Does anyone know what happened to the Barry Wearing 67 Z28 SS Camaro, sold in 74-75

[nick_tassie]

Can anyone help me with leads to trace the whereabouts of the ex Barry Wearing 67 Z28 big block Chev Camaro sold in the Parramatta area in 1974-75. Barry Wearing was a drag racer who raced a similar 67 Camaro called Captain Rats out of Castlereagh in the mid to late 70's, this is not the Camaro I'm looking for. The car is an ex circuit racer owned by my Uncle Terry Allan, the car has a lot of sentimental value to us and we would dearly like to find out what happened to it, has it surveyed, where is it now. When sold by Barry in late 74 it was still as last circuit raced, he did not drag race the Camaro. It painted white, had highly modified race suspension, large flared guards to suit the 10 inch race wheels, full roll cage, long range fuel tank, and maybe still fitted with the disc brake locker rear axle. Originally the car was red, it also had been painted blue at some stage. Barry can't recall who bought the car from him (it was almost 40 years ago) but he certainly can't recall ever racing against it in NSW and Qld in the 70's which seems to indicate it didn't go to another drag racer, maybe speedway or even converted back to a road car. At that point it hd never been road registered and was still left hand drive. The whereabouts of its race spec 396 big block and 4 speed transmission are also unknown.

Can anyone help with leads on where this Camaro might have gone or where it might be now. its an important link to our late Uncle and we would very much like some answers. Please call me if you can help no matter how small the potential lead - Nick 0417529436

[Steve Holmes]

Nick, this is great! Just to confirm, the car you are searching for is the Terry Allan big block Camaro? I've also wondered what happened to this car. Do you have much information on it? Was it a genuine big block car? Was it built for racing by Bill Thomas, as some have said? Its quite a mysterious car and it seems not a great deal is actually known about it.

Graeme Blanchard bought it off your uncle, and I assume Wearing must have bought it off Blanchard?

[nick_tassie]

Hi Steve, yes mate the car was the Camaro that Uncle Terry imported into Australia in 67 and raced in the ATTC and VTTC, as well as, NZ up until early 71. From what I have been able to find out it was a Nickey Chevrolet ordered Z28 with a 396 Big Block, from various Yank forums I've researched I believe three of these cars were scheduled to race as Nickey Chicago cars but never did. Terry was in the US at the time and managed to purchase the vehicle from Nickey, unusual as Chevrolet was said to have resisted selling these first race spec Z28 cars to private individuals. I believe Terry then sent the car to be race prepared at Bill Thomas's Carolina workshop, Bill Tomas and Nickey had a joint partnership in building and selling performace cars at that time. Bill Thomas III has indicated on the Nickey forum that he recalls his father race preparing these three circuit race cars and that he belives all three went oversea's. Logic suggests Terry's was indeed one of these special circuit race z28's.

Anyway Uncle Terry had the car up until early 71 where he last raced in Tassie at Symmons Plains ATTC round with white paint and Castrol sponsorship. The car was then sold to Graeme Blanchard and he ran it through until 72 again as a white car. The car then ended up in the hands of NSW circuit racer Lakis Manticas, I haven't yet confirmed with Lakis if it was a roller at that point or he removed the running gear, but I can confirm he did have the Camaro after Blanchard. Barry Wearing brought the car off Manticas sometime in 74, I can confirm this as true as I have a copy of a photo from Barry that clearly shows the white Camaro parked in his mates Gargage, it clearly shows the flared guards and the identifiable roll cage as shown in other race photo's so I'm confident it is Terry's car, the date on the back of the photo is September 74.

Barry can recall clearly at the time wondering why Lakis had the car in the first place as he thought he was racing open wheelers, he remembers bringing the camaro roller home to Parramatta on the trailer. But unfortunetly at this point much to his frustration he can't recall what happened next, he's a nice guy and is trying all his contacts from the 70's to try and find the next lead. What he has also confirmed to me is that he never drag raced the car, most likely because of the wide flared guards that wouldn't have suited the narrow track drag racing, it would have required new quarters and front guards. Also he thinks with most of the running gear gone the cost of a refit wouldn't have made it viable at the time. So encouragingly at this point is was left untouched.

His camaro drag car Captain Rats is confirmed as not Terry's car, it is currently in Tassie and I've checked it out thoroughly, it matches except for the lack of blue and white paint between the original red and captain Rats yellow. Barry remembered in a further conversation that Captain Rats was indeed a road car brought from a Canadian consular employee in the ACT in 73, it was a LHD small block car and they drove it home.

So that's all I know, one more link from Lakis Manticas, but stopped now until I can discover that next critical lead. Hopefully someone will read this and remember hearing about a camaro sold in Parramatta by Barry Wearing, or knows of a similar spec camaro racing or converted to a road car from that era. It will be nice if we can solve the mystery once and for all as a tribute to Uncle Terry.

Cheers, Nick

[Kiwiboss]

Hi Nick, a long shot but im in Sydney next month for the EC Muscle Car Masters and im staying with a mate Keith Knightingale. Keiths probably mid 60's and been in Sydney all his life, he raced Toranas back in the early 70's and prior, i'll print this out and ask him!! He doesn't do E-mails and getting him on the PH is tough but i will ask for you!! From stories he's told me he seem to know alot from that era in and around Sydney and was a GM guy!! you never know!!

Dale Mathers
Tauranga, NZL

[nick_tassie]

Cheers, Dale. That's just the kind of help I need to find the next important link, there must be someone out there somewhere that remembers the Camaro. I'll post some photo's when I get a chance that may help as a reminder. The more people are out there asking questions the more likely we are to uncover something. I've even tried to get a copy of the log book from CAMS to get the chassis number but good old privacy laws put a stop to that great idea. Give it a crack Mate who knows what may come out of it, appreciate your support.

Nick

[nick_tassie]

Hi Nick, a long shot but im in Sydney next month for the EC Muscle Car Masters and im staying with a mate Keith Knightingale. Keiths probably mid 60's and been in Sydney all his life, he raced Toranas back in the early 70's and prior, i'll print this out and ask him!! He doesn't do E-mails and getting him on the PH is tough but i will ask for you!! From stories he's told me he seem to know alot from that era in and around Sydney and was a GM guy!! you never know!!

Dale Mathers
Tauranga, NZL

Hey Dale, did you get a chance to ask Keith about the Camaro?

[Steve Holmes]

You will have seen these already Nick from AMC but I'll post these here to help with the search. Allan raced the Camaro in NZ three times; Easter 1970, Labour Weekend 1970, and Xmas 1970. The Xmas meeting it was painted white, whereas the two previous visits it was blue. I've never seen a colour photo of it painted blue but no doubt there will be one somewhere.

[nick_tassie]

Great photo's Steve, hopefully a colour one of the car in the blue paint will surface. If we have no luck in finding the car my brother and I are considering building a replica and get it out on the tracks, the spec in the blue looks mega so that's the way we would probably go. It would be nice to have a clearer idea of the blue he used. Terry mentioned his trips to NZ to race, I can recall he enjoyed going over to give it a crack. He was very proud of the fact he had the first Camaro to race in Australia and raced against to big boys.

[Powder]

Allan raced the Camaro in NZ three times; Easter 1970, Labour Weekend 1970, and Xmas 1970. The Xmas meeting it was painted white, whereas the two previous visits it was blue.

Here's some scans from the Baypark meeting programme from 28 Dec 1970.

[Steve Holmes]

Pretty sure it would have been the first Camaro to race in Australasia, not just Australia. I'm sure a colour photo in the blue will surface. I think he only raced it at Bay Park on his three NZ trips, which would not have been a suitable track for a big block car, as it was quite a tight layout. But he did very well on his first visit at Easter 1970, and won one of the races. He was obviously very popular with the crowds, as he visited three times, which the Bay Park promoters would have paid for.

[nick_tassie]

Here is the last known photo of the Camaro as is sits when owned by Barry Wearing in September 74 somewhere in Parramatta. Interestingly the original Z28 twin louvre vented bonnet has been replaced with what looks like a standard item (maybe off the Captain Rats drag car), clearly seen is a large square hole cutout on the left rear side, maybe for an air scoop for master cylinder cooling?? All photo's I've found previously show the car with the Z28 bonnet.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for posting this photo Nick, I always enjoy these types of photos of cars after they've passed through a few owners. The front flares are unmistakable as being the Terry Allan car, even though the wheels have changed.

David Jarrett was racing a 1st gen Camaro in the mid to late 70s. Do you know anything about this car? I suspect it might be the Indy Speed Shop car.

[nick_tassie]

I have looked into the Indy Speed Shop Camaro as it looked like a possible connection to Terry's car. Wayne Mahnken who I've also talked with about Terry's Camaro thought at one point it was at the Indy Speed Shop in SA running as a drag car. Check every lead as they say no matter how small. Anyway there were suggestions on various forums that it was imported from the US as a road car by John Kay. I'm getting pretty good at this detective game and managed to contact John's widow, John having passed away a few years ago. Although she wasn't around in the days of the Camaro and couldn't provide any information she did give me the contact details of his Indy Speed Shop business partner, Tony confirmed to me that John did bring that car into Australia and they stripped it out and built up the race car. So that put an end to that possible lead. Tony also said he didn't recall they ever ran a 67 model camaro drag car.

When researching the Indy Speed Shop Camaro most comments indicate it did become the David Jarrett sports sedan, this then went to Bob Middleton who ran it for a number of years before selling it to Chris Templar in Victoria. Thats as far as I went at that point as Tony cut short the lead, so I've never confirmed the Jarrett camaro was indeed the indy Speed Shop car, but its highly likely.

[Steve Holmes]

I have looked into the Indy Speed Shop Camaro as it looked like a possible connection to Terry's car. Wayne Mahnken who I've also talked with about Terry's Camaro thought at one point it was at the Indy Speed Shop in SA running as a drag car. Check every lead as they say no matter how small. Anyway there were suggestions on various forums that it was imported from the US as a road car by John Kay. I'm getting pretty good at this detective game and managed to contact John's widow, John having passed away a few years ago. Although she wasn't around in the days of the Camaro and couldn't provide any information she did give me the contact details of his Indy Speed Shop business partner, Tony confirmed to me that John did bring that car into Australia and they stripped it out and built up the race car. So that put an end to that possible lead. Tony also said he didn't recall they ever ran a 67 model camaro drag car.

When researching the Indy Speed Shop Camaro most comments indicate it did become the David Jarrett sports sedan, this then went to Bob Middleton who ran it for a number of years before selling it to Chris Templar in Victoria. Thats as far as I went at that point as Tony cut short the lead, so I've never confirmed the Jarrett camaro was indeed the indy Speed Shop car, but its highly likely.

Just out of interest here Nick, the Bob Middleton you mentioned, is he the same Bob Middleton who raced trucks for many years and who currently runs a couple of Camaros in the Touring Car Masters series? http://www.touringcarmasters.com.au/...Middleton.html

[nick_tassie]

Just out of interest here Nick, the Bob Middleton you mentioned, is he the same Bob Middleton who raced trucks for many years and who currently runs a couple of Camaros in the Touring Car Masters series? http://www.touringcarmasters.com.au/...Middleton.html

Yes Steve, one and the same. If you Google search for (Chris Templar Camaro Whiteline Racing) a link to their racing team newsletter comes up and there is a photo of Chris standing beside the Whitline sponsored Ex Middleton/Jarrett/Indy Speed Shop Camaro at his first Sports Sedan race.

[nick_tassie]

Steve thank you for putting together a great lead article on Terry and the Camaro for the home page of Roaring Seasons.

I thought it might be timely to post this later family photo we have of Uncle Terry, some might recognise it as the one my brother Matt sent into Muscle Car Magazine to let them know he recently passed away after their MIA articles. You can see why Bill Thomas Racecars nickname for Terry "Brillo" fits quiet well.

He had a very kind gentle personality but did get a serious race face on when he told us stories of racing the Camaro in Australia and NZ. What stood out very strongly was the fact he was very proud to have been the first person to race on in Australia, he mentioned it on many occasions. He did enjoy a somewhat "playboy life", ringing us up from all parts of the world at times to say hello. The idea of finding the Camaro and getting it back on the race track as a family tribute has been an ambition for as long as I can remember, its just that now with the Internet we have a tool that can help search for leads. I certainly appreciate everyones help with information and photos. Hopefully we will be successful and uncover that critical link some time soon.

[Steve Holmes]

Yes, I'd heard the Indy Speed Shop car was built from a road car too. But as you say, you need to be sure to check all avenues. Given the Allan car pictured above in the shed appears to have the 1-piece '68 model side glass fitted, similar wheels to that of the Indy Speed Shop car, and it disappeared around the same time the ISS Camaro first appeared, you have to check that lead before you can cancel it out.

[nick_tassie]

It difficult to see on the scanned picture I uploaded because its re-taken off a typical 70's darkened photo of the day and not very clear, but looking at the better quality one Barry sent me you can just make out what looks like the 67 quater vent window.

Another interesting story on another lead I chased up. I was searching through a wonderful historic speedway site on the internet with heaps of photos, just trying to find a camaro that matched. I came across these two photos of Liverpool Speedway icon Peter Crick driving a Camaro. It had a white nose cone, similar alloy wheels to the photo in Barry's garage, interesting, I wonder? Worth a try so I sent a quick email off the Barry Wearing and asked the question if it rang a bell for him, I think I sent the email off about 11:30pm on a Friday night. To my amazement Barry was on the phone at 7:00am the next morning suggesting I might be onto something (he must have been up with the sparrows). Seems Barry had links with Peter crick in that he developed his fuel injection system for the Captain Rats drag car, he also did all his engine dyno tuning.

Now that's a good lead so onto the internet and phones to track down Peter Crick, at first I got hold of James Cockington from AMC and he suggested the #49 Camaro may have been a spare car of American speedway driver Gene Welsh, I also had an email message from Liverpool Speedway facebook page administrator Mike Raymond (the one and only channel 7 comentator) suggesting the same thing. By the Saturday afternoon I had found Peter on the phone and was having a good chat about the ol days. He confirmed to me that the car was the spare car of Gene Welsh, he looked after and ran it for Gene for a couple of years.

It wasn't until after talking to Peter that I actually realised the #49 Camaro has the rear guard vents of a 69 model anyway, blinded by excitement maybe!! Another lead closed.

[Leo D]

It difficult to see on the scanned picture I uploaded because its re-taken off a typical 70's darkened photo of the day and not very clear, but looking at the better quality one Barry sent me you can just make out what looks like the 67 quater vent window.

Another interesting story on another lead I chased up. I was searching through a wonderful historic speedway site on the internet with heaps of photos, just trying to find a camaro that matched. I came across these two photos of Liverpool Speedway icon Peter Crick driving a Camaro. It had a white nose cone, similar alloy wheels to the photo in Barry's garage, interesting, I wonder? Worth a try so I sent a quick email off the Barry Wearing and asked the question if it rang a bell for him, I think I sent the email off about 11:30pm on a Friday night. To my amazement Barry was on the phone at 7:00am the next morning suggesting I might be onto something (he must have been up with the sparrows). Seems Barry had links with Peter crick in that he developed his fuel injection system for the Captain Rats drag car, he also did all his engine dyno tuning.

Now that's a good lead so onto the internet and phones to track down Peter Crick, at first I got hold of James Cockington from AMC and he suggested the #49 Camaro may have been a spare car of American speedway driver Gene Welsh, I also had an email message from Liverpool Speedway facebook page administrator Mike Raymond (the one and only channel 7 comentator) suggesting the same thing. By the Saturday afternoon I had found Peter on the phone and was having a good chat about the ol days. He confirmed to me that the car was the spare car of Gene Welsh, he looked after and ran it for Gene for a couple of years.

It wasn't until after talking to Peter that I actually realised the #49 Camaro has the rear guard vents of a 69 model anyway, blinded by excitement maybe!! Another lead closed.

Nick.... I notice no mention of the Camaro with "Indy Speed Shop" signage..... also notice the "Winston" signage as well..

Winston Kim.... owner of Indy Speed Shop?

That shot is at Calder BTW.... Bob Jane Transporter in the background....

[nick_tassie]

Hi Leo

Thank you for posting those amazing photo's of uncle Terry racing the Camaro today, just fantastic shots, along with what Ellis has shared its amazing that these great images have been unearthed for myself and others to see and enjoy.

Regarding the Indy Speed Shop/Winston Camaro what I've managed to find out is that it was brought into the country as a road car by the then Indy Speed Shop owner John Kay. John and his crew built and raced the car under the Winston ISS signage, it was also raced I believe at some stage by Peter Finch. The Winston signage was from a cigarette brand of the day, (not a smoker and to young to know) but that's what I've read somewhere, I've checked on the internet and it is a genuine brand.

I've also confirmed this Camaro was bought by the Jarrett's and run as a Sports Sedan by David in the late 70's at some stage with Shell sponsorship. I haven't confirmed it but from what I've read this car was then rebuilt after a workshop fire, it was then owned and raced by Bob Middleton, and is now owned and raced by Chris Templar still as a sports sedan. There is a great shot of it and Chris on Bob Middleton's race team web page newsletter.

Ellis sent me some other photo's today of what looks very much like the Indy Speed Shop car #14 in bare blue paint schemes (there are 2 clearly different shades of blue but its the same car), maybe when raced at a later date prior to the Jarrett ownership. Ellis may post these at some stage, close review (model, flares, race wheels, bonnet pins, bonnet scoop, roll cage) seems to point very highly towards all three of these cars being one and the same. Someone else might be able to confirm this.

I must say this photo of the Indy Seed Shop Camaro was also taken and posted by Ellis, he has some great Australian Motorsport history saved in his personal files.