season member Dale Mathers got to know Peter Hanna and those associated with Bay Park well. Dale grew up in Tauranga, and his father was the President for the Bay of Plenty Stockcar And Saloon Car Club, whose speedway track was inside the Bay Park circuit racing venue.

A couple of years before his death, Dale was visiting Peter, who, in his usual gruff manner, said to Dale, "Here, you like this Ford shit, have these", and with that, he thrust a pile of old Bay Park racing photographs at him. Most of the photos are of saloon cars, not surprising really, and there is a fairly strong Ford bias, but these photos, of which were only a very tiny part of Peter's collection, are fascinating.

Dale sent me these photos some years ago, and I've asked his permission to create a thread dedicated to them. Hopefully Dale and others associated with Bay Park will share their memories of this incredible place, and the colourful folk who ran it, just to help bring this story to life.