Article: Recreating The Halliday Capri

[Steve Holmes]

However, at the annual Bay Park Easter event in April, Don suffered a huge shunt in the car, which put him out of action for several months, and with the car requiring an extensive rebuild. During practice, Don fired in a few quick laps, and recorded a time fast enough to put him fourth on the grid, behind Fahey, Jack Nazer (Vauxhall Victor Chevy), and Red Dawson (Camaro). However, Don pulled into the pits, stopped briefly, then went out on track again, and at the end of the back straight, travelling at an estimated 150 – 160mph, found the brake pedal went straight to the floor when he went to pull up. The Capri fired at speed off the end of the straight, over the wooden perimeter fence, clearing a ditch, clipping the outside sand bank which then launched it up over the top of the bank, which at about 10 foot high, was lined with tree stumps, it then flew over a tall wire fence, and ended up slamming hard into an open field before coming to rest near the fence that surrounded the track camping ground.

Don was wearing a race harness, but no crotch strap, and he was forced off his seat where he became wedged beneath the steering wheel when the car hit the first fence. He ended up with three fractured vertebrae, and was out of racing for the next several months. Paul Fahey, who had been following some distance behind, pulled over and stopped where Don had gone off. He ran out to where the car had gone, and found a person lying on the ground next to the track with blood pouring from his head. This turned out to be a track photographer named Greg Neaves who was standing on the sand bank when the Capri shot off the straight. As the car hurtled towards him, he ducked, and the underside of the Capri clipped him on the side of the head as it flew over the top of him! Amazingly, he was OK, and was back at the track again the next day, taking photos!

By the end of that 1975 season, Fahey had emerged as New Zealand Saloon Car Champion. He sold his Capri to Cran Judge, for new NZ Formula Ford Champion Grant Walker to drive. Meanwhile, the Halliday Capri underwent a massive off-season repair and rebuild, in which more horsepower was found, and the bodywork upgraded. When it emerged later in the year, it was fitted with much larger box-flares, deeper front spoiler, and RS3100 rear spoiler. The GAA motor was now producing around 420hp.

In late 1975, following Don’s recuperation, and the rebuild of the Capri, the team shipped the car to Australia, where Don raced against the top Sports Sedans. The highlight of this trip was at Baskerville, where Don was hugely competitive, finishing an impressive third behind Jim Richards and Allan Moffat, and ahead of John McCormack in the mid-engined Repco V8 Charger, and Frank Gardner in Bob Jane’s Repco V8 Torana. Moffat was driving an ex-factory RS3100 Capri, which he purchased earlier that year to replace his much loved Kar-Kraft Mustang. Despite having a little more power than the Halliday car and able to pull away slightly on the straights, the New Zealand Capri was quicker everywhere else, and after starting from fourth on the grid, quickly moved forward, and was challenging Moffat for second when slowed slightly with fuel pick-up problems, to finish right behind the Aussie car. But regardless, it was an encouraging outing.

Taking in the rich Australian Sports Sedan events meant the Halliday’s missed the opening two rounds of the 1976 New Zealand Saloon Car Championship. The Capri was finally shipped back home to compete at the huge Bay Park Christmas event, where Moffat debuted his newly acquired space-frame DeKon Chevy Monza, as did Kiwi Red Dawson. Also present at this event was Leo Leonard in the PDL Mustang, Richards in the Sidchrome Mustang, Jack Nazer in his massively rebuilt Vauxhall Victor Chevy, John McCormack in the Charger, and Grant Walker in the ex-Fahey RS2600 Capri.