Matamata Round the houses.

[Roger Dowding]

Photos from J L Lawton's vast archives as mentioned in the previous post.

All from 1965. the 20th March event, and the Last One.

A pair of Minis led by Tony Gilbertson, not sure of 3rd and 4th cars.



Humber Zephyr * [ see note ] of Frank Radisich leads a mixed bunch in including the Zephyr Corvette and the Morrari, an Anglia and Chev Coupe in the middle


Humbers of Ross McCallum and G Harvey [ Graeme Harvey ? - thought he had a Holden that raced there ? ]



Anglia of Warren Reid - where is he heading ? he has spun !! - and Mini T Parker



The Big Boys,
Colin Lumsden De Soto, Jennings in the 6 litre Fiat, Chev Coupe and Garth Souness in the Morrari - Corvette powered
- in 1964 Garth ran the early 1930's Ford Coupe - with Chev OHV V8 power.



The 1965 Programme Cover.

Looking for the entry lists for many of the races - especially Saloons,- have the Sports Cars and a handwritten list from the programme as the page Event - race 13 was blank apart from listing the name of the Race - The Festival Feature race for " Formula Libre Racing Cars and Sports Racing Cars ".




* Note ; Had Humber Jaguar in the notes but according to the entry list the Radisich Humber 80 had a cc rating of 2553 - the size of a Mark 2 and Mark 3 Zephyr engine. The Humber was Zephyr powered prior to the Jaguar Motor.

[Oldfart]

From distant memory, the Feature Race entry was made on the day from the fastest cars from previous races, and those that were still running, hat being sorted by the organisers..

[Oldfart]

Post #80, top photo is coming off Broadway. The Anglican Church Hall visible, and the house to the right was the one in which the Minister lived. Richards was the surname, his son in my 5th form class at the time of this pic.
The lower photo certainly looks like Matamata, and maybe the sign says Hohaia St?, however it looks as though he is either lining up for a left hand turn or just exiting, and the only left was from Meura onto Tui, and Hohaia isn't close.
From another post, Farmers was where the motorcycle dealer (Phils) is now. Corner of Tainui and Tui Streets.

[Roger Dowding]

Another photo has emerged from Matamata 1965. A Terry Marshall photo - this seems to be a copy of a copy.

Rod Coppins in the Team Molyslip colours - the Zephyr Corvette - with stack pipes, being chased by Brian Innes in his Morris Cooper S a 1275/1293 cc machine.



Another photo of the Brian Innes Cooper S and a Zephyr - light colour but is it the Zephyr Corvette.??
The wheels look right, and in one race Innes beat Rod Coppins coming third to Coppins 4th place.

- this from a montage of photos that appeared in a Newspaper at the time - a double page spread.



Results from the Days Racing - posted before. Brian Innes gets a couple of mentions ;

[Roger Dowding]

A few more of J L Lawtons pictures from Matamata 1965.

I inadvertently lost some of the details and do not have the entry lists for Races 3 and 4 which should be of the Saloon Allcomers 1000 cc to 2100 cc. Have the 0 - 1000 Race 1, and 2100 and over Race 6

Chevrolet in the bales - hard to see.


Jim Boyd, Lycoming leading a single seater, could be the " Formula Libre Racing and Sports Car race - Race 5, or a later event.


Humber 80 #98 - or is it a Hillman Minx ?


Rod Coppins Zephyr Corvette, leads Brian Innes - Mini Cooper S..


Does anyone have the Races 3 and 4 Entry Lists that they could post here or PM with details,

Cheers

Roger

Another 3 photos to come from this set..

[Roger Dowding]

Humber 80 - a 3 wheeler and a 44 gallon drum takes a hit !!. Can't quite read the Race Number.



This looks like a full view of the same photo !! complete with spectator heads


Anglia - Jack Nazer ? ahead of Garth Souness in the Morrari [ spelling ]


Frank Radisich was entered in his Humber 80 -Zephyr Race #90 at 2553 cc - before it became the Humber - Jaguar..

That is all for the moment.
Will see if I can find the details.

Thanks to " Oldfart " for asking the question and starting this thread..

[Roger Dowding]

How many years did they run it for Rhys? I don't think it was on the championship trail so didn't get the media coverage that other events did. There are a couple of great photos floating about of Red Dawson in his Willys coupe and Garth Souness in the Morrari from Matamata.

" I believe it ran for 2 years. The old man was Town Clerk there. There were plenty of articles and photos in Motorman, Almost all the "names" took part with every class imaginable. "

Continuing the story. I noted that some photos of Matamata had appeared on others thread some time ago.

At the risk of " repeating " the photos, thought I would bring a couple together that came from Milan Fistonic vast collection.
One from 1965 and one more recent.
The Events were as is now well known held in 1964 and 1965 ..

Milan notes with the photo ;- as written in 2016 on the Rhys Nolan photos thread ..
" This is from 1965 and was taken at the corner of Tamihana and Rata Streets. "

" John Richards in the locally built Lotus 15 replica followed by Bill Caldwell's Lola which is being monstered by Donelly's HWM- Thunderbird.

Well if all the Chev-engined cars were powered by Corvettes then the Ford engine must have been a Thunderbird! "

Tui - Yeah Right ..


Was Donnelly trying to merge #14 with #114 .. The HWM was looking pretty scruffy even before this " Accident " ..



The more recent photo - 2016 Matamata - the same location. Same house in the background, has had some shutters added to the windows ..

[jellywrestler]

nothing to do with Matamata just like rogers after shot here. I picked up some original late 20's early 30's piccies a few weeks back, here's Kilbirnie speedway and I reckoned I could find the old houses, not even three minutes work as I knew where the speedway was, pretty cool that sort of thing to play with

[Roger Dowding]

This image from Milan Fistonic vast archives was on the Morrari thread -

The Motorman report on the event with the results and a photo of two young men who had written a Free Plug for Motorman in the ice on the roof of a Morris Minor - the two lads are in the bottom picture;



A TRS member had asked for the image to be posted .. go to the Morrari thread to find out more.

[Greg Stokes]

Fantastic to see the Morarri in these pics

[Oldfart]

Fantastic to see the Morarri in these pics

It was even more fantastic to see it in person just around the corner from home !
I distinctly remember the frost in the "Motorman" post too. Thankfully being just round the corner meant we could go home between first getting there at the crack of dawn and first practice to get warm.
Another thing that happened while we were at home was that a certain road going D type was looking for a place to park, so I suggested he park in our garage. The only time my family will have one in our garage

[jellywrestler]

does anyone know anything about car 26 in the second piccie here please? I beleive it had an Edward Turner designed engine , he also designed the triumph speed twin and Ariel Square Four

[Milan Fistonic]

does anyone know anything about car 26 in the second piccie here please? I beleive it had an Edward Turner designed engine , he also designed the triumph speed twin and Ariel Square Four

Car 26 is B. Merrett's Daimler SP250, powered by a 2.5-litre V8 designed by Edward Turner. The car was released in 1959 and was originally to called the Daimler Dart but Chrysler objected to them using that name so it was changed to SP250.

[jellywrestler]

Car 26 is B. Merrett's Daimler SP250, powered by a 2.5-litre V8 designed by Edward Turner. The car was released in 1959 and was originally to called the Daimler Dart but Chrysler objected to them using that name so it was changed to SP250.

I was talking to the guy wh owns and races in in chch at the weekend, he's had it 35 years.

[Trevor Sheffield]

I was talking to the guy wh owns and races in in chch at the weekend, he's had it 35 years.

The red car was the latest imported and was displayed by the agents as quite special, having chrome wire wheels. It was purchased as a replacement for the car restored and raced by Steve and David Oxton being written off. Steve's head mechanic looked after the car, which strangely had a significant advantage in respect of performance, much to Steve's annoyance.

A batch of SP250's became imported as a result of the agent's desire to use up import license on hand with there being a delay in the delivery of saloon models.

The V8 engine proved troublesome in the SP250 due to a significant defect.. The oil-way in the crankshaft, opened up in diameter at each crank pin, thus creating a chamber, which became blocked with lead, deposited due to this becoming what amounts to a centrifugal filter. It was presumed that the saloon models with automatic transmission did not suffer due to the engines running at higher average RPM and therefore temperature.

[Roger Dowding]

The Man in the middle Dene Hollier in the Lotus is smiling before the start.

Front row of the grid with John(ny) Riley Lotus Climax, Dene Hollier Lotus and Graeme Lawrence Brabham Twincam [ Ford ]. photo from Allan Dick - Classic Autonews archives.



Riley won both the Festival Road Race - the feature race and the Formula Libre Race.
In the latter race they finished Riley, Hollier, Lawrence - as they are in the picture