Many thanks for that Carlo - here's a few more for old times sakeOriginally Posted by Carlo
Many thanks for that Carlo - here's a few more for old times sake
Awesome Ross, the 'ol reverse Puke' that was interesting, especially up front straight and over hill with reverse camber.
where was the shingle stage Ross, looks familiar but can not pin point it. (thinking Cossey's or Bombay)
where was the shingle stage Ross, looks familiar but can not pin point it. (thinking Cossey's or Bombay)[/QUOTE]
I think this was at one of those Hella Rallysprints at Cosseys Farm - may well have been 1983
Yep, that sounds right, the RX3 coupe (shared car 22) is about 1/2 way up and little turn left, is it Robert (Chawfy) Connell ?. Subaru is run along top. Cossey's was a neat track.
Escort 23 Autosport Upholstery, a few of us have and still do sit our arse in those seats. (Ross Wilson ? ) raced a mini before he grew up, good bugger. Hillside Rd Nth Shore.
Yellow RX3 no.12 Robert (Ari) Harris and Tom Priece, car ended udside down in water hole Maramarua, long time to get out and end of career basically.
And Max Irwin (Good Bugger) well enough said, he has car back after all these years (different colour) and runs it at Leadfoot, how appropriate.
I've just joined this forum & wow!!! It's awesome how much it has unlocked the old memory vault. It's sweet to see the old pic's from the 60/70's circuit racing & rallying & great to see the old pic's being shared.
My brother worked for Hamlin & Charles from the early 60's (Graham started spannering the mk1 Lotus Cortina's & later worked on/tuned etc the mk1 BDA Escort's + various circuit race cars).
He moved to Toyota NZ's new Johnsonville workshop where he was later involved in setting up & tuning the three works Toyota Levin's.
If I'm not mistaken, there was six brought into the country at first & the others were sold to private buyers but hey I've drunk my share of Jimmy B's in the last 40yrs so could be wrong.
It's a great thread & awesome forum...... good fun too
Cheers,
AL
Sure was Howard about 25% were UMC members including me. One correction is that Cliffy ran a Toyota Corolla not a Fiat 850 as mentioned.....
This was in relation to the Shell Triple Hundred, at the start of Early NZ rallies thread
Last edited by nzswift; 05-21-2015 at 07:53 PM.
Heatway 1973
#231 The green RX3 is Rod Millen and Robin (Doctor) Irving. note slight modification to roof from little woops on ice in SI.
The 1972 Heatway Rally started from Wellington on sunday afternoon 23 April. It tiki-toured it's way up the middle of the North Island to Auckland, then across to Gisborne and down the East Coast to finish in Wellington the following saturday. Some car club mates and I took a week off work to be control marshalls.
There were 5 of us in 2 cars and we were teamed with 4 guys from the Hutt Valley Motoring Club. Our mission was to do 1 special stage per night. The Hutt guys set them off and we clocked them in at the other end.
On the evening of the Wednesday we turned off the Opotiki-Gisborne road about half way along and drove our stage for that night, reaching the end outside the school at Rere around 10p.m. Immediately, we had a problem - there was nowhere to put up our tent. However it was a beautiful clear, still night with a full moon so bright we could actually read by it so we simply set up in the open. The road widened just outside the school to allow a bus or car to pull over to disgorge it's cargo, we put our table on one side of it and were ready for business.
Soon after we arrived people started turning up from Gisborne 45 km away and by around midnight a sizable crowd had gathered. Meanwhile the night was getting colder and colder and colder.....
Adjacent to the sealed stopping area was a patch of bush growing out of a shallow gully. Someone realised there was a quantity of fallen wood which would be the makings of a bonfire. Next thing a fire was under way on the stopping area.
With an enthusiasm borne of coldness, boredom and pyromania, an impromptu work party formed and branches were hauled out of the bush and thrown on the flames. The fire grew bigger and bigger. The gatherers were hauling out large logs. Everyone stood as close as they dared as the temperture dropped below freezing and became a frost.
At long last, around 4 or 5 o'clock the cars started arriving and the fire was left to burn itself out. The cars at the rear of the field reached us after daylight, then tail-end Charlie in his Toyota Land-Cruiser sped past opening the road in his wake and the spectators returned to Gisborne for breakfast.
A service crew turned up and asked us marshalls to go a short distance back into the stage to help them get an Escort back on the road. It was after that Tim Bailey in his Porshe and his service crew turned up. He had had an off- road excursion and needed their assistance to get going again. I remember being surprised that he seemed very laid back and in no hurry to catch up with the rally.
It was about then that we thought we better clear away the remains of the fire. That's when we discovered that lighting bonfires on tar seal is not a good idea - the tar seal didn't exist any more. It had gone up in smoke. Realising the school people would be arriving soon we threw our gear in the cars and buggered off quick!
By the miracle of Google Earth I've been looking at Rere School and after 43 years the road outside looks exactly the same. Even the patch of bush is still there. One thing though. It looks like the stopping area has been resealed.
David Hunter
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote