I remember Tom as a very adventurous racer, the A30 wickedly quick at Levin then the turboed (I think) Sprite, some of his mods were way ahead of his (our) time. Based in Wellington, might have had an infamous pool hall?, correct me if I'm wrong!
Cheers, Grant Ellwood
The motor in the Sprite in its final form was I think a Lotus Twin Cam from Kerry Grant's Lotus Cortina as he was running a 1650 pushrod.
He then built the rear engined Odlin sports car with the Lotus Twin Cam that Danie Lupp ended up with. I think he then brought the Brett Riley 77B March and raced it without too much success on the circuits. He then used the March in hillclimbs and there was a photo of him doing a gravel hillclimb in it ! Yeah, the pool hall was in Courtenay Place, Wellington - one still exists there today. The Odlin was pretty quick and I recall won the sports car championship - do not know what happened to it after Danie Lupp had it
Hi 45 you are almost right he won the gold star Hihclimb champs in the March but to his sorrow he never won the sports champs
Jamie A
Was the March the same car raced by Howard Wood in Formula Atlantic?
Good man, Tommy. First met him in about 67-68 whilst waiting for scrutineering for a Wellington hill climb.
However, the most memorable moment in my memory is of T.D. blowing up a phone box
in Lyall Bay, Wellington.
Living in Sydney, NSW, now days, according to the motorsport mafia.
Why did you start this thread, Grant? Afterall, you ran over a cop in Palmerston North.
Mate! I might even remember a few other things when I sober up. Kisses & hugs from Jill.
Cheers,
Russ
I saw tom race a vw at palmerston north speedway some years back.
No, as 45 says, it was the ex-Brett Riley carOriginally Posted by Steve Holmes
David,No, as 45 says, it was the ex-Brett Riley car
We sold our March,plated 742-U1 to Reg Cook and I always understood he eventually sold it to Tom Donovan. In recent emails with Chris from oldracingcars.com regarding the history of the car we dicussed this.
A bit off this topic I know but Chris and Driftwood felt they had pretty much nailed the identity and history of that car, including that it's tub probably started life in an ex Brian Henton crashed 732. Check with them but they didn't question the Donovan connection but had a question mark over Bob Donaldson's involvement which I dismissed. The implication was that Donaldson must have bought the Brett Riley car.
Given that Tom Donovan crashed a March at Coronet Peak, did he then buy the ex Riley car? (Which conveniently would make us both right).
Was in NZ late 2010, was then heading back to the monastery in South Africa, his old Typhoon is in ChCh
Dave morrison bought the typhoon off tom, had it for a rew years and sold it to steve donaldson in chch.from all accounts from dave and steve, its pretty scary to drive
Hi gang Tom lived in Sydney Up untill Xmas 2010 when he sold all the race car.s and went back to God for how long this time ? have not seen him since he came and stayed a few days on his way to Roma .Jamie A
I hope you didn't get converted Jamie, I like you as you are now.
Quite right Grant, he was another wayward lad from the Eastern suburbs. Mother was a major shareholder in Odlins hence the signage. I am surprised 45DCOE knows about the pool hall, I thought he had a sheltered upbringing. hmmm.
I was working for a subsidery of Odlins at the time on West Coast of SI.
Owen Murphy from Odlins made sure that every staff member knew about Tom's efforts.
Everyone followed the progress but sad to say the results were never what they expected.
IIRC the company put out a newsletter detailing Tom's exploits - I'm sure I've still got one or two somewhere
HAY what about the outher 3 pool hall,s ? shelterd life so he never went to one of Tom,s wine drinking party,s mostley A red called Becarno made in vats from HELL??? Jamie A
I remember Tom going off his nut when he was running the March at Wellington's Alexander Rd Hillclimb. On the nose cone he had signwritten "Jesus Saves". Some smartarse with a marker pen added "Stamps" ...He wasn't impressed at all..
Does anyone know if Tom's chopped-top A30 still exists?
He used to run some jungle juice in his turbo cars, the eyes would water and birds would fall out of the sky
Tom had quite a big shunt at the Queenstown Hillclimb on the Coronet Peak skifield road where you come up the fastest bit of the hill and the car goes light as the incline ceases just as you go into the braking zone for the 1st haipin. Tom and the March went straight ahead and took on the armco head on. There wasn't much frontal protection in those cars.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote