Article: Miss Victorious

[Steve Holmes]

One little piece you missed in its history Steve. lol. Back in the day when I was just a teenager hanging out at the Stone Bros BP servo in Tuakau with my brother (where the car was based at the time) , my brother was regularly running his E49 down the Meremere drag strip and they were looking for someone to match race against Allan Lim in his Mk1 Escort/Chev drag car (Quartermaster) at their next street meet. My big bro is an old friend of Ross and Jimmy which is how I came to be there and he spoke to them about the possibility of Miss Victorious taking on Quartermaster. Not sure how long it took them to talk Jack into it but the result was that she was at the next street meeting for a 3 race match up. I remember her racing against QuarterMaster but not who won. I will ring my bro and ask if he can remember. Ok, rang Keith and he recalls that she won all her runs over the day as well as the match race with Allan Lims Quartermaster. Ran consistent 10's for the quarter. Monsieur Lim was not a happy market gardener that day.

Thats a great story Tony, and I'm glad you told it because you reminded me of an old NZ Hot Rod mag clipping I've had for many years. These captions didn't give any times unfortunately, but they're still great to see. Thats my writing noting the date, June 1977, which would probably be the magazine date, rather than the date of the event. I assume this was published several months after the actual event, because Greg Lancasters V8 Victor was destroyed during the 1977 season, and these photos were shown in NZ Hot Rod mag after the 1977 season, when all the big bangers had been outlawed.

It was pretty common back then for road course racers to do a bit of drag racing, as many were hot rodders at heart anyway. I've got clippings of Brent Bullivants V8 Capri, Red Dawsons Camaro, Ron Sylvesters Monaro, Clyde Collins' V8 Cortina, John Osbornes V8 Capri, and Rod McElrea's V8 Cortina at various times doing a bit of drag racing in their roundy-roundy cars. Maybe I should start another thread for circuit racers on the drag strip!

[seaqnmac27]

I think I probably kn ow the answer but ya never know on here. Is there any film of Miss Victorious racing? I have a vague memory of seeing PDL 2 race on TV I think against Richards in the Falcon, that would have been Dec or Jan 78/79. Its odd, I have better mem ories of racing I saw live either at Pukekohe as 4 year old or Manfield as a 5 year old than I do from TV from that era.

[Steve Holmes]

I think you're right about that Sean, I can vaguely recall watching the PDL II on tv in 1979 racing Jim Richards' Falcon hardtop at either Bay Park or Puke, and remember at being exited to see them at my local track Manfeild.

[PhotoSmith]

Great read, Thanks Steve.

as mentioned Jack in his Midget at Kihikihi speedway, NZ champs Feb 1983.

[Rod Grimwood]

Also as mentioned the poor old Cortina over the rail lines at Pukekohe.

Ron Kendall actually ended up with this car and ran it at Waikaraka Park as a production car (it was Painted Black) he only ran it a couple of times and it did not really work.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Rod, I didn't realise the car was resurrected, I assumed it was a goner.

[Steve Holmes]

Great read, Thanks Steve.

as mentioned Jack in his Midget at Kihikihi speedway, NZ champs Feb 1983.

Thanks for that Martin. Beautiful photo as always.

[Rod Grimwood]

Thanks Rod, I didn't realise the car was resurrected, I assumed it was a goner.

It was only good for Waikaraka as it was very light (everything burnt off).

[OCTARD-USA]

Hello Steve,

What a great article, coupled with a bunch of great additional follow up and member postings. I love this car, and felt lucky and thankful to Craig Stacey for bringing it to the Chris Amon Festival at Hampton Downs in 2011.

All the best.

-Chad

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for that Chad, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Its interesting that this car raced a couple of the IMSA Chevy Monza's and was very competitive against them, even though the build of this car was completely different to that of the tube-frame cars. It was a combination of road car and race car pieces, all brought together to create something that ultimately proved quite effective. I'd be interested to know what Nazer might have done had he raced this car for a third season, having seen first-hand how quick the PDL II Mustang was. I suspect maybe a tube-frame might have been built and the Victor body dropped on top. I guess we'll never know.

[Javman]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for a great article.

cheers Craig

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Craig, glad you enjoyed it.

[Peddler]

Great story, beautifully written and coherent. Spent the '70s marshalling at Puke and that group of cars were always exciting, even when the fields were small. Nazer's ability behind the wheel and the great build of the car are shown by its success against real skill and poor old Greg Lancaster's vain attempt to emulate it.

[Steve Holmes]

Great story, beautifully written and coherent. Spent the '70s marshalling at Puke and that group of cars were always exciting, even when the fields were small. Nazer's ability behind the wheel and the great build of the car are shown by its success against real skill and poor old Greg Lancaster's vain attempt to emulate it.

Thanks for that, glad you enjoyed it.

[seaqnmac27]

With the success of Miss Vicorious & PDL2 at this time the other players seem to get forgotten. Would love to hear a similar story about the Lancaster Victor as I only know it from pictures.

[Steve Holmes]

I received an email this morning, from Warwick Clayton, and was pleasantly surprised to find the following awesome photos in it. Thanks heaps for these Warwick, some real beauties in here:

[Steve Holmes]

This first one is fairly telling of the rivalry between Nazers team and that of PDL!

[Steve Holmes]

I was really excited by this last one, as this is the only colour photo I've seen of Miss Victorious with front bodywork removed! Thanks again Warwick.

[driftwood]

Great article well done
We had a similar car over here in the Motherland
Gerry Marshall and GM built a Vauxhall Ventora called Big Bertha with a 5 litre Holden motor but it was written off in testing and very few pics of the car exist
From the wreck Vauxhall had Baby Bertha built using a Firenza bodyshell and this car was raced by Gerry and DVT for many years and was a crowd favourite
I saw the car many times as a kid
Today the car is still running in demo events and the UKs attempt at Special saloon revival race held the last 2 seasons at Mallory Park

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks drift, glad you enjoyed that. Big Bertha was a superb looking race car, very nice and clean looking, at complete odds with Baby Bertha. I think Baby Bertha suffered a shunt just recently at one of the events it was running at?