Denny Hulme and The Roaring Season members time spent with him throughout the years.

[fullnoise68]

With the upcoming Denny Hulme Festival, some members of The Roaring Season would have either competed against Denny or spent time with him. I`ve started this thread on the basis that I was fortunate enough to have done so in two Nissan Mobil series as well as the Truck Racing. I believe come January we will see just how well respected and well known Denny Hulme was, so if any members have any good stories and/or photos please share them. I will get Bruce302 to post some photos of mine in the next few days.

[TonyG]

Did not really know Denny as such but did have the pleasure of meeting him very briefly on 2 occasions. Once when at an Enzed promo and the 2nd when running the Coin and Bullion Commodore.
Hopefully these will post ok direct from the computer.
Denny in the ETA Beast !


And his main opposition.


Enzed Commodore when I first met Denny.

[Steve Holmes]

Awesome thread Steve! I was living in London when Denny died. I only found out through reading a newspaper. It knocked me for six. It was 20 years ago this year!

[Ellis]

Longford Tas 1966

[Michael Clark]

My book - similar to the ones we did for the Bruce and Chris festivals - has recently headed away for printing, for release in conjunction with the Denny festival.

These photos confirm a thought I had while writing it - that being that there must be heaps of excellent never before published Denny photos in private collections that would warrant a scrapbook type format.

These are great. I interviewed Denny in August 1992 for a story I was doing for whatever Allan Dick magazine had at the time - NZ Motoring News I think. The plan was for the article to appear in the October issue to mark 25 years since he won the title.

Denny was superb - I will wipe the tape...

[Steve Holmes]

Michael, great idea! A Denny Hulme scrapbook would be HUGE! He raced virtually his entire life, and continued on well past his F1 retirement. And his racing was so diversified. As well as the trucks, the touring car racing etc, he was also very popular at historic racing events, and loved driving the old Can-Am cars.

[Bruce302]

This pic is courtesy of fullnoise68 (Steve Elliott) I will let him add the caption in a separate reply.
But I know Denny had his own XJ Jag so this would have been a love/hate thing.

[fullnoise68]

This photo was given to me a couple of weeks ago by Warren Black (brother of Spinner Black) and it`s from the late 70`s when Cowan and Black Promotions ran Waikaraka Park stockcars. Warren tells me he paid Rod Coppins $10,000 for this car (remember it was a relatively new luxury car back then) and Denny Hulme drove it in a very well promoted and well publicised Demolition Derby. This car, along with Denny Hulme, and the record crowd it generated, Warren reckons was responsible for by far his best gate take in their time running the track.

[Bruce302]

Another pic from Steve, who along with Denny Hulme is in this pic,

[Bruce302]

This is probably what Denny saw in his mirrors..

[fullnoise68]

The first photo is from the 1990 Caltex NZ Truck Racing Championships at the 3rd and final round at Ruapuna. From left to right is Australian team captain Rob Russell ( back to camera) then Dean Sinton, Ron Salter, Rachel Willmington ( daughter of aussie ex touring car driver Garry Willmington) then me, Denny Hulme, Robin Porter and Avon Hyde. For the B class ( up to 14 litre) it was me 1st, Sinton 2nd and Salter 3rd. in the A class (over 14 litre) it was Avon and Denny 1st equal, and Robin Porter 3rd.

The second photo is the start of the shortest race in the 3 round series. Baypark, huge crowd, but red mist and diesel smoke don`t mix. Aussie Joe Scarcella in the red Kenworth was hell bent on getting in front, and fellow Aussie Rodney Crick on the outside of me in the sister truck was hoping to get on the pole line sooner rather than later! The nett result of all this carry on was 3 laps later, when Rodney tagged the back of Robin Porters Kenworth coming down the short infield straight towards the pits, with Robin somersaulting the Kenworth several times in a series of sickening rolls. At the drivers meeting immediately after the carnage, Denny was so furious with the driving standards, he vowed to pull the pin on Truck Racing there and then. Obviously the commercial realty set in soon after with ETA, etc, and fortunately he continued on, eventually finishing 1st equal with Avon Hyde.

I do not know who to credit for the Truck Racing photos, so I do apologise.

[kiwi285]

Yes Denny loved his motorsport and raced a great variety of cars. Back in the late 60's he sent me a coloured photo of him racing the Sid Taylor Lola T70 at a track in England. I still have the photo along with a letter from Denny, but I cannot locate it at the moment.

I really hope that there is a great turnout of vehicles at the Festival and would like to see the BT19 Repco V8 there. I know there is at least one in Australia if only we can convince the gentleman to bring it and the BT23 over.

[Steve Holmes]

This photo was given to me a couple of weeks ago by Warren Black (brother of Spinner Black) and it`s from the late 70`s when Cowan and Black Promotions ran Waikaraka Park stockcars. Warren tells me he paid Rod Coppins $10,000 for this car (remember it was a relatively new luxury car back then) and Denny Hulme drove it in a very well promoted and well publicised Demolition Derby. This car, along with Denny Hulme, and the record crowd it generated, Warren reckons was responsible for by far his best gate take in their time running the track.

Wow, thats amazing! But quite correct. Even today, most speedways in NZ have their big pay day when they have demolition derbys. I remember about 10 years ago Te Marua Speedway near Wellington imported an '80s Camaro for a demolition derby. Much like the Jag posted above, it drove around the Wellington/Hutt Valley area with signwriting all over it "Follow Me To Destruction". For the actual event all glass, seats, nose, and other parts were removed and sold, the car actually made them a profit before it even entered the derby, but they had a HUGE crowd turn up!

[fullnoise68]

Steve,without diverting too much away from the actual title of this thread, and in keeping with HMCs' motto of `the cars are the stars' I`ll get Bruce302 to post a couple of photos on here tonight that will float ya boat relevant to what you say about the Te Marua Camaro.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Steve, sounds ominous! I'll look forward to that.

[Bruce302]

Hows this for a stout Pommy barge ? Personally I thing these girls should be in the Historic Muscle Cars, 6.75 litre V8's, that's muscle for sure.

[GD66]

Yes Denny loved his motorsport and raced a great variety of cars. Back in the late 60's he sent me a coloured photo of him racing the Sid Taylor Lola T70 at a track in England.

This Lola ?

Pic by John Starkey.

[Steve Holmes]

Thats certainly a pretty famous photo, and with good reason. John Starkey must be the world authority on the T70 coupe?

[Steve Holmes]

Hows this for a stout Pommy barge ? Personally I thing these girls should be in the Historic Muscle Cars, 6.75 litre V8's, that's muscle for sure.

yep, I agree Bruce, especially the way that #22 is hanging the tail out.

[fullnoise68]

Steve, in reference to your Te Marua Camaro comments. Earlier this year while up in Japan visiting one of the lease companys I buy a lot of machinery off, there was an ex Dutch Embassy LHD Bentley Turbo R sitting out the back with a buggered rear suspension that was far too expensive for them to repair. After some serious negoiations, they actually gave me the car because ` Mr Steve san you always buy many units and no problem for us. Bentley big problem for us" On returning to NZ I spoke to current Waikaraka Park promoters Bruce Robertson from Palmerston North and Frank Irvine from Auckland, and did a deal with them. They already had the Rolls Royce for Frank to drive in the Easter `Smashfest' and the Bentley was the icing on the cake.
The deal we did was to enable me to raise a chunk of money for my cousin Sophie Elliott who was murdered in Dunedin about four years ago, for her mother Lesley who had started the `Sophie Elliott Foundation'. ( google will tell you all about it).
Anyway, with it being well promoted and with us doing a segment on TV3 News the Friday night prior to wrecking them on the Saturday Night, the size of the crowd was unbelieveable. They held the start of the nights entertainment up twice so the punters could try and get in, and even when the actual Demolition Derby started around 9.30, people were still trying to get in! Mate I had a ball, many people will never own one and here I was smashing one up and loving every minute of it! As with HMC it shows that the cars are the stars and if you`re going to put on an event, get everyone involved on the same page!