Old Speedway Photos

[Herman2]

Another shot of the former Richards/Millen/Dorn etc Monaro. This is pretty late in its career, and its looking fairly old and tatty here. Its a real shame this car didn't survive. I did some investigation work on it some years ago. When Streetstock racing was first introduced to Palmerston North speedway in the early 1990s, a racer wanting to get involved with the class convinced the person who owned the Monaro to sell it to him so he could Streetstock it. By this time everyone in saloon car racing had gone to space-frame cars with plastic bodies on top, so the old Monaro was really outdated.

I actually remember seeing this car race as a Streetstock at one of the earlier events in Palmy when the class was first introduced. At first I was amazed to see that someone had turned a Monaro into a Streetstock, but then noticed it was left hand drive, and the alloy sheet inside the cockpit was all still intact from its saloon racing days. It was painted matt black and basically got beaten to death. At the time I had no idea of its history.

I grew up in Palmy and remember riding my push bike when I was about 14 in the mid 1980s along behind a wreckers yard with a buddy of mine. On top of a stack of cars at the back of the wreckers was another HQ Monaro speedway saloon that was waiting to be crushed. It was painted cream with an orange stripe, and #13 on the door. When I saw it I assumed it was the ex-Dorn car, but it turns out this was another Monaro again. They made for pretty popular speedway saloons.

Pictured as raced by Glen Larsen who brought it off Chris Dorn who owned the car which brother Bill drove. Glen sold the car to Trevor Adamson who turned it into a Streetstock running 202 and three speed box. He had to change it back to right hand drive after his first season with it and continued to race it until it got to bent to be effectively repaired. I think he kept the roof with the intention of making a sedan into a Monaro again.