Article: Bay Park Big Bangers: Christmas 1973

[Steve Holmes]

The local New Zealand contingent was as strong as it had ever been. Leading the charge was reigning New Zealand Saloon Car Champion, Rod Coppins. Coppins won his first championship, when he tied with Red Dawson in 1970, driving a ’67 Camaro. This car he raced until mid-way through the 1972 season, when he replaced it with a 1969 SCCA Trans-Am racing Pontiac Firebird. The Firebird was built by the Trans-Am factory Pontiac team, T/G Racing, headed by Jerry Titus and Terry Godsall. Titus was a giant among men in US motor racing, being a journalist and hugely gifted race car driver. His media credentials made him a powerful figure in the sport, but once strapped into a race car, he let his driving do the talking, and he won the 1967 Trans-Am Championship before moving across to the new Godsall run Pontiac team late in the 1968 season. Godsall, a wealthy Canadian, was also very well connected. His father supplied parts to General-Motors, and he’d just recently sold his Terex equipment company to them.

Although not as well funded as some of the other factory teams, T/G Racing were more than equipped to build some very trick race cars, and one of these made its way down-under in late 1971, with Ron Grable, to race at Bay Park and Pukekohe, where it stayed when Coppins purchased it. Coppins then put the factory racer to good use, winning the 1973 NZ Championship with it.



The PDL Racing Team, with their 1970 Mustang fastback, were another major contender. The bright pink racer was being piloted by single seater hot-shoe Graham Baker. The Mustang began life as a rare Boss 429 big block road car, which had been stolen and recovered, and purchased by New Zealand racing driver Paul Fahey, for $500, at a theft-recovery auction, without motor or interior. Fahey had been campaigning an Allan Mann Racing Ford Escort in the New Zealand Saloon Car Championship, winning the title in 1971. The Mustang he bought to compete in Allcomer non-championship races during that ’71 season, before planning to promote it as his championship challenger for 1972. However, Bob Stewart, owner of PDL Electrical Industries, made Fahey an offer during 1971, which, theoretically, suited both camps.

Fahey had a full-time mechanic in Ray Stone, who’d maintained the Fahey race cars to impeccable standards. But Stone decided he wanted to branch out on his own, setting up his own workshop, which meant he’d no longer have time for the Fahey race cars. Meanwhile, the PDL race team had quickly grown, from running a pair of Mini Coopers in 1968 for Robert Stewart and Clyde Collins, they then built a V8 powered XW Falcon which they campaigned during the 1970 and ’71 seasons. But the Falcon offered its own challenges as the team worked to develop it, and it made sense to simply purchase a proven race car, which Bob Stewart did when he bought Fahey’s Mustang. The carrot being, he’d get Fahey to drive the car.



The PDL/Fahey partnership was not a match made in heaven. Fahey was unhappy with the way the car was prepared. Stewart was unhappy with Fahey’s complaints of his teams efforts. Despite the friction, they won the 1972 New Zealand Saloon Car Championship 6,000cc class in the Schoolbus Yellow machine, and were in the running to repeat the feat the following season, despite several retirements. Then, Bob Stewart met with Fahey, and fired him. The Mustang reappeared later in the season, now painted a magnificent custom green, and driven by Graham Baker.

Into the 1973/74 season, the Mustang was repainted custom pink, with lace pinstriping, and wide McLaren wheels. It was fast, but still suffered reliability gremlins.

Red Dawson was another of the top Kiwi drivers, in his beautiful gold Kensington Carpets Camaro Z28. Dawson won his only New Zealand Saloon Car Championship in 1970, where he tied for the title with Rod Coppins. The pair collected the same number of points, the same number of wins, and the same number of second and third placings, to be declared joint champions. At the time, Dawson was racing an electric blue Shelby Mustang, but this car was replaced for the 1971/72 season by the Camaro. The Camaro started life as a road car, which Dawson and his team modified for track competition. The 1974 season was his third with the Camaro, which was now as well developed and as powerful as any New Zealand racing sedan, although typically for the era, reliability was still its Achilles heel.