Rod Coppins

[stubuchanan]

Rod raced the infamous TecMec in sports car and single-seater form in 1961/62 and 1962/63 seasons. Seen here with Malcolm Gill (Lycoming Special) and Simon Taylor(Jaguar D) at the start of the sports car race at the 1962 NZGP meeting at Ardmore. Question : what happened next... or maybe what didn't..



Stu

Oops! To much haste. Ex motorcyclist Forrest Cardon, not Malcolm Gill, but Gill was the entrant of the Lycoming.
Other driver to right is veteran Ron Roycroft who was driving the Avery Bros HWM-Thunderbird(?) that day.

Stu

[Bruce302]

Stu, What an excellent photo. I was hoping for a good shot of the Tec Mec, but this just amazing. Rod would have been in his early 20's (21-23) at this time.
Thank you very much.

Bruce.

Oops! To much haste. Ex motorcyclist Forrest Cardon, not Malcolm Gill, but Gill was the entrant of the Lycoming.
Other driver to right is veteran Ron Roycroft who was driving the Avery Bros HWM-Thunderbird(?) that day.

Stu

[fullnoise68]

That`s right Bruce, he would have been in his early 20`s with the Tec Mec. Rod was only 43 when the bloody cancer got him in 1983, making it 30 years ago next year. He would have been 73 years old next year, if he was still with us......

[jim short]

At the Ardmore reunion at Puke 1983 Rod raced his V8Mk2 replica against Paul Fahey Lotus Cortina { I have some vidio of the two of them racing together ,the old Mk 2 getting away on the straight Paul right behind around Champion}.I met him for the first time when he gave me a fan belt ,a spare he had in his Jaguar as my Jaguar had thrown its one on the last lap chasing Ray Archibalds Jaguar,the only time I ever overdrove it by my standards,Ray also gave me one as well suprising they were all different sizes,.I was shocked to hear not long after he had died as no way did it show he was ill.I quess he made his name when passed Bob Jane on the back straight first lap.The headlines read he reached 170MPH !!!1!

[stubuchanan]

Stu, What an excellent photo. I was hoping for a good shot of the Tec Mec, but this just amazing. Rod would have been in his early 20's (21-23) at this time.
Thank you very much.

Bruce.

Here is an almost identical shot. Neither Cardon's Lycoming nor Coppins' TecMec got off the line and Simon Taylor was an easy winner.



Some time ago I posted 2 other TecMec photos on another thread, don't recall which, but I will post them again here for the record. Soon.

Stu